CHAPTER XVI—A FINE PAIRUniontown was dazed. The remarkable change in the cadets they could not understand. It did not seem that they were playing against the same team at all.In vain Durkee talked to his men. They were rattled and sore, and they could not stop the gritty cadets. Fardale made another touch-down and goal, and when the game ended the ball was once more within three feet of Uniontown’s line.Again Dick Merriwell was triumphant, but now he felt that he was on the verge of an explosion. The two captives in the bathroom of the gym would be discovered directly. Then what would happen?Buckhart reached Dick’s side as soon as possible when the game was finished.“Dick, did you see him?” he asked.“See whom?”“Kennedy.”“No.”“He was here.”“Are you sure?”“Yes; I saw him over there by the gate. I reckon he has taken leg-bail by this time.”Together they looked for the fellow, but Kennedy, if present, had lost no time in hastening away.The cheering of the cadets at the finish of the game had drowned all other sounds, but Dick pricked up his ear as they drew near the gym. He expected to hear a racket coming from within the building. It was silent as the members of the victorious team entered. Dick wondered if Arlington and Warne had found some method of escaping, but he discovered that the door of the bathroom was still closed. He walked straight over to it and flung it open. The captives walked out, Warne pale with rage, while Arlington’s eyes gleamed vindictively.“I beg your pardon!” exclaimed Dick, in apparent surprise. “Did I accidentally lock you gentlemen in there? It’s too bad! But I am sure you will be pleased to learn that we won the game.”He expected a terrible outbreak from both of the fellows, but in this he was disappointed. Arlington, however, stepped close to him and hissingly whispered:“I’ll have your life for this piece of work!”“Thank you,” said Dick, loudly enough for those near to hear. “I am glad you accept my apology. The score was twenty-four to eighteen.”Arlington passed on.Warne had not spoken.“Well, I’ll be hanged!” muttered Brad Buckhart, the truth dawning upon him. “That takes the prize! Why, he shut ’em up so they wouldn’t bother him during the last half!”It was plain that Arlington and Warne had decided that it was best for them to avoid making a scene, but Dick knew well enough that they were not the kind of fellows to forego a chance for revenge.That night the talk of the academy was the football-game. It had become known that the athletic committee were responsible for the shifting about of the players in the first half of the game, and not a few of the students criticized this interference with Dick’s part of the business. He had demonstrated beyond a doubt in the last half of the game that he knew the positions to which the men were adapted and that he could run the team successfully if not interfered with.In the evening Dick and Brad went into town. As they approached the post-office, Dick suddenly grasped his companion’s arm and drew him into a doorway.“What is it?” asked the Texan.“Look across the street.”“Where?”“See those two fellows over there?”“Yes. Why, one of them is—it’s Arlington!”“Sure.”“And the other is——”“Fred Kennedy!”“Right!” exclaimed Brad triumphantly. “That is Kennedy! I knew I wasn’t mistaken! Come, Dick, let’s go over there and tackle them! You can do up Kennedy. I’ll take care of Arlington while you even the score with the fellow who blinded you in Uniontown.”But Dick held Brad back.“Don’t be too hasty,” he warned. “What are they doing together? I’d like to understand that.”“It is right queer.”“I should say so! Chester Arlington is a member of the Fardale Academy athletic committee, and is associating with this Kennedy, who is a crooked gambler. Without doubt, Kennedy came here to-day to bet money on the football-game, and you may be sure he did not bet on Fardale.”“Arlington is a traitor!” growled Buckhart. “Pard, you can throw him down hard, and it’s up to you to throw!”“I want to find out just what is doing between these two.”“They’ll get away!”“No! I’m going to follow them.”“I’m with you.”But Dick knew he could shadow the two far better without the aid of Buckhart, so he insisted that Brad stay back and watch him from a distance.From a main part of the town Dick shadowed Arlington and Kennedy over that portion known as The Harbor. Buckhart saw him take that direction and then lost sight of him. But Brad was satisfied that Arlington and Kennedy had made for The Harbor, and he followed cautiously.Dick was peering in at the window of one of the wretched saloons of that quarter, when he heard some one approaching. He stepped back, hugging close to the corner of the house, and Brad would have passed.“Here, you!” whispered Dick. “Hold up, old man. Come here.”Brad stopped in surprise.“Is that you, pard?” he asked, in a low tone.“Sure thing. Come here where you’ll not be seen if any one comes along.”Brad joined him.“What are you doing?” he asked.“I’ve followed those fellows here,” said Dick. “They are inside.”“What are they doing?”“That is what I can’t make out.”“And why did they come here?”“To get away where there would be little chance that they would be seen together by any one they did not wish to see them, I fancy.”“But the whole thing is a mystery to me, pard,” confessed Buckhart.Dick touched his arm, and cautioned him to keep still. Somebody was approaching. The street ran close by the corner of the house, and, from their place of concealment, they saw a person passing.“Great Scott!” whispered Dick, who seemed to have eyes like an owl. “Did you recognize him, Brad?”“Too dark. Did you?”“Well, if it wasn’t Joe Savage, I’m greatly mistaken!”“Joe Savage?”“Yes.”“Here?”“That’s what.”“Well, this thing is growing thick. Where is he going?”Dick peered round the corner and watched the dark figure pass down the street and vanish in the gloom.“I may have been mistaken,” he admitted; “but I know he had a walk like Joe Savage, was just about the build of Savage, and looked to me in every way like Savage.”Then he slipped to the window and again peered into the saloon. He was just in time to see a man with a lamp in his hand conduct Arlington and Kennedy into a back room. After a few moments the man came out and closed the door behind him.“If there is a window to that room, we must find it,” muttered Dick.There was a window, and they found it. Further, there was a broken pane of glass in the window. Inside the window some shutters had been closed, but in one of the shutters was a broken strip, and through this crack Dick peered and saw Kennedy and Arlington seated with a table between them.Buckhart stood on guard while Dick watched those within the little back room of the old saloon. The broken pane enabled Dick to hear the conversation of the fine pair inside.“It was hard luck!” said Arlington.“Hard luck?” exclaimed Kennedy. “Is that what you call it? Hang it! you told me it was certain Uniontown would win!”“That’s right!”“But Fardale pulled out and won the game. I dropped three hundred dollars.”“And I dropped every blooming cent I have made playing cards in a week, besides what money my mother left me when she went away. I have been skinning a sucker, and all I have left to show for it is his I O U’s.”“You said you had fixed it so it was a sure thing.”“And so I did. Didn’t Uniontown have a walkover in the first half?”“Look here, Mr. Arlington, if you had not given me the cold cash to bet on our team, I’d be dead certain you threw me down. Where did you go when the first half was over? You vanished, and you were not seen again by me. Then Merriwell switched the team round and walked into us.”It was plain Arlington did not care to reveal how he and Warne had been trapped by Dick. He hesitated a little, and then told an improbable story about being called away by one of the professors.“You see, I’ve been in a little trouble here,” he said, “and they have been investigating the affair. I was wanted just about then to answer some questions, and I had to go.”“Fishy!” exclaimed Kennedy suspiciously. “It was a queer time for the faculty to be carrying on an investigation.”“Oh, they do queer things around that old academy. I tried to get away and hurry back, but they wouldn’t let me. I thought the game was Uniontown’s, anyhow, and so I didn’t worry about it.”Brad Buckhart could hear some of this, and now he was grinding his strong teeth together.“A fine chap to have on the athletic committee!” he hissed. “He ought to be lynched!”“There is just one thing led me into this deal,” Chester explained to his companion. “That is my hatred for Dick Merriwell. If he were not captain of our team, you’d never catch me betting against it. If he were off the team, I’d work for it as hard as I could. But I am going to down him if it takes a leg! I’ll stop at nothing to do it! I have the athletic committee just where I want them. Some of them have played right into my hands, and they don’t dare do anything but what I tell them to do. In short, I am the whole committee.”“Very interesting information,” commented Dick, in a low whisper.Arlington was smoking a cigarette. Kennedy had lighted a cigar. Both had ordered drinks, but had not touched the stuff brought them.“If I hadn’t been called away,” Chester went on, “the result of the game would have been different. Merriwell could not have changed the team round again had I remained on the field.”At this moment, as Dick peered through the broken shutter, the door of the room was thrown open and Joe Savage appeared in the doorway. Savage was pale and excited.“Oh, here you are!” he exclaimed. “I passed this place once. Didn’t think this was the place you meant when you made the appointment.”He came in and closed the door.“I was right!” thought Dick. “It was Savage I saw.”Neither Arlington nor Kennedy offered to get up. Chester motioned toward a broken chair.“Sit down,” he said:“I don’t care to stop here,” said Savage. “I don’t like the looks of the place.”“You’re fussy, my friend,” said Kennedy, with a short laugh.“What have you got to say about it?” exclaimed Joe, frowning at Kennedy. “I have no business with you. If Mr. Arlington will kindly hand over those I O U’s, as he agreed, I will get out of here and bother you no more.”Chester languidly lighted a fresh cigarette.“Sorry, Savage,” he drawled, “but I didn’t bring them with me.”“You didn’t?”“No.”“You agreed to—you promised! Confound you, Arlington! are you tricking me? You won my money from me, and I gave you those papers when you continued to stick me. You knew I had sworn off gambling when you coaxed me into it. You knew my father had said he’d disown me if I played cards any more. And so, when you found your opportunity, you made me play into your hands. At the meeting you sent word that you would forward those I O U’s to my father if I did not withdraw and do my best to give you my vote. If I did so, you would give them over to me. You have not kept your word to give them up. You promised to do so to-night if I would meet you here. Now, do you mean to keep your promise?”“No,” answered Chester coldly.The next moment Savage had Arlington by the throat and was choking him. Kennedy sprang up, caught the bottle and struck Savage over the head, dropping him to the floor. Then Dick Merriwell smashed the window, burst the shutters open, and went into that room. But the rascals did not wait for him. With the first crash of breaking glass, they leaped toward the door, through which they disappeared.Dick lifted Savage, whose head was cut and bleeding. Buckhart followed Dick into the room by the window, and was on hand when the proprietor of the saloon came hurrying in.“What’s happened here?” asked the man who ran the place.“Where are those fellows who were here?” demanded Dick, who was tying a handkerchief about Savage’s bleeding head.“They dusted out. But who are you, and where did you come from? My window is broken, and——”“I’ll pay for the window,” said Dick. “The entire damage isn’t more than two dollars. Here is five.”The man took the five-dollar bill Dick extended.“Can you stand, Savage?” asked young Merriwell.“I—I think I can,” said Joe. “But that rap took the nerve out of me. I’m limp as a rag. They ran! Arlington got away! I—I didn’t get what I came for.”“But you’ll get them, all right,” said Dick grimly, “Don’t worry about that.”“You bet!” growled Buckhart.“We must get you to a doctor who can sew up your scalp where it was cut by that bottle. You’re bleeding pretty freely, and that must be stopped. Take hold, Buckhart. We’ll get him out of this quarter if we have to carry him.”Between them they got Joe out of the saloon and started for the respectable portion of the village.“We didn’t get a crack at those galoots!” said Brad regretfully. “I opined we’d have a lively time when you smashed the window and went jumping in there.”Savage grew stronger after getting out into the open air.“That devil!” he muttered. “Dick, I know you must think me a pretty cheap fellow. I can’t help it. I believe I am pretty cheap. But Arlington is slick. He got me into a bad scrape. I had an idea no one could beat me playing poker, but he’s the slickest thing in the business, and he skinned me clean to my eye-teeth. He had my I O U’s, and he was going to use them against me. That’s how he forced me to withdraw and permit him to get on the committee. He has no right there!”“Don’t worry about that,” said Dick. “He’ll not stay on that committee. He will resign Monday, and you’ll get your I O U’s on the same day.”
CHAPTER XVI—A FINE PAIRUniontown was dazed. The remarkable change in the cadets they could not understand. It did not seem that they were playing against the same team at all.In vain Durkee talked to his men. They were rattled and sore, and they could not stop the gritty cadets. Fardale made another touch-down and goal, and when the game ended the ball was once more within three feet of Uniontown’s line.Again Dick Merriwell was triumphant, but now he felt that he was on the verge of an explosion. The two captives in the bathroom of the gym would be discovered directly. Then what would happen?Buckhart reached Dick’s side as soon as possible when the game was finished.“Dick, did you see him?” he asked.“See whom?”“Kennedy.”“No.”“He was here.”“Are you sure?”“Yes; I saw him over there by the gate. I reckon he has taken leg-bail by this time.”Together they looked for the fellow, but Kennedy, if present, had lost no time in hastening away.The cheering of the cadets at the finish of the game had drowned all other sounds, but Dick pricked up his ear as they drew near the gym. He expected to hear a racket coming from within the building. It was silent as the members of the victorious team entered. Dick wondered if Arlington and Warne had found some method of escaping, but he discovered that the door of the bathroom was still closed. He walked straight over to it and flung it open. The captives walked out, Warne pale with rage, while Arlington’s eyes gleamed vindictively.“I beg your pardon!” exclaimed Dick, in apparent surprise. “Did I accidentally lock you gentlemen in there? It’s too bad! But I am sure you will be pleased to learn that we won the game.”He expected a terrible outbreak from both of the fellows, but in this he was disappointed. Arlington, however, stepped close to him and hissingly whispered:“I’ll have your life for this piece of work!”“Thank you,” said Dick, loudly enough for those near to hear. “I am glad you accept my apology. The score was twenty-four to eighteen.”Arlington passed on.Warne had not spoken.“Well, I’ll be hanged!” muttered Brad Buckhart, the truth dawning upon him. “That takes the prize! Why, he shut ’em up so they wouldn’t bother him during the last half!”It was plain that Arlington and Warne had decided that it was best for them to avoid making a scene, but Dick knew well enough that they were not the kind of fellows to forego a chance for revenge.That night the talk of the academy was the football-game. It had become known that the athletic committee were responsible for the shifting about of the players in the first half of the game, and not a few of the students criticized this interference with Dick’s part of the business. He had demonstrated beyond a doubt in the last half of the game that he knew the positions to which the men were adapted and that he could run the team successfully if not interfered with.In the evening Dick and Brad went into town. As they approached the post-office, Dick suddenly grasped his companion’s arm and drew him into a doorway.“What is it?” asked the Texan.“Look across the street.”“Where?”“See those two fellows over there?”“Yes. Why, one of them is—it’s Arlington!”“Sure.”“And the other is——”“Fred Kennedy!”“Right!” exclaimed Brad triumphantly. “That is Kennedy! I knew I wasn’t mistaken! Come, Dick, let’s go over there and tackle them! You can do up Kennedy. I’ll take care of Arlington while you even the score with the fellow who blinded you in Uniontown.”But Dick held Brad back.“Don’t be too hasty,” he warned. “What are they doing together? I’d like to understand that.”“It is right queer.”“I should say so! Chester Arlington is a member of the Fardale Academy athletic committee, and is associating with this Kennedy, who is a crooked gambler. Without doubt, Kennedy came here to-day to bet money on the football-game, and you may be sure he did not bet on Fardale.”“Arlington is a traitor!” growled Buckhart. “Pard, you can throw him down hard, and it’s up to you to throw!”“I want to find out just what is doing between these two.”“They’ll get away!”“No! I’m going to follow them.”“I’m with you.”But Dick knew he could shadow the two far better without the aid of Buckhart, so he insisted that Brad stay back and watch him from a distance.From a main part of the town Dick shadowed Arlington and Kennedy over that portion known as The Harbor. Buckhart saw him take that direction and then lost sight of him. But Brad was satisfied that Arlington and Kennedy had made for The Harbor, and he followed cautiously.Dick was peering in at the window of one of the wretched saloons of that quarter, when he heard some one approaching. He stepped back, hugging close to the corner of the house, and Brad would have passed.“Here, you!” whispered Dick. “Hold up, old man. Come here.”Brad stopped in surprise.“Is that you, pard?” he asked, in a low tone.“Sure thing. Come here where you’ll not be seen if any one comes along.”Brad joined him.“What are you doing?” he asked.“I’ve followed those fellows here,” said Dick. “They are inside.”“What are they doing?”“That is what I can’t make out.”“And why did they come here?”“To get away where there would be little chance that they would be seen together by any one they did not wish to see them, I fancy.”“But the whole thing is a mystery to me, pard,” confessed Buckhart.Dick touched his arm, and cautioned him to keep still. Somebody was approaching. The street ran close by the corner of the house, and, from their place of concealment, they saw a person passing.“Great Scott!” whispered Dick, who seemed to have eyes like an owl. “Did you recognize him, Brad?”“Too dark. Did you?”“Well, if it wasn’t Joe Savage, I’m greatly mistaken!”“Joe Savage?”“Yes.”“Here?”“That’s what.”“Well, this thing is growing thick. Where is he going?”Dick peered round the corner and watched the dark figure pass down the street and vanish in the gloom.“I may have been mistaken,” he admitted; “but I know he had a walk like Joe Savage, was just about the build of Savage, and looked to me in every way like Savage.”Then he slipped to the window and again peered into the saloon. He was just in time to see a man with a lamp in his hand conduct Arlington and Kennedy into a back room. After a few moments the man came out and closed the door behind him.“If there is a window to that room, we must find it,” muttered Dick.There was a window, and they found it. Further, there was a broken pane of glass in the window. Inside the window some shutters had been closed, but in one of the shutters was a broken strip, and through this crack Dick peered and saw Kennedy and Arlington seated with a table between them.Buckhart stood on guard while Dick watched those within the little back room of the old saloon. The broken pane enabled Dick to hear the conversation of the fine pair inside.“It was hard luck!” said Arlington.“Hard luck?” exclaimed Kennedy. “Is that what you call it? Hang it! you told me it was certain Uniontown would win!”“That’s right!”“But Fardale pulled out and won the game. I dropped three hundred dollars.”“And I dropped every blooming cent I have made playing cards in a week, besides what money my mother left me when she went away. I have been skinning a sucker, and all I have left to show for it is his I O U’s.”“You said you had fixed it so it was a sure thing.”“And so I did. Didn’t Uniontown have a walkover in the first half?”“Look here, Mr. Arlington, if you had not given me the cold cash to bet on our team, I’d be dead certain you threw me down. Where did you go when the first half was over? You vanished, and you were not seen again by me. Then Merriwell switched the team round and walked into us.”It was plain Arlington did not care to reveal how he and Warne had been trapped by Dick. He hesitated a little, and then told an improbable story about being called away by one of the professors.“You see, I’ve been in a little trouble here,” he said, “and they have been investigating the affair. I was wanted just about then to answer some questions, and I had to go.”“Fishy!” exclaimed Kennedy suspiciously. “It was a queer time for the faculty to be carrying on an investigation.”“Oh, they do queer things around that old academy. I tried to get away and hurry back, but they wouldn’t let me. I thought the game was Uniontown’s, anyhow, and so I didn’t worry about it.”Brad Buckhart could hear some of this, and now he was grinding his strong teeth together.“A fine chap to have on the athletic committee!” he hissed. “He ought to be lynched!”“There is just one thing led me into this deal,” Chester explained to his companion. “That is my hatred for Dick Merriwell. If he were not captain of our team, you’d never catch me betting against it. If he were off the team, I’d work for it as hard as I could. But I am going to down him if it takes a leg! I’ll stop at nothing to do it! I have the athletic committee just where I want them. Some of them have played right into my hands, and they don’t dare do anything but what I tell them to do. In short, I am the whole committee.”“Very interesting information,” commented Dick, in a low whisper.Arlington was smoking a cigarette. Kennedy had lighted a cigar. Both had ordered drinks, but had not touched the stuff brought them.“If I hadn’t been called away,” Chester went on, “the result of the game would have been different. Merriwell could not have changed the team round again had I remained on the field.”At this moment, as Dick peered through the broken shutter, the door of the room was thrown open and Joe Savage appeared in the doorway. Savage was pale and excited.“Oh, here you are!” he exclaimed. “I passed this place once. Didn’t think this was the place you meant when you made the appointment.”He came in and closed the door.“I was right!” thought Dick. “It was Savage I saw.”Neither Arlington nor Kennedy offered to get up. Chester motioned toward a broken chair.“Sit down,” he said:“I don’t care to stop here,” said Savage. “I don’t like the looks of the place.”“You’re fussy, my friend,” said Kennedy, with a short laugh.“What have you got to say about it?” exclaimed Joe, frowning at Kennedy. “I have no business with you. If Mr. Arlington will kindly hand over those I O U’s, as he agreed, I will get out of here and bother you no more.”Chester languidly lighted a fresh cigarette.“Sorry, Savage,” he drawled, “but I didn’t bring them with me.”“You didn’t?”“No.”“You agreed to—you promised! Confound you, Arlington! are you tricking me? You won my money from me, and I gave you those papers when you continued to stick me. You knew I had sworn off gambling when you coaxed me into it. You knew my father had said he’d disown me if I played cards any more. And so, when you found your opportunity, you made me play into your hands. At the meeting you sent word that you would forward those I O U’s to my father if I did not withdraw and do my best to give you my vote. If I did so, you would give them over to me. You have not kept your word to give them up. You promised to do so to-night if I would meet you here. Now, do you mean to keep your promise?”“No,” answered Chester coldly.The next moment Savage had Arlington by the throat and was choking him. Kennedy sprang up, caught the bottle and struck Savage over the head, dropping him to the floor. Then Dick Merriwell smashed the window, burst the shutters open, and went into that room. But the rascals did not wait for him. With the first crash of breaking glass, they leaped toward the door, through which they disappeared.Dick lifted Savage, whose head was cut and bleeding. Buckhart followed Dick into the room by the window, and was on hand when the proprietor of the saloon came hurrying in.“What’s happened here?” asked the man who ran the place.“Where are those fellows who were here?” demanded Dick, who was tying a handkerchief about Savage’s bleeding head.“They dusted out. But who are you, and where did you come from? My window is broken, and——”“I’ll pay for the window,” said Dick. “The entire damage isn’t more than two dollars. Here is five.”The man took the five-dollar bill Dick extended.“Can you stand, Savage?” asked young Merriwell.“I—I think I can,” said Joe. “But that rap took the nerve out of me. I’m limp as a rag. They ran! Arlington got away! I—I didn’t get what I came for.”“But you’ll get them, all right,” said Dick grimly, “Don’t worry about that.”“You bet!” growled Buckhart.“We must get you to a doctor who can sew up your scalp where it was cut by that bottle. You’re bleeding pretty freely, and that must be stopped. Take hold, Buckhart. We’ll get him out of this quarter if we have to carry him.”Between them they got Joe out of the saloon and started for the respectable portion of the village.“We didn’t get a crack at those galoots!” said Brad regretfully. “I opined we’d have a lively time when you smashed the window and went jumping in there.”Savage grew stronger after getting out into the open air.“That devil!” he muttered. “Dick, I know you must think me a pretty cheap fellow. I can’t help it. I believe I am pretty cheap. But Arlington is slick. He got me into a bad scrape. I had an idea no one could beat me playing poker, but he’s the slickest thing in the business, and he skinned me clean to my eye-teeth. He had my I O U’s, and he was going to use them against me. That’s how he forced me to withdraw and permit him to get on the committee. He has no right there!”“Don’t worry about that,” said Dick. “He’ll not stay on that committee. He will resign Monday, and you’ll get your I O U’s on the same day.”
Uniontown was dazed. The remarkable change in the cadets they could not understand. It did not seem that they were playing against the same team at all.
In vain Durkee talked to his men. They were rattled and sore, and they could not stop the gritty cadets. Fardale made another touch-down and goal, and when the game ended the ball was once more within three feet of Uniontown’s line.
Again Dick Merriwell was triumphant, but now he felt that he was on the verge of an explosion. The two captives in the bathroom of the gym would be discovered directly. Then what would happen?
Buckhart reached Dick’s side as soon as possible when the game was finished.
“Dick, did you see him?” he asked.
“See whom?”
“Kennedy.”
“No.”
“He was here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes; I saw him over there by the gate. I reckon he has taken leg-bail by this time.”
Together they looked for the fellow, but Kennedy, if present, had lost no time in hastening away.
The cheering of the cadets at the finish of the game had drowned all other sounds, but Dick pricked up his ear as they drew near the gym. He expected to hear a racket coming from within the building. It was silent as the members of the victorious team entered. Dick wondered if Arlington and Warne had found some method of escaping, but he discovered that the door of the bathroom was still closed. He walked straight over to it and flung it open. The captives walked out, Warne pale with rage, while Arlington’s eyes gleamed vindictively.
“I beg your pardon!” exclaimed Dick, in apparent surprise. “Did I accidentally lock you gentlemen in there? It’s too bad! But I am sure you will be pleased to learn that we won the game.”
He expected a terrible outbreak from both of the fellows, but in this he was disappointed. Arlington, however, stepped close to him and hissingly whispered:
“I’ll have your life for this piece of work!”
“Thank you,” said Dick, loudly enough for those near to hear. “I am glad you accept my apology. The score was twenty-four to eighteen.”
Arlington passed on.
Warne had not spoken.
“Well, I’ll be hanged!” muttered Brad Buckhart, the truth dawning upon him. “That takes the prize! Why, he shut ’em up so they wouldn’t bother him during the last half!”
It was plain that Arlington and Warne had decided that it was best for them to avoid making a scene, but Dick knew well enough that they were not the kind of fellows to forego a chance for revenge.
That night the talk of the academy was the football-game. It had become known that the athletic committee were responsible for the shifting about of the players in the first half of the game, and not a few of the students criticized this interference with Dick’s part of the business. He had demonstrated beyond a doubt in the last half of the game that he knew the positions to which the men were adapted and that he could run the team successfully if not interfered with.
In the evening Dick and Brad went into town. As they approached the post-office, Dick suddenly grasped his companion’s arm and drew him into a doorway.
“What is it?” asked the Texan.
“Look across the street.”
“Where?”
“See those two fellows over there?”
“Yes. Why, one of them is—it’s Arlington!”
“Sure.”
“And the other is——”
“Fred Kennedy!”
“Right!” exclaimed Brad triumphantly. “That is Kennedy! I knew I wasn’t mistaken! Come, Dick, let’s go over there and tackle them! You can do up Kennedy. I’ll take care of Arlington while you even the score with the fellow who blinded you in Uniontown.”
But Dick held Brad back.
“Don’t be too hasty,” he warned. “What are they doing together? I’d like to understand that.”
“It is right queer.”
“I should say so! Chester Arlington is a member of the Fardale Academy athletic committee, and is associating with this Kennedy, who is a crooked gambler. Without doubt, Kennedy came here to-day to bet money on the football-game, and you may be sure he did not bet on Fardale.”
“Arlington is a traitor!” growled Buckhart. “Pard, you can throw him down hard, and it’s up to you to throw!”
“I want to find out just what is doing between these two.”
“They’ll get away!”
“No! I’m going to follow them.”
“I’m with you.”
But Dick knew he could shadow the two far better without the aid of Buckhart, so he insisted that Brad stay back and watch him from a distance.
From a main part of the town Dick shadowed Arlington and Kennedy over that portion known as The Harbor. Buckhart saw him take that direction and then lost sight of him. But Brad was satisfied that Arlington and Kennedy had made for The Harbor, and he followed cautiously.
Dick was peering in at the window of one of the wretched saloons of that quarter, when he heard some one approaching. He stepped back, hugging close to the corner of the house, and Brad would have passed.
“Here, you!” whispered Dick. “Hold up, old man. Come here.”
Brad stopped in surprise.
“Is that you, pard?” he asked, in a low tone.
“Sure thing. Come here where you’ll not be seen if any one comes along.”
Brad joined him.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’ve followed those fellows here,” said Dick. “They are inside.”
“What are they doing?”
“That is what I can’t make out.”
“And why did they come here?”
“To get away where there would be little chance that they would be seen together by any one they did not wish to see them, I fancy.”
“But the whole thing is a mystery to me, pard,” confessed Buckhart.
Dick touched his arm, and cautioned him to keep still. Somebody was approaching. The street ran close by the corner of the house, and, from their place of concealment, they saw a person passing.
“Great Scott!” whispered Dick, who seemed to have eyes like an owl. “Did you recognize him, Brad?”
“Too dark. Did you?”
“Well, if it wasn’t Joe Savage, I’m greatly mistaken!”
“Joe Savage?”
“Yes.”
“Here?”
“That’s what.”
“Well, this thing is growing thick. Where is he going?”
Dick peered round the corner and watched the dark figure pass down the street and vanish in the gloom.
“I may have been mistaken,” he admitted; “but I know he had a walk like Joe Savage, was just about the build of Savage, and looked to me in every way like Savage.”
Then he slipped to the window and again peered into the saloon. He was just in time to see a man with a lamp in his hand conduct Arlington and Kennedy into a back room. After a few moments the man came out and closed the door behind him.
“If there is a window to that room, we must find it,” muttered Dick.
There was a window, and they found it. Further, there was a broken pane of glass in the window. Inside the window some shutters had been closed, but in one of the shutters was a broken strip, and through this crack Dick peered and saw Kennedy and Arlington seated with a table between them.
Buckhart stood on guard while Dick watched those within the little back room of the old saloon. The broken pane enabled Dick to hear the conversation of the fine pair inside.
“It was hard luck!” said Arlington.
“Hard luck?” exclaimed Kennedy. “Is that what you call it? Hang it! you told me it was certain Uniontown would win!”
“That’s right!”
“But Fardale pulled out and won the game. I dropped three hundred dollars.”
“And I dropped every blooming cent I have made playing cards in a week, besides what money my mother left me when she went away. I have been skinning a sucker, and all I have left to show for it is his I O U’s.”
“You said you had fixed it so it was a sure thing.”
“And so I did. Didn’t Uniontown have a walkover in the first half?”
“Look here, Mr. Arlington, if you had not given me the cold cash to bet on our team, I’d be dead certain you threw me down. Where did you go when the first half was over? You vanished, and you were not seen again by me. Then Merriwell switched the team round and walked into us.”
It was plain Arlington did not care to reveal how he and Warne had been trapped by Dick. He hesitated a little, and then told an improbable story about being called away by one of the professors.
“You see, I’ve been in a little trouble here,” he said, “and they have been investigating the affair. I was wanted just about then to answer some questions, and I had to go.”
“Fishy!” exclaimed Kennedy suspiciously. “It was a queer time for the faculty to be carrying on an investigation.”
“Oh, they do queer things around that old academy. I tried to get away and hurry back, but they wouldn’t let me. I thought the game was Uniontown’s, anyhow, and so I didn’t worry about it.”
Brad Buckhart could hear some of this, and now he was grinding his strong teeth together.
“A fine chap to have on the athletic committee!” he hissed. “He ought to be lynched!”
“There is just one thing led me into this deal,” Chester explained to his companion. “That is my hatred for Dick Merriwell. If he were not captain of our team, you’d never catch me betting against it. If he were off the team, I’d work for it as hard as I could. But I am going to down him if it takes a leg! I’ll stop at nothing to do it! I have the athletic committee just where I want them. Some of them have played right into my hands, and they don’t dare do anything but what I tell them to do. In short, I am the whole committee.”
“Very interesting information,” commented Dick, in a low whisper.
Arlington was smoking a cigarette. Kennedy had lighted a cigar. Both had ordered drinks, but had not touched the stuff brought them.
“If I hadn’t been called away,” Chester went on, “the result of the game would have been different. Merriwell could not have changed the team round again had I remained on the field.”
At this moment, as Dick peered through the broken shutter, the door of the room was thrown open and Joe Savage appeared in the doorway. Savage was pale and excited.
“Oh, here you are!” he exclaimed. “I passed this place once. Didn’t think this was the place you meant when you made the appointment.”
He came in and closed the door.
“I was right!” thought Dick. “It was Savage I saw.”
Neither Arlington nor Kennedy offered to get up. Chester motioned toward a broken chair.
“Sit down,” he said:
“I don’t care to stop here,” said Savage. “I don’t like the looks of the place.”
“You’re fussy, my friend,” said Kennedy, with a short laugh.
“What have you got to say about it?” exclaimed Joe, frowning at Kennedy. “I have no business with you. If Mr. Arlington will kindly hand over those I O U’s, as he agreed, I will get out of here and bother you no more.”
Chester languidly lighted a fresh cigarette.
“Sorry, Savage,” he drawled, “but I didn’t bring them with me.”
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
“You agreed to—you promised! Confound you, Arlington! are you tricking me? You won my money from me, and I gave you those papers when you continued to stick me. You knew I had sworn off gambling when you coaxed me into it. You knew my father had said he’d disown me if I played cards any more. And so, when you found your opportunity, you made me play into your hands. At the meeting you sent word that you would forward those I O U’s to my father if I did not withdraw and do my best to give you my vote. If I did so, you would give them over to me. You have not kept your word to give them up. You promised to do so to-night if I would meet you here. Now, do you mean to keep your promise?”
“No,” answered Chester coldly.
The next moment Savage had Arlington by the throat and was choking him. Kennedy sprang up, caught the bottle and struck Savage over the head, dropping him to the floor. Then Dick Merriwell smashed the window, burst the shutters open, and went into that room. But the rascals did not wait for him. With the first crash of breaking glass, they leaped toward the door, through which they disappeared.
Dick lifted Savage, whose head was cut and bleeding. Buckhart followed Dick into the room by the window, and was on hand when the proprietor of the saloon came hurrying in.
“What’s happened here?” asked the man who ran the place.
“Where are those fellows who were here?” demanded Dick, who was tying a handkerchief about Savage’s bleeding head.
“They dusted out. But who are you, and where did you come from? My window is broken, and——”
“I’ll pay for the window,” said Dick. “The entire damage isn’t more than two dollars. Here is five.”
The man took the five-dollar bill Dick extended.
“Can you stand, Savage?” asked young Merriwell.
“I—I think I can,” said Joe. “But that rap took the nerve out of me. I’m limp as a rag. They ran! Arlington got away! I—I didn’t get what I came for.”
“But you’ll get them, all right,” said Dick grimly, “Don’t worry about that.”
“You bet!” growled Buckhart.
“We must get you to a doctor who can sew up your scalp where it was cut by that bottle. You’re bleeding pretty freely, and that must be stopped. Take hold, Buckhart. We’ll get him out of this quarter if we have to carry him.”
Between them they got Joe out of the saloon and started for the respectable portion of the village.
“We didn’t get a crack at those galoots!” said Brad regretfully. “I opined we’d have a lively time when you smashed the window and went jumping in there.”
Savage grew stronger after getting out into the open air.
“That devil!” he muttered. “Dick, I know you must think me a pretty cheap fellow. I can’t help it. I believe I am pretty cheap. But Arlington is slick. He got me into a bad scrape. I had an idea no one could beat me playing poker, but he’s the slickest thing in the business, and he skinned me clean to my eye-teeth. He had my I O U’s, and he was going to use them against me. That’s how he forced me to withdraw and permit him to get on the committee. He has no right there!”
“Don’t worry about that,” said Dick. “He’ll not stay on that committee. He will resign Monday, and you’ll get your I O U’s on the same day.”