Part 13 (1/2)
You see, the trouble is, sonny, that it is hard for your row up soon You notice that I say you are _going_ to, not you _are_ growing up This is a gentle way of leading up to what I want to say about flying
”'Dear boy of mine, please, _please_ let your promise stand, with this much of a release If ever, _ever_ there coreatest importance_, an occasion where you knoould approve--and you always do knohen I approve--then you may fly I hope and pray that it will not come, but if it does, you will kno to act And whatever you do you will know that your ment
”'I sound like a _nobul parent_, don't I, Bill dear? Well, I _do_ feel that I am on the safe side, because I cannot foresee any possible occasion for you to go flying off from school However, if ever you feel that you _must_, why, you _ he can, and if you have to fly, ask him to fly with you'
”That's all she says about _that_,” said Bill with a happy grin, ”but now I feel safe I don't knohy, but I had a sort of hunch that I ought to ask her to let me fly if I had to”
”It is certainly nice of your ree with her that there will be very little chance of your finding it absolutely necessary to go aloft in the near future Of course if you go, I will go along”
”I have not read the rest of the letter,” said Bill, ”but I had to show you this I will read the rest now”
He hurried back to the library and resu And the very next sentence ht, a dark scowl on his face
”And now Iso dreadful and so sad that I can scarcely write it,” said the letter ”You will remember the money that was stolen from a certain officer next door to us here? It happened just before you left for school Oh, Bill, you will find it almost impossible to believe it when I tell you that our Lee, Lee e have always found so honest and so faithful, is _under arrest_ for taking it
”It see on the porch across fro at the end of our own porch Lee ca hello so ht beside the , and inside, on a desk, the ht The weight was so heavy the money could _not_ bloay Lee was the only one out there while the owner of the desk ay froone for a moment, while he spoke to an orderly at the back door
”You know Lee always has lots of randfather sends him the money at all He is up for trial and if he is convicted, (and the circu) he will be sent to Leavenworth for years and years It is a _dreadful_ offence
”The money was in an official envelope, and if _that_ could only be found Lee would be cleared, unless it was found in his possession They even ripped up his uniforms to see if it was hidden there, but now they think he has burned it Of course I believe in Lee It is all a horrible mistake, and soh to save Lee because if he even gets inside Leavenworth he will feel disgraced for life and I don't knohat_ will become of him
”Oh, Bill, it is simply _too awful_! Of course they found three or four hundred dollars on hireat deal tooaround with Dad is simply sick over it Our Lee! We don't knohat to do_ Who could have taken that money? And where is the envelope? If we could only find that! They say a criminal always leaves some clue behind him, but the person who stole that , absolutely _nothing_ to guide us
”Isn't it too awful? I wish you would write to Lee He is in the guard house, but I could get a letter in to him without any trouble Make him understand, Bill, that you believe in him and are his friend He is down-hearted”
There was but little more in the letter Bill's es with all the little details of the Post And Bill, after he had read about Lee, felt as though he could never sain
He felt helpless and lonesome and very far away He wished heartily that he was back on the Post It _did_ seeh he could help if he only knehat to do
Advice: that hat he wanted But as there to advise him? The principal of the school was absolutely out of the question He thought of the instructors one by one No good on such a count
Troubled beyond words, he made his way slowly to his room Frank was not there, and Bill sat down and wrote a letter to his mother, which he later sent special delivery It was rather a ra and purposeless affair, but the best he could do under the circumstances The note which he enclosed for Lee was quite different in tone, and was intended to make the prisoner believe that it was only a question of a few days before the real culprit would be led to justice
The trouble with Bill was that he could re of the robbery except that he was busy packing and yelling good-byes to everyone who passed the back door of the quarters, Bill's locker being on the back porch, past which long lines of student officers on their way out to make road maps continually marched two by two, followed by the usual cos that are always found on ars and he res, but who passed by or what occurred on the front porch he did not know His rinned in an unfriendly fashi+on when he saw his roommate slumped in the camp chair by the
”Heard the news?” he demanded
”No; what's up?” asked Bill without interest
”Well, the school was just put under strict quarantine,” said Frank
”The town and all the country is so full of that new disease, what-you-call-it, that we are going to be shut up here for goodness kno long And they say there are seven felloith it in the hospital now What do you suppose they will do if it gets to be an epidemic in the school? I saw old Nealum just now, and he was ive out inforo to chapel in half an hour for instructions and new rules Wish they would send us hoo hoht _you_ were dippy over your 'dear school' and your 'sweet teachers,'” sneered Frank
”It's all right,” said Bill, ”but I got a letter fro thatout of theHe did not see the look of triumph that swept over Frank's face