CHAPTER XVIII.CHARGE AND CONFESSION.
Among themselves the Fardale boys confessed that the rain had come just in time to save them from defeat. Of course, many of them were confident they would have won out had it held off until nine innings were played. But had it delayed until the close of the fifth inning the score would have been five to two in favor of Fairport.
“Talk about luck!” growled Don Roberts, as he accompanied Merriwell to the hotel after the rain had ceased. “You fellows certainly had it in that shower. Why, we had the game clinched!”
“You had a five-inning game clinched,” confessed Dick. “You certainly worked hard, Roberts, old man, to play five innings before the rain fell.”
“But, between you and me,” said Don, taking Dick’s arm, “we gained a lap on you through the bad playing of one man on your team. You know whom I mean.”
“I don’t put it onto any one man,” retorted the Fardale captain. “The simple truth is that I was not pitching my game to-day.”
Roberts laughed.
“Our fellows were hitting well, Merriwell; but your shortstop made several bad breaks. The only thing he did during the game was to get that first two-bagger. And he spoiled it by trying to make three bases. I don’t know how it looked to you, but, byGeorge! it actually seemed to me that he was trying to throw you fellows down.”
Dick shook his head.
“Darrell isn’t that kind of a chap,” he asserted. “He has always been loyal to Fardale, and there is no reason why he should wish to see us defeated.”
“All right,” said Roberts. “You know best.”
“I had to put him into the game to fill a gap. Our regular shortstop, Gardner, was taken ill.”
“Well, take my advice, don’t fill any more gaps with Darrell. When are we going to play this game off? Of course, we will have to do it some time. We’re confident we can beat you this year, and we don’t want to let the chance slip.”
“Why, I don’t know,” answered Dick. “Our dates are pretty well filled.”
“Then you had better make a date,” grinned Don. “Of course, if you’re afraid——”
“You know better!” retorted Dick quickly. “Let me run over the schedule. Let’s see!”
Then Dick mentioned the games Fardale had to play, and Roberts confessed that for the rest of the season the cadets had their time pretty well taken up.
“We might play you Wednesday,” said Merriwell.
“Next Wednesday?”
“Yes.”
“But we have a game for Wednesday. It is not very important, but we have it arranged. We play a country team from Charlesford.”
“I am afraid that’s the only time we can meet you. If you’re so very anxious to play us, isn’t it possible for you to cancel this engagement with Charlesford?”
“Of course, we can do that,” admitted Roberts. “It won’t be much of a game, anyhow, for those fellows are not in our class. We made a date with them simply to fill in.”
“Then it looks like an easy matter to cut it out. What do you say, Roberts?”
“I will cut it out, Merriwell, if you fellows will comeherehereWednesday.”
“How about expenses?”
“We will give you the same guarantee as to-day.”
Dick shook his head.
“It won’t do, old man. This rain cut our guarantee in two. According to arrangements made, we can’t afford the expense. If you’re so anxious to play us, you will have to give us a regular guarantee under any circumstances, rain or no rain. We will do this by you if you will come to Fardale.”
“By Jing, Merriwell! we can’t do it! We can’t afford it. We’re running behind now. I am worrying about our bills. You see we had to give rain checks to-day because the game was not finished.”
“Well, if you can’t pay us what we want to come Wednesday, why don’t you accept my offer and take a like amount to come to Fardale? You know you will be treated right there.”
“But the umpire——”
“Bring your umpire, if you want to,” said Dick. “This chap we had to-day was all right. We’re satisfied with him. We will pay his bills, too. It shan’t cost you a cent to bring him.”
Roberts clapped Dick on the shoulder.
“That’s generous, Merriwell!” he exclaimed.
“That’s a good, square offer! I think we’ll do it. I will try to let you know before you leave. You can’t get a train for an hour. I will see Hoffmore, our manager, and talk it over with him.”
“Do,” urged Dick.
At the hotel the Fardale boys spent the time while waiting for the train in talking over the game.
One of the silent but interested spectators of the game had been Chester Arlington. For once, at least, Chet made himself conspicuous by his retirement. As Dick reached the hotel, however, Arlington stepped out and came face to face with him on the steps.
To the surprise of the Fardale captain Chester said:
“See here, Merriwell, I suppose you’re onto this business to-day? You must have your eyes opened by this time?”
“What do you mean?” asked Dick, unable to repress his surprise.
“Why, it was plain enough to everybody,” declared Chet. “That game was thrown away, or would have been thrown away if it had been played out. You have an idea that I am the only fellow in the school who has ever done anything to injure you. But this very day the fellow you had playing at short did his best to throw you down. I mean Darrell. He wanted to see you beaten.”
“Stop, Arlington!” exclaimed Dick sharply. “You’re not the fellow to make such a charge against any one.”
“It’s the truth,” declared Chet. “Don’t you believe it? Why, you ought to see it’s the truth! You’re not blind!”
“Better not let Darrell hear you,” warned Dick.
“You refuse to believe?”
“Yes, I refuse to believe any clean, upright fellow like Hal Darrell would stoop to such a trick. There is no reason in the world why he should do it. What was his object? What could he gain by it? Don’t talk to me like that, Arlington! Better keep your mouth shut!”
Chester stared at Dick a moment, then exclaimed:
“You do believe it! I can see you believe it! You just don’t want to acknowledge it! You refuse to acknowledge anything bad about Darrell!”
“Get away from me, Arlington!” commanded the dark-eyed lad. “Don’t come to me with any of your accusations! As I just told you, you are not the chap to accuse any one. I wish to hear no more from you.”
With which Dick passed Chester and entered the hotel.
Now it happened Hal Darrell was sitting at an open window directly above, and he had heard every word that passed between the two boys beneath. At first his face turned pale, and he trembled with rage at Arlington’s charge against him. When Merriwell refused to believe, and defended him vigorously, his face softened and the look of anger turned to one of shame. He drew back a little in order that he might not be seen, yet listened until Dick entered the hotel, leaving Chester on the steps.
Springing to his feet, Hal paced the floor, his hands clinched and his appearance one of intense excitement.
“Arlington was right!” he muttered. “I did try to do it! Merriwell refuses to believe it of me. I ought to be kicked! No matter what he has said about me,I had no right to seek revenge in such a manner. I was an idiot! No matter what he has said—how do I know he ever said it? I can’t prove it. I can’t go to him and ask him. I’d like to get away from every one! I am ashamed to look any of the fellows in the face!”
He had changed his clothes, and at the first opportunity he sought to slip out of the hotel, thinking that he would wander off and stay by himself until the time came to take the train. At the outer door he suddenly paused, for on the steps was Chester Arlington, talking to Doris, Zona, and Bessie.
“There wasn’t any luck about it,” laughed Chet. “With proper support Merriwell would have won the game hands down.”
“With proper support!” cried Bessie Dale. “Didn’t he get proper support?”
“Not by a good deal!” retorted Arlington. “One fellow on our team tried to give the game away, and he succeeded pretty well, too. You know him. Miss Templeton—you know him very well. I don’t have to call any names.”
“I don’t want you to call any names!” flashed Doris. “I don’t want to listen to any of your insinuations, sir!”
“Oh, that’s all right,” chuckled Chet. “But I fancy you know enough about baseball so you can see through it, when you think it over. Just take my advice and think it over. Whose bad playing gave Fairport several runs? Who might have won that game with a hit, and didn’t try to hit the ball?”
Instantly Darrell stepped out, his face livid with rage.
“I presume you mean me, Arlington?” he grated. “Why don’t you make your talk to me? Come out here where we are alone and repeat it!”
Instantly Doris seized his arm.
“No, no, Hal!” she exclaimed. “You shall not fight with him!”
“There’s no way out of it!” declared Hal fiercely. “I’ve got to thrash him!”
“Not now! Not here, Hal! Please come with me! Please walk with me!”
She clung fast to his arm.
Arlington stood with his hands in his pockets, regarding Darrell with a sneering smile. He seemed cool and indifferent.
Doris continued to urge Hal to accompany her, and he finally consented.
“Why should you pay any attention to him?” she asked, as they walked down the street side by side. “No one will believe him.”
“It’s not that,” retorted Hal. “No fellow can stand for such talk about him. Of course, I couldn’t hit him then, with you three girls present, but I’ll get at him.”
“No one will believe it,” persisted Doris. “Let him go ahead and tell it as much as he likes. It can’t hurt you.”
“He told Merriwell something a short time ago. I heard him.”
“But Dick won’t take any stock in it. Dick knows you too well, Hal. He knows you were out of practice. He knows Arlington told an untruth.”
Hal shook his head.
“Doris!” he suddenly and fiercely declared, “the worst part of it is that Arlington told the truth! I am ashamed of myself! I never did such a thing before. You will despise me now, but I can’t help it. I did try to throw that game!”
She shrank from him, and he saw her face pale.
“That’s right,” he said. “Hate me! Despise me! I deserve it! I don’t suppose you will ever speak to me again?”
“Hal, how could you?” she murmured in distress. “No one else could have made me believe it! I was full of doubts and fears, but I decided it could not be possible.”
“Then even you suspected me? If you did, Doris, certainly all the rest of the fellows must. They will think me a fine sort of chap now! They will put me in the class with Chet Arlington! Any boy who will go back on his school team is a mighty cheap sort of a duffer! Are you going back to the hotel?”
“Not now, Hal,” she gently answered, as she took his arm. “I am going to walk with you. You must tell me just why you did it.”
For some time they walked in silence along the street, coming at length to the outskirts of the village, where they paused opposite an old gate, upon which they leaned. Everything was fresh and green after the shower, and the sweet breath of spring was in the balmy air.
“You know you can trust me, Hal,” said Doris. “And I know you didn’t seek to betray your own team without cause.”
“But I can’t tell you the reason,” he protested. “It’s better that I should not tell you. It will simply annoy you and hurt your feelings.”
“Instead of that, Hal, I feel confident that it would justify you in some degree in my eyes. How could it annoy me?”
“Because you are concerned.”
“I?” she exclaimed in surprise.
“Yes.”
“How is that possible? Now, you must tell me. I will never be contented until you do.”
Suddenly he turned and faced her, and in his eyes she saw the old-time look of admiration, which he could not conceal.
“Doris, it would have been better for us had we never known Dick Merriwell. You liked me before you met him.”
Quickly her hand fell on his arm.
“I liked you then, Hal, and I like you still.”
“But you are changed.”
“I don’t think so. You can’t seem to understand me, Hal. Frankly I confess to you that I admire Dick, but I like you none the less.”
“Then why have you treated me in such a——”
“Hal, haven’t you any pride of your own? Certainly you have! Do you fancy your father and my father patching up a match between us, just as if we were creatures of wood and stone, and had no minds of our own? That’s what I resented. If that had never happened——”
“And just because of that you are going to treat me as if you detested me?”
“That is something I have never done. Far from detesting you, Hal—far from disliking you in the least, I have never liked you better than now.”
His face flushed and the eager light in his eyes grew.
“Do you mean it, Doris?” he whispered, bending nearer.
“I mean it, Hal.”
“Then he lied—he lied!” cried Darrell. “You never said it!”
“Never said what?”
“You haven’t heard the gossip at the academy. I didn’t mean for you to hear it. They say this Merriwell boasted of cutting me out with you. They said he told his friends you were glad to be rid of me—you were tired of me. He told them you said so yourself. It was a lie, Doris?”
Her face was a trifle pale now, but she restrained herself and demanded:
“So that was the reason for your doing as you did to-day, Hal? Was that all the reason?”
“No; he said more. He said that he was tired of you. That you couldn’t hold a candle to June Arlington, and he wished to be rid of you. When I heard it I would have fought him, but the one who told me pledged me to secrecy. I have betrayed the secret now to you. I was looking for some excuse to pick up trouble with Merriwell—something that would not involve you. I was ready to do anything to quarrel with him without bringing you into trouble. I fancied he would be furious with me to-day and would take me out of the game. I didn’t believe he would leaveme in long enough, after seeing me play as I did, to let me lose the game. That would have given me the excuse I sought.”
After a moment’s silence Doris said:
“Hal, I believe you made a serious mistake. Who told you that?”
“I can’t tell.”
“Can’t you tell me?”
“No, not even you, Doris, for I gave my promise I would never breathe the person’s name.”
“Why should you believe such things of Dick Merriwell? You ought to see it is not like him.”
“But you, Doris—don’t you fancy some of these things may be true?”
She turned her head away in order that he might not read the truth in her face. She did not tell him that she had heard the same things, and had been placed in such an embarrassing position that it was impossible for her to learn the truth without sacrificing her pride. She did not confess that her own mind had been filled with doubts and misgivings.
“We should not believe them, Hal, until we know beyond dispute that they are true.”
“If they are—if they are, I will kill Dick Merriwell!” panted Darrell.
She well understood his passionate and revengeful disposition, and felt that he might be led hastily into something he would ever after regret in case he afterward found that the gossip of the school had no real foundation of truth in it. She believed it her duty to prevent him from any rash action and to hold him in check.
“Hal,” she said, “you must promise me you will have no trouble with Dick—for my sake. I am not blind. I can see through some things. If I have treated you shabbily, it was because of my pride. Let’s forget it. Let’s let things be as they were long ago before we came to Fardale.”
“Do you mean it?” he cried eagerly.
“I mean it, Hal. We will be friends, just as we were of old. If there is a shadow of truth in this gossiping talk, which I don’t wish to believe, Dick Merriwell will soon see that he has made a mistake in thinking I care—I will not speak to him. Promise me—promise me you will not quarrel!”
“I promise, Doris,” he said earnestly. “We must walk back now, for we cannot miss our train.”
When they arrived at the station, however, it was nearly train time, and the Fardale boys were there, while the Fairport lads had come down to see them off. There was a great crowd on the platform.
“Oh, here you are, Doris!” exclaimed Zona Desmond, as with Bessie Dale she hastened to meet her friend. “We have been worrying about you.”
“No need of worrying about me,” laughed Doris. “Hal can take care of me; can’t you, Hal?”
“I think I can,” he declared. And the light in his eyes and the look on his face made such a change in him that Zona was astonished. Not only was she astonished, but suddenly she grew worried; and, at the first opportunity, while Doris was speaking with Bessie, she drew Hal a little to one side and whispered anxiously:
“What have you been telling her? I hope youdidn’t breathe a word of what I told you. If you did she will never forgive me.”
“Don’t worry,” he retorted. “Whatever I have said, I have not mentioned your name.”
“You mustn’t,” said Zona. “If you do I will never tell you anything else as long as I live, Hal Darrell!”
“It is all right,” he again assured her. “Here comes the train.”
The train drew up at the station, and the Fardale crowd boarded the cars, while the Fairport boys merrily bade them “so-long!”
“We will see you again Wednesday, Merriwell!” cried Don Roberts. “We will finish the game then.”
“And we will give you the handsome trimming you so narrowly missed to-day!” asserted Jack Ware.
“Anticipation is sometimes more satisfactory than realization!” laughingly retorted Dick. “Look out that you are not disappointed Wednesday!”
As the train pulled out the Fairport boys gave a lusty cheer, which was answered from the open windows of the cars.
“Well, by juj-juj-juj-jingoes!” said Chip Jolliby. “I am gug-gug-gug-glad of one thing: We’re not going home bub-bub-bub-bub-beaten.”
“But we did come within a hair of it,” said Barron Black. “If we had not lost Gardner——”
“’Ush, there is Darrell!” cautioned Bradley.
“I don’t care if he hears me!” said Black. “He came as near doing us up to-day as possible, and I don’t believe he wanted us to win.”
“’E’ll fight hif ’e ’ears you,” said the cockney youth.
“He is too interested in Doris Templeton to hear anything,” asserted Barron. “See how he is laughing and talking with her. Why, I haven’t seen him that way for months! He has been sullen, and sour, and grouchy all the time. What’s come over him so suddenly?”
“Fellers!” piped Obediah Tubbs, rising and waving his fat hands in the air, “I perpose a little music; let’s sing—let’s all sing! Let’s sing some classic air by some great composer!”
Up popped Ted Smart, who had been remarkably quiet.
“What composer is most noted of modern times?” he propounded.
“Give it up,” said some one. “What composer is the most noted?”
“Chloroform!” cried Ted, and promptly sat down.
“Somebody ought to give him a medal, by Jim!” squeaked the fat boy. “Why does your mouth make me think of a tavern door? Give it up? He! he! Because it’s always open.”
“That’s funny!” sneered Ted. “That’s dreadful funny, but you will have to write it out for us. Wait until you have had a square meal. Why isn’t it best to write on an empty stomach?”
“You tell,” invited Tubbs. “You’re so all-fired bright, go ahead and tell why it isn’t best to write on an empty stomach.”
“Because there is plenty of paper to write on,” said Ted serenely.
“Hello, Darrell!” called Dick, “what is the best land for girls?”
“America,” answered Darrell promptly. “The girls of America beat the world. You couldn’t tell of a better land for them.”
“Oh, yes, I can,” was the reply.
“Name it.”
“Lapland.”
There was a little burst of applause andlaughter.laughter.When it subsided Billy Bradley gravely asked:
“’Ow his that? Hi never ’eard there were prettier girls in Lapland than hanywhere else.”
This caused another shout of laughter, and Billy scratched his head in a puzzled manner, trying to discover the cause of the merriment.
Ted Smart looked sad and disgusted.
“See here, Dick Merriwell, you ought to be put in jail for that! That’s stealing! I own the copyright on that conundrum! But I bet you can’t tell the difference between a jeweler and a jailer.”
“One sells watches and the other watches cells,” answered Dick, laughing. “Give us something new.”
“Confound you!” snapped Ted. “If I had a gun I’d use it on you! But, speaking of guns, what does a seventy-four-gun ship and her crew weigh with all on board?”
“What’s the answer?” laughed Dick. “What does she weigh?”
“She weighs anchor,” smiled Ted, satisfied atlast.last.
“Great Cæsar!” exclaimed Jolliby. “These are coming fuf-fuf-fuf-fast!”
Immediately Smart bobbed up again.
“Speaking of Cæsar,” he said, “what proof have we that he was acquainted with the Irish?”
“Hacquainted with the Hirish!” said Bradley. “’Ow was ’e? ’E couldn’t ’ave been!”
“History proves it,” asserted Ted.
“Hi don’t believe hit,” declared Billy. “What’s there in ’istory that proves Cæsar was hacquainted with the Hirish?”
“Why,” grinned Smart, “after he crossed the Rhine, didn’t he come back to bridge it?”
“What ’as that got to do with hit?” snorted the Cockney youth.
“Why, don’t you see, Sir William, he came back to Bridget.”
Again Billy was puzzled and confused. The fact that the boys were laughing simply added to his bewilderment.
“Hi’d like to see one hof your blooming Hamerican jokes that ever had a point to it!” he shouted. “Now, hif you want to get something really funny you hought to readPunch, don’t y’ ’now.”
“I always read a copy just before attending a funeral!” said Smart. “It makes me cry! It makes me sad for a whole day!”
Some one started a song, and the boys took it up. Earl Gardner was the only fellow on the train who did not seem to be enjoying himself. Earl was still ill, and he showed it plainly.
Suddenly, without the least warning, there came a jarring sensation and a succession of crashes. The cars bumped and rocked, and then the entire train left the track and plunged down a low embankment.
It had been derailed!