CHAPTER VIICHESTER IS PUZZLED
Sam was a hero amongst the Boarders for many days. But, as Sam himself said and as most of the fellows agreed, the real hero of the game was Hal Morris, who, with very little preparation and small experience, had held the Towners’ hard batters to a mere half-dozen hits. Poor Morris’s right arm was so lame for days after the contest that he could scarcely use it. But when he could Mr. Shay took him in hand, declaring that he was going to make a pitcher out of him before the season was over.
Of course Sam had to recount the tale of his kidnapping and imprisonment and escape from beginning to end to a circle of interested Boarders before he had been off the field ten minutes that afternoon. They gathered about him in the gymnasium and demanded a full and detailed account.
“Well,” said Dolph, “they certainly had their nerve to try a trick like that! And it would have worked, too, if you hadn’t got back here just when you did. Hal’s arm was getting like a rag.”
“I couldn’t have stood more than one more batter,” said Morris, with conviction, supporting the weary limb with his left hand. “I was never any gladder to see any one than I was to see Sam.”
“Well, we beat them, after all,” sighed Ted. “But I wouldn’t have offered a lead nickel for our chances at the beginning of the ninth inning!”
“I’d have sold out for a penny with a hole in it just before Sam arrived,” said Dolph grimly.
“The only regret I have,” announced Sam, “is that I didn’t have a chance to strike out Mort Prince. I have a feeling that it was he who got up the scheme.”
“What are you going to do to him, Phillips?” asked Midget Green eagerly. Sam smiled gently.
“I’m going to bite his head off, kid. Want to see it?”
“I’d do something if it was me,” answered Midget with an appalling scowl.
“Oh, there’s no use being grouchy about it,” said Smythe. “Everything goes in a Towner game. And after all, we licked ’em.”
“Shucks,” said Sam, “I don’t hold any grudge. They were too smart for me and I got what was coming. I ought to have had my eyes open. I don’t see now why I didn’t suspect something when Chesty insisted on going home to change nags. I was an idiot, that’s what I was, fellows!”
“On the other hand,” mused Truesdale, “since they tried kidnapping this time there’s no knowing what they may do next year. Steal the diamond, like enough!”
Sam didn’t see Chester again until Monday morning. Then he ran into him in the corridor of School Building. Chester smiled in a doubtful way, as though he was not at all certain whether Sam was going to cut him dead or punch his head.
“Hello, Chesty,” said Sam jovially.
“Hello,” answered Chester with vast relief.
“Pretty good game, wasn’t it?”
“Y—yes, pretty fair, Sammy.”
“It was a dandy! And I was glad I got back to see the last of it.”
“If you hadn’t,” said Chester with a grin, “we’d have licked you fellows good and hard.”
“That’s what I thought. So I concluded I’d better leave my cosy quarters and hike back to the field of battle. By the way, I had a dandy dinner, Chesty. Thanks awfully, old man.”
“That’s all right. I say, Sammy, aren’t mad about it, are you?”
“Mad? What for? It was lots of fun. Hope I didn’t do any damage to the place, though.”
“No. But, say, Sammy, I wish you’d tell me how you got out of there.” Sam winked and looked mysterious.
“Why, by the window, of course.”
“Well, that’s what I said,” responded Chester, “but Perkins is sure he didn’t take the key out of the door. And when we went up there afterwards the door was locked fast. Iguess he put the key in his pocket and forgot it. He can’t find it, though. I gave him fits for letting you get away.”
“Well, don’t worry about the key, Chesty. Here it is.” Sam dug it out of his pocket and passed it over.
“H—how did you get it?” gasped Chester.
“Just took it out of the door.”
“But—but you said you got out by the window!”
“I said that? You must be dreaming. I went out by the door, of course.”
“But—but it was locked on the outside!”
“Was it? Funny I didn’t notice that. Are you sure?”
“Of course I am!” responded Chester puzzledly. “Howdidyou get out, Sammy?”
“Well, you won’t tell any one, Chesty?”
“No,” answered the other eagerly. Sam leaned across and whispered in his ear.
“I pried the screen off——”
“Yes, I saw that.”
“Tied my shoe laces together and lowered myself to the ground! Quite simple, you see.”
“Tied your——Oh, cut it out, Sammy, and tell me!”
“All right, Chesty. After I ate my dinner I hid myself in the sugar-bowl, drew the lid on and Perkins carried me out on the tray. He never suspected, Chesty!”
“Oh, don’t be a fool!” said Chester crossly. “Can’t you tell a fellow?” Sam shook his head.
“No, Chesty,” he said solemnly, “that’s something you’ll never know.”
And he never did.
That afternoon, the school baseball supremacy settled for the year, the School Team reassembled, Towners and Boarders together, and settled down to practice again. On Wednesday the Charlemont High School came out, and was beaten, 12 to 4, in a six-inning game. Sam pitched four innings and Prince finished. As Tyler Wicks was back in left field, Jack spent the afternoon looking on. Cook went in for two innings, but Jack’s turn didn’t come that day.
Midget Green almost wore himself out during that game, chasing the fouls that wentinto Finkler’s meadow, and the visitors had several sarcastic things to say about Maple Ridge’s baseball field. Four balls were lost utterly, a circumstance that caused Chester Harris, as manager, much annoyance. Chester had supplied himself with only a half dozen balls, and in the fifth inning was forced to send back to the gymnasium for more. Balls are expensive, too, and after the game Chester remarked gloomily that if Finkler would only sell his meadow it would pay them to buy it and quarry it for baseballs.
“It’s a nuisance,” agreed Dolph weariedly. “I think we ought to insist on Benny supplying the school with a decent field. There’s a perfectly good piece of land across the road there. Why doesn’t he buy that?”
“Can’t be did,” answered Gus Turnbull. “That land belongs to some one out west, and he won’t sell. I know, because my father and some other men tried to buy it a couple of years ago.”
“Well, Benny ought to find us a decent place somewhere,” responded Dolph.
“What we ought to do,” remarked Jack quietly, “is to get hold of that meadow.”
“What meadow?” asked Dolph impatiently. “Finkler’s?”
Jack nodded.
“He’s daffy on that subject,” laughed Sam. “Wakes me up at night to talk about it. I tell him Finkler won’t part with his old land, but that makes no difference with Jack. He keeps right on talking!”
“How do you know he won’t sell or rent it?” asked Jack with a smile.
“Well, he’s been asked to twenty times, I guess.” This from Ted. “Anyhow, five or six times.”
“Why not ask him again?” persisted Jack.
“No use,” said Sam with finality, shaking his head.
“How do you know it is no use? Remember what you told me the other day, Sam? You said that all folks weren’t mind readers, and, sometimes, when you wanted a thing, you had to speak out. Maybe Finkler’s had a change of heart since he was asked the last time. Maybeif he knew we wanted his field, or the use of it, he’d be glad to let us have it.”
“Maybe a cow’s an insect,” scoffed Turnbull. “Old Finkler would never have a change of heart. His heart’s too tough to change.”
Jack made no reply, but his smile told them that he was not yet convinced. As he was leaving the gymnasium with Sam, Dolph stopped him.
“Borden, you and Sam run over this evening, will you? I’m not plumb sure there isn’t something in that idea of yours. Anyway, it won’t hurt to chew it over a bit. Maybe we can hit on a plan.”
They did hit on a plan at length, but not until they had talked for the better part of an hour. Sam was very much of a pessimist on the subject, and threw cold water on the project until the others got tired and threatened to put him out of the room.
“Oh, very well,” he said then, settling himself comfortably in an easy chair. “Go ahead without me. I’ll take a nap. Wake me up when you’re through chinning.”
“I think Borden’s idea is a good one,” said Ted when Sam had subsided. “As captain of the baseball team, Dolph, you’re just the fellow to start it. Have a talk with Steve Walker and Thorp Prentiss. If they agree you’ve got the baseball, football and track interests combined. And, anything you three captains do the school will stand back of.”
“Yes, but how about Benny?”
“I’d go to him and tell him that you need the field,” said Jack. “Ask him if he will allow you to go ahead and see what you can do. I think it would be better to simply ask Finkler for a lease of the meadow, say for ten years; I guess he’d be more likely to lease it than sell it.”
“I want some one else to make him the offer, though,” said Dolph with a laugh.
“Let Jack do it,” suggested Sam. “He’s got a grand gift of the gab.”
“Thought you were asleep,” said Ted.
“I am. I’m talking in my sleep.”
“Well, don’t do it,” answered Ted severely. “We’re getting on nicely, so don’t butt in.”
“Hear him!” murmured Sam, addressing the world at large. “Getting on nicely! Talking rot, that’s what they’re doing!”
“How much, though, do you suppose the old codger would want to charge us for the meadow?” asked Dolph.
“More than it’s worth,” replied Ted gloomily.
“I don’t see why,” said Jack. “It isn’t much good to him now except for pasture, and the amount we’d need wouldn’t make much difference to his cows and horses.”
“I should say not! Why, Finkler’s got over a hundred acres, I heard.”
“That’s right,” Ted agreed. “And I guess he doesn’t own more than half a dozen cows and a few horses.”
“Horses!” exclaimed Sam. “He’s got twenty of them, if he’s got one! He raises them. And they say he cares more for his old nags than anything else.”
“That so?” asked Jack. “Well, I don’t believe a man who has to do with horses and likes them can be so bad, after all.”
“Oh, I suppose he has some good points,” allowed Dolph. “I never heard that he beat his wife. And we all know that he goes to church regularly. You can see him any day.”
“He hasn’t got any wife,” said Sam. “He’s a widow—I mean a widower.”
“The real trouble with Old Finkler,” observed Ted, “is that he hates Maple Ridge and everything about it.”
“But why?” asked Jack.
“Oh, I guess we’ve always rubbed him the wrong way.”
“Then let’s rub him the right way; smooth him down,” said Jack.
“H-m; I don’t believe he will let you get near enough to do any smoothing. He will probably set that old dog on you as soon as you put foot on his land.”
“If Rowdy bites us,” said Ted comfortingly, “we’ll sue Finkler for damages.”
“You’ll get your damages beforehand,” answered Dolph, with a laugh. “Well, that’s settled so far, then, fellows. I’ll talk to Steve and Thorp Prentiss tomorrow. Then, if they’llcome in on it, we’ll all three of us talk to Benny. And if Benny will give us a free hand, we’ll make a formal call on Finkler and put it up to him. After all, he can’t do any more than chase us off the premises!”
“Tell him,” suggested Jack, “that we want to lease a small part of his field for five or ten years; that we won’t change it any except to put part of a running track on it, and that we’ll agree to put it in the same shape as we found it in at the end of the lease.”
“And tell him we’ll agree not to bother him or his old apples again,” added Ted. “The apples I got from there last fall weren’t extra good, anyway!”
“But where’s the money coming from if he should agree?” asked Dolph.
“He oughtn’t to charge much,” answered Jack. “Dr. Benedict could give half and the school could make up the rest.”
“Benny ought to pay it all,” said Sam.
“Well, maybe he would. Anyway, if he wouldn’t the fellows could make up the rest, I guess.”
“Maybe,” Ted suggested, “we could interest the graduates in it.”
“Well, let’s find out first whether we can have the land. It will be time enough then to find a way to pay for it. Just at present, gentlemen, I am going to study a little.” And Dolph pulled his books toward him, intimating that the conference was over.
Three days later, on Saturday morning, the three captains called on Dr. Benedict. The Principal received them in his library, a big, book-lined room behind the office, with which the students were less acquainted than with the latter room. Doctor Benedict was a man of medium height and middle age; clean-shaven, with a pair of keen gray eyes looking more often over than through the glasses perched perilously on a short nose. In the interims of conducting Maple Ridge School the Doctor found time to write text-books on physics that were widely used. There were those who maintained that the real head of the school was Mrs. Benedict, the Doctor’s shrewd and energetic wife, whose official position was that of matron.Both were well liked by the fellows, Mrs. Benny—as she was called—perhaps a bit more than the Doctor, probably because her duties brought her into closer touch with the students.
Dolph acted as spokesman, and the Doctor listened attentively to his presentation of the matter. When Dolph was through, the Doctor swung around in his swivel desk-chair, placed the tips of his fingers together and looked out of the window for a minute. It was a favorite trick of his to apparently seek inspiration from the view.
“Well, boys,” he said finally, “I see nothing wrong with your scheme, and you have my full consent to try it. I don’t predict success, however. Mr. Finkler has been approached on numerous occasions and has always proved a difficult—ah—gentleman to deal with. The fact of the matter is simply that he has cultivated an unreasoning prejudice against the school, the faculty and the students. We have offered to buy his land or to lease it, and we have proffered more money than it is really worth. He has always refused to even consider thematter. Whether he has altered his attitude, I can’t say. I doubt it, however. But there is no harm in talking to him, boys. It may be that he will listen more patiently to you than he ever has to me. I wish you success.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Dolph. “And if he should consent to let us have the land, would you—er—help us pay for it, sir?”
“Certainly. The matter of terms, however, I would advise you to leave open until we can talk it over again. Had you considered making him a definite proposition, Jones?”
“We hadn’t decided on any amount, sir.”
“Well, our last offer to him was to lease two acres of the property for ten years at a yearly rental of, I think it was, three hundred dollars. For the property outright, our offer was two thousand.”
“That seems a lot, sir,” hazarded Prentiss, the Track Team captain.
“Too much,” replied the Doctor. “The land isn’t worth it; at least, it isn’t worth it to any one else. But, as you boys have just said, the athletic field, as it is now, is really inadequate.The school would be quite willing to buy or lease at those figures, and if you can persuade him to let us have the land the money will be ready.”
“Much obliged, sir,” said Dolph. “I don’t believe he will do it, but wedoneed the land, sir, and I guess there’s no harm in trying.”
“There never is, Jones,” replied the Principal smilingly. “Good luck to you, boys. Let me hear how the negotiations turn out.”
“Well, we can’t call on the old codger today,” said Dolph, when they had left the Doctor. There was a ring of relief in his voice, and the others laughed.
“No, nor tomorrow,” added Steve Walker, the football captain, “for tomorrow’s Sunday. It’ll have to be Monday, I guess. Who’s going?”
“The three of us,” answered Dolph.
Walker made a grimace of distaste. “I don’t think I agreed to that, did I?” he laughed.
“Of course you did!”
“Did I? Well, let me tell you one thing, Dolph: I don’t propose to get bitten by that olddog of Finkler’s. I shall carry a good-sized club.”
“I tell you what, fellows,” Prentiss suggested. “Let’s get a carriage. That’ll look business-like, and—er—important, and the dog can’t get us!”
“Not a bad idea,” agreed Dolph. “Not that I’m worrying about the dog——”
“Oh, certainly not! Perish the thought!”
“But it will make Finkler realize that we mean business.”
“Maybe we can get Chesty Harris to take us over in one of his turnouts.”
“Sure; he will do it,” said Dolph. “Well, shall we say Monday?”
The others hesitated. Finally—
“I—I expect to be pretty busy Monday,” faltered Prentiss.
“No, you don’t squirm out that way,” replied Dolph firmly. “We’ll go over on Monday, the three of us.”
“Well,” sighed Walker, “maybe we might as well, and get it over with. Things don’t get any better for waiting.”