Part 7 (1/2)
The touring automobile was brought around, and they were just getting in when there came a sudden hail from across the way.
”h.e.l.lo, there, everybody!”
”It's Dave Porter, and Roger, and Phil!” said somebody else.
”Why, how are you, Shadow!” cried our hero. ”And how are you, Buster?”
he added, as Maurice Hamilton and Buster Beggs came across the road to greet them.
”Fine!” puffed Buster, who was very fat and jolly. ”Only Shadow has been walking the feet off of me!” And then the stout youth shook hands all around.
”Now, just to hear that!” cried Shadow, as he, too, shook hands. ”Why, all we did was to walk from the Hall to here.”
”And up one street and down another for half an hour,” burst in Buster.
”Say, that puts me in mind of a story!” cried Shadow, who was noted for his yarn-spinning weakness. ”Once two men started to walk----”
”Stow it!” came from three of the other lads in concert.
”It's too early yet to tell stories, Shadow,” said Dave, with a smile.
”You can tell them to-night. Tell us now, is there anything new at the Hall?”
”There sure is.”
”What?” asked Phil and Roger.
”The wild man.”
”Oh, has he turned up again?” asked the girls, with interest.
”Twice--yesterday morning and this morning,” said Buster.
”He didn't turn up at all, Buster,” interposed Shadow. ”When you start to tell a story, why don't you tell it straight?”
”Oh, you tell it,” grumbled the fat boy. ”You have that sort of thing down to a science.”
”There isn't very much to tell,” went on Shadow Hamilton. ”He left his mark, that's all.”
”Left his mark?” queried Dave.
”That's it--wide, blue marks. He must have about a ton of blue chalk.”
”Say, Shadow, you are talking in riddles,” burst out the s.h.i.+powner's son. ”Give it to us in plain United States, can't you?”
”Sure I can. Well, this wild man visited the school yesterday morning and this morning, before anybody was up. The first time he went into the big cla.s.sroom and took some books, and the next time he visited the kitchen and pantry and took some grub--I beg the ladies' pardon--I should have said food--a ham, a chicken, and some doughnuts.”
”And the blue chalk----?” queried Mr. Porter.
”I was coming to that. In the cla.s.sroom he left his mark--a big circle, with a cross inside, in blue chalk.”
”And how do you know that is the mark of the wild man?” asked Laura.