It was two weeks after the great game with Warwick, and things in Queen's School had settled down into their normal condition. The election of the captain had taken place a few days after the closing game, and the choice was on Boston Wheeler, the fullback. The school did not particularly like the choice, although Wheeler was really a fair player, and had, while he was a member of Gamma Tau, showed himself to be a man of rather good judgment.
"He's the best of the bunch," announced the Wee One, who had kept up the friendship with Frank and his friends. The Wee One had just now dropped into Frank's room to talk over the situation.
"Do you think he'll make a good leader?" questioned Frank.
"Yes, if he doesn't take too much advice fromChip Dixon. It's a sure thing that as long as Dixon is on the eleven he will work it for his friends, and he will work Wheeler for his friends."
"It's queer to me," said Frank, "that as bright as he is about most things, he can't see where his playing favorites hurts himself, and the team and the school. Although Jimmy was better than Hillard, he fought him off as long as he could. I believe if Jimmy had been in that game all through it the score would have been different. What do you think?"
"Yes, I think the score would have been smaller for Warwick, but Jimmy alone couldn't have stopped it. The trouble was with the captain. He couldn't pull his men together when the test came. They played good ball in spots, but they had it in them to play it all the time. Gamma Tau is responsible for the poor athletic showing here at Queen's. And, speaking of Gamma Tau, have you heard that they are pledging for the March elections?"
"No, I hadn't heard. Are they?"
"Yes. I've been wondering if they've called on you."
"Me? Gracious! You know that Chip Dixonwould rather stick me than have me in Gamma Tau," said Frank.
"Perhaps so, but he isn't all of the Society. There are some good fellows in it, and they don't take his view. What would you do if it were offered to you, Frank?"
"I don't want it, and I wouldn't take an election."
"Yes, but Alpha Beta is the only other; you're sure to get asked by their scouts. I wonder they haven't been around yet."
"I don't want Alpha Beta either. I don't see that it is necessary for me to be in a society, is it? What good is Alpha, anyway?"
"Well, it's made up of the left-overs from Gamma Tau, as I told you when you came here. It hasn't any weight. It's the Gamma that is the Colossus around whose legs we all crawl."
"I'm not going to crawl around Gamma Tau. I don't like what it stands for, so I'm going to stand for myself. I can get along without it."
"Hear, hear, fine sentiments from Mr. Frank Armstrong. Hurray for high morality——"
The Wee One was interrupted by the opening of Frank's door. Jimmy entered.
"Hello," he said, "glad to see you. Hope I'm not intruding."
"Oh, not at all. We were just talking about Gamma Tau and her scouts who are out pledging for the elections."
"Well, that's just what I came over here to talk to Frank about."
"I'll be going then," said the Wee One, sliding down from the window seat.
"No, don't," cried Jimmy. "You're just the Solomon whose advice I need. You are bowed down with the wisdom of the ages. Stay where you are."
"I'm on my pedestal again," announced the Wee One when he had climbed back to his commanding position. "Fire away, and I'll pass judgment with the help of the whole jury, Frank Armstrong. Have they asked you to come into the fold?"
"That's just it. Cuthbert, of the baseball team, and another fellow I don't know, came around half an hour ago and asked to see me alone. They fired poor Lewis out of the room, locked the door, and then began to ask me fool questions about myself. I didn't know what they were driving at, but after a while Cuthbertstopped beating around the bush, and asked me how I'd like to wear a Gamma Tau pin."
"And you said you'd rather have a rose," interjected the Wee One.
"No, I didn't. I just said I hadn't thought about it. Apparently he had the notion that I should have fallen head-over-heels into the plan. I hadn't been thinking about any such possibility, and I sat there like a dummy."
"And what happened? You are killing me with impatience!"
"Well, they began to tell me some of the advantages of belonging to it——"
"And some of the disadvantages of not belonging, eh?"
"No, they just hinted at those," said Jimmy, smiling. "They said that I had made a good showing in football——"
"No credit to them," snorted Frank.
"And that if I kept on there would be a good chance for me to make the captaincy, if I came into Gamma Tau."
"They emphasized the IF, I suppose?" inquired the Wee One.
"Well, it was a little like that. They intimatedthat with Gamma Tau behind me I could have anything I wanted."
"Yes, that's exactly what they think. But maybe there'll be a change some of these fine days."
"Well," said Jimmy, "I'm here for advice. What do you think I ought to do?"
"Don't you know what to do?" said Frank.
"I think I do, but I don't want to make mistakes, and I thought I'd like to talk it over with some one. My own notion is that Gamma Tau can go hang. I don't like the bunch that is in Gamma Tau, and I don't like the way they are running things in this school."
"You don't mean to say that another Freshman has chucked down poor old Gamma Tau?" said the Wee One, in what he pretended was an awe-struck whisper. "Frank here, has just been firing hot shot into them. It's a rebellion of the Freshman class, that's what it is, I tell you."
"Quit your jollying, Patty," said Jimmy. "Before Cuthbert and the other fellows got out of my room I told them that I guessed I'd take a chance on staying out, and if I couldn't make good on merits I'd have to make bad. They said not to make up my mind in a hurry, and that they'd see me again."
"A throw-down for the Gammas. Hurrah, hurroo! But it's all off with you now. You have digged your grave, as they say in Shakespeare; it's your athletic grave. You're as good as dead now. Go and buy a nice, sweet little headstone and mark it: 'Sacred to the memory of the rising athletic hopes of James Turner. Erected by the Gamma Tau Society.'"
It seemed like a dread prophecy to both the boys, who had come to the school hoping that they might be able to do something for the school besides their school work, something to help the honor of the school on field or river, and silence fell for a time on the gay talk. As they sat there, steps were heard on the stairs.
"S-s-s-h!" whispered the Wee One. "I'll bet a dollar it's the Gamma scouts come to have a whack at Frank. Jimmy, you and I hide." They sprang from their seats and scampered to Frank's bedroom, where they drew the curtain, from behind which they could hear everything that might go on in the room. The Wee One's guess was good, for the two were scarcely concealed when the footsteps stopped at the door, and there was a knock. Frank had snatched a book from the table and placed himself in the attitude of study.
"Come in," he called.
The door opened and in walked the Gamma scouts, Cuthbert and his friend.
"Sit down," said Frank courteously, rising and offering his visitors chairs.
"What did I tell you?" whispered the Wee One to Jimmy, "They're after your young friend."
"How do you like Queen's?" was Cuthbert's first query. "Pretty good place, isn't it?"
"I haven't been here very long," said Frank, "but I think it's fine. If we only had some good athletic teams here! Seems to be a dandy bunch of fellows."
"Yes, I guess it's one of the best schools in this part of the country," said Cuthbert. "We are not so big as Andover nor Hotchkiss nor Hill School, but size isn't always the best thing. We are closer together than these big schools, and in a small school all the best fellows get together easier." Cuthbert settled himself in his chair, and threw back his coat, displaying the handsome Gamma Tau pin on his waistcoat. It was a well-known thing that a glimpse of the Gamma pin had often settled the case of the doubting ones,when it flashed its radiant message to the candidate.
But it did not dazzle Frank the least little bit.
"Yes," he said, "we have everything here, I guess, excepting good athletic teams." He said it so innocently that Cuthbert, who looked up quickly, did not know whether he was hinting at Gamma's part in the "good" athletic teams or not. At Frank's words the Wee One gave Jimmy his elbow so hard behind the curtain that that individual staggered and almost lost his balance.
"Well," continued Cuthbert, settling back comfortably, "we might have better teams, and we are going to have them. Things have been breaking badly for us for some time, but there are good times ahead."
"I hope so," said Frank, "we need better times."
Again there was a scraping sound behind the curtains, but Cuthbert, not noticing it, went on: "You have a friend named Turner, who lives in the other end of Warren, haven't you?"
"Yes. He's one of my best friends."
"Well, we want him in Gamma Tau," said Cuthbert, coming straight to the point. "He's alikely fellow, and we think will make good. In fact, we'd like to have you both come into our fraternity. The first elections are in March. It is considered a very great honor to get a first election. You play baseball, don't you?"
"Yes, a little."
"Pitcher, I hear."
"Yes, pretty poor, though."
"Well, that's all right. You will improve. We want you to be one of us, and to use your influence with Turner. You will be both taken in together. It doesn't often happen to Freshmen. I didn't get my election till my second year, and I thought I was pretty lucky then."
"And you want me to use my influence with Turner?"
"Yes; neither of you know, perhaps, that Gamma controls the school athletics, and it can help a fellow a great deal with the honors of athletics."
"Doesn't a fellow stand as good a chance outside of Gamma as inside?"
"No, I shouldn't say he did. Most of the athletes are with us, and we run things about as we wish them. May we have your word that youwill come along and bring Turner with you? It is a distinct honor, you understand."
"I thank you very much for the honor," said Frank, steadily, looking straight at Cuthbert, who expected a favorable reply, "but I do not care to accept an election. I think Turner has the same opinion."
"But why?" said the amazed Cuthbert.
"According to all I hear, Gamma Tau has been responsible for all the defeats in the school teams for the last three or four years. As you said yourself, you run things to suit yourselves and elect your own captains. It doesn't strike me as the right way to do it. They say a fellow who isn't in Gamma Tau has no chance. If that's the thing that decides it, I guess I'll stay outside."
Cuthbert rose to his feet as though he had sat on a tack, and his friend followed suit. "You'll be sorry for this night, my boy," said he, striding to the door and jerking it open. "I can tell you now that for Freshmen you and your friend Turner have put yourselves in wrong, and if I can help it you will not have another chance."
"Is that all?" said Frank, rising.
"Yes, that's all," shouted Cuthbert, and out they went, and banged the door after them.
The scouts were hardly off the stairs when the Wee One and Jimmy burst forth, holding their sides with laughter. "Hasn't he the nasty temper, though!" cried the Wee One. "Now you're both buried in the same grave. We'll erect a double monument for Turner and you. Wow! but Gamma will be hopping mad."
"Let them," said Frank. "I don't care a hooter. If I can't get on a team without bootlicking that crowd, I'll stay off it."
"Me, too," said Jimmy.
"And me, too," said the Wee One, assuming a dramatic attitude, and thumping his narrow chest. "I wouldn't take the position of football captain from the Gamma if they offered it to me."
At that moment a great clattering was heard on the stairs—some one pounding up in undignified haste.
"They're coming back to capture you," cried the Wee One, "and take you to their lair by main force. Skip." But before any one had time to move, Lewis burst in at the door with his jaw hanging and his eyes popping out of his head.
"The ghost!" he gasped, "the ghost! I was out behind Warren on the bank a minute ago,and it came walking straight for me, and I beat it for here at a mile a minute."
The boys dashed for the windows which looked out on the meadow and playgrounds. Sure enough, there in the light of the half-moon went the figure in white, sailing over the ground. They all watched it with staring eyes, and while they were looking it stopped, made a small circle, then headed off down behind the football stands and disappeared.
The boys watched till it had gone, and then turned and looked at each other in amazement.
"Well, if that doesn't beat the Dutch," said Frank, the first to recover his tongue after the thing, whatever it was, had gone from their view.
"Seems to melt right into the air, doesn't it?" exclaimed the Wee One. "I thought when I heard of there being a ghost down on the field that some one was just kidding. What do you suppose it can be?"
"That's what I'd like to know," said Jimmy. "The first time we saw it was the night David came. We happened to be in the bedroom and the thing came just like it did to-night, and then went as quickly as it came. There's no kidding about it. It's something, sure as shooting."
"Let's go and take a look," suggested Frank, looking around the group.
"Not on your life," said Lewis. "I'm not out hunting ghosts to-night. I've got something betterto do. I've got lessons to get ready. And you'd find nothing, anyway, and maybe the thing would jump out on you. I've heard of such things." And Lewis drew his coat tighter around him and shuddered.
"Jimmy, will you come?" said Frank. "David can stay here and keep watch to see if anything else happens."
"I'll go," said Jimmy.
"Me, too," said the Wee One. "I'm big enough to keep you all out of trouble, and if any ghost dare give me any of its lip"—he drew out his chest and squared off at the imaginary assailant.
"Lewis, you can stay here with David if you want to do your lessons, but be sure you shut the window, for I've known of ungentlemanly ghosts stepping right in through one if they happened to find it open," said Jimmy.
"Are you afraid, David?"
"No, indeed," said David. "Besides, I'm not alone. Isn't Lewis here to take care of me if anything should come? But I guess we'll be all right. You are the only fellows that are likely to get into danger."
The boys started off at once, and soon reachedthe field by way of the path down the hill. They headed for a clump of trees by the boat-house, near which they had first seen the Thing. The crescent moon had dropped considerably, and the light was dim enough, but they held bravely on. Once Jimmy stepped on a twig of something, which snapped under his foot, and the three boys almost leaped into the air.
"Gee! how you scared me," said Frank.
"I'd have run if I hadn't been stuck to the spot," said the Wee One. "Please watch out where you step and don't do it again. My nerves are bad, with all the hard work I've been through this fall." They got another start as a night bird whirred up from the branches of the big elm nearby, but as Frank was determined to go on, the other two would not leave him.
Presently they stood on the boat-house float and peered all around. There was no sound but the gurgle of the river as it flowed past, dark and silent. A little white mist was rising from the water, and the place was damp and chill. Even the song of the frogs, which might have lent a little cheerfulness to the place, was hushed. They listened and looked, but they mighthave been on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific.
"Gee whiz, it's a melancholy looking place; let's get back," said the Wee One. "Whatever the thing is, it isn't here. I'd rather be up on the hill. Let's go."
"Hold on there," said Frank. "I'm trying to trace the course of the Thing. Down here we can't see the dormitory lights, and I don't think we can see them till we get through that bunch of trees. Consequently we couldn't see anything that was here if we were in our room."
"No, we couldn't, but what has that got to do with it?" said the Wee One, impatiently. "We'll get our deaths of cold here." But the shiver that the Wee One gave was not entirely from the cold. Now that he was on it, the mission that looked like a lark from the comfortably lighted room in the dormitory took on a different aspect.
Frank was already leaving the float, where there seemed to be no sense in staying longer. He climbed the path up the bank and went out into the open field.
"There," he said, "you can see our light. It was just here, I think, we saw the Thing the first time, and it headed off down towards the footballstand, this way," and he turned his steps down the river. Looking, he saw both the boys standing a little way back. "Aren't you coming?" he said.
"Oh, what's the use chasing the old thing? We can do it in the morning as well," said the Wee One. "It's too late to-night. Come on up to the room. It was probably only a shadow, anyway."
"No, I'm going ahead, and if you fellows want to go back, you may go back. I'm going to take a look down by that football stand," and he turned his face in that direction and stepped out briskly. "They would think we were great ninnies if we went back without doing what we started to do."
"Hold on, Frank, I'll come," said Jimmy. "I don't want you trapesing around alone down here."
"Well, I suppose I might as well go along, too," said the Wee One, who preferred the company of the others, even on a ghost hunt, to traversing the field all alone. So he, too, swung in behind Jimmy, and the three went Indian file down along the river path. They stepped carefully and looked on each side of them. A couple of hundred yards further along loomed the dark shadow of the football stand.
"That's where I think it went, down behind the stand. There's quite a high bank there, and some bushes grow at the edge of the river," said Frank, holding on his course. The others came reluctantly along, not at all pleased with the adventure. The football stand was just ahead, and the shadow it cast was as black as velvet. The space between the stand and the river looked like a pocket, so dark was it, and the river itself murmured along, singing a mournful tune at their left.
"S-s-s—! what was that?" said Jimmy. "I thought I heard a noise ahead." The three boys came together, and grabbed each other. They listened with all their ears.
"There's certainly something there," whispered Frank, "and it's moving about, don't you hear it? Come on, we'll see what it is;" but before he could take a step ahead both Jimmy and the Wee One grabbed him by the arms. But he shook himself clear of them, and went stealthily ahead, walking on tip-toe. There was nothing else left for Frank's companions but to follow. They felt their hair rising, and at every step they took they glanced uneasily to right and left, as though in deadly fear that something would spring fromthe bushes, and grab them with wet and clammy hands.
Again there was a sound as of something moving in the darkness just ahead, and the boys drew close together again and waited. They themselves were in the shadow of the stand by this time, and the noise came from a point apparently only a few yards ahead. Suddenly the moon, which had been behind a cloud, shone out faintly and the boys could see something moving back and forth about half way down the stand.
"Come on," said Frank, "we'll rush it."
"We will not do anything of the kind," said the Wee One. "You can't tell what it might be."
"Well, I'll go alone, then," said Frank, in a whisper, "I'm going to find out what that is."
"I'll go with you," said Jimmy, quietly. He was not going to let his old chum take desperate chances alone.
The boys, however, were saved the necessity of "rushing it," for the noise began to grow louder, and resolved itself into a definite step which came in their direction. They squeezed themselves back against the big uprights of the stand and waited, hardly knowing what to expect. In another moment the footsteps had come oppositeto their hiding-place, and Frank closely followed by Jimmy, sprang out into the path and grappled with something. Down they went on the ground, a general mix-up from which proceeded groans and grunts. Finally Frank's voice rose clear:
"I've got it, strike a match."
The Wee One struck a match with shaking fingers, and when it blazed up it showed the scared face of no other a person than Gleason—the old Codfish!
"Holy Moses in the bulrushes!" said that individual, "what do you mean by jumping on a fellow that way, knocking him down and nearly choking the daylights out of him?" gasped the Codfish, as soon as he had gulped down enough breath to fill his lungs.
"Well, I'll be hanged," said Frank, ruefully, "I thought you were the ghost. Pardon me, old man."
"Well, at first I thought you were the same thing, but when we'd been scrapping around here on the ground for about a minute I thought you were the devil for sure and all. My, you little rooster, I didn't know you had so much strength. You nearly choked the life out of me."
"What are you doing down here, anyway?" said Frank, suspiciously. "I thought you were going over to the library."
"Well, I did go over to the library, but I've heard a lot about there being a ghost down here, and I came down to investigate it myself."
"And we were down on the same errand. It's a good joke," and the boys had a good laugh there together in the shade of the stand.
Together they retraced their steps to Warren Hall, where they found David and Lewis holding the fort at the window. Both were considerably alarmed, for they had not expected the friends to be out so late. The chapel bell had just tolled the third quarter after nine o'clock. Lewis had been suggesting the organization of a searching party, believing that the apparition had turned on the investigators and thrown them into the river.
The whole story was gone over for the amusement of Lewis and David, and they entered into the general fun. Then they agreed that nothing should be said of the adventure outside, because it was too good a joke; but somehow it leaked out, and was all around the school before noon of the next day.
The matter even spread to the Milton papers, and that afternoon there was a half-column article in the MiltonRecord, telling of the encounter on Queen's field between Frank Armstrong and the ghost which had been haunting the place for some time. Frank was given great credit for having the bravery to follow the thing, whatever it might be.
Of course, that was enough to set the whole school by the ears, and every night there were watching parties, but the ghost did not make its appearance again, at least while the watchers were around. And gradually the excitement about it died away. The officers of the school did not take much stock in the stories, believing, they said, that it was probably the beam from some searchlight which reflected from some window on the yard, and played fantastic tricks on the eyes of the beholders. Frank and Jimmy and the ones who had seen it the most frequently knew it was not a mere shadow, but there was nothing to do about it but to wait.
"I'm going to get it yet," Frank said to David. "Ghost or no ghost, I'm going to chase it down."
"It may never appear again," said David.
"I think it will. We haven't seen the last of it."
Gleason, who was at his desk, was listening to the conversation. "What do you think about it, Gleason?" asked Frank.
"Oh, I'm not much of a judge of such things, but I suppose it will show its nose some time again and scare us all out of our boots when we least expect it. I wouldn't wonder if we had an appearance soon, it's about time."
"What makes you think so?"
"Oh, I don't know, I just feel that way."
"Well," returned Frank, "I'm too busy with my work just now to chase it, but it better look out."
"Better let it alone, it may hurt you."
"What makes you think so? I thought you said you were no judge of ghosts a minute ago!"
"Well, all I know is that I'm not going hunting it again. Once was enough."
Nothing more was said that night, but the next night, shortly after the early dusk had fallen, Gleason, who had been bending over his studies at the table, got up, stretched himself, and said:
"Well, I guess I'll go over to the library a littlewhile. I'll be back in an hour or so." He went out and shut the door behind him.
He was no sooner out of sight than Frank slammed his book down on the desk, startling David.
"I have a notion there's going to be an appearance to-night. Something in my bones tells me there is something on foot, and the ghost is going to walk, or glide, or fly, or something. And, by the hocus pocus, I'm going to find out which means of locomotion it uses, and whether it is vapor or blood and bones."
"How, I'd like to know?" inquired David.
"See this perfectly fine piece of cord? Well, it's about a hundred feet long, a nice hempen cord, big enough for ghost or man to hang himself on. Now, I'm going to tie one end of this to that big oak tree down on the bank, and the other end to a stake at the corner of the gymnasium. Whatever the blooming thing is, it will have to go past that string. It seems to float right through the air, and if it really does that then I'll have to guess again. But I have a notion it doesn't float, and if it walks, there's going to be a tumble for it, for this nice little piece of cord will be four or five feet off the ground.
"You shoot up and get Jimmy and Lewis," Frank continued, "and I'll shoot down and hitch up my trap. Have them come to the bank right under our window, and we'll wait there and see what happens." Frank was off with a rush to do his part of the work, and David started on his errand. In ten or fifteen minutes Frank had accomplished his purpose, and was back, waiting at the bank behind Warren Hall, alongside the trunk of a big oak, protected from the cold of the late November night by a thick sweater and heavy cap. He was joined there a few minutes later by the three boys and the Wee One; for on the way over they had run across the latter and brought him along.
When the new arrivals came to the meeting-place, the Wee One wanted to know what it was all about. Frank gave a whispered account of what he had done.
"Yes, but what gives you the notion that the great scene from Macbeth is coming off to-night?"
"Never mind, I just feel that it is, and I wanted you fellows to see it. All we have to do is to watch here and keep out of sight."
"If you expect us to watch here long withyou," said the Wee One, "you should have provided a gas stove or something. It's blithering cold." The boys huddled up close together, and waited while the minutes passed without anything happening.
"My opinion of it is, that you're a bum guesser. Get us out of our cosey corners just to see how wrong you could be," grumbled the Wee One.
"Keep your nerve, Big Fellow," retorted Frank. "'Everything comes to him who waits,' so the copybook of my fast vanishing childhood told me. The night is only begun. I say, Lewis, will you run over and look in the library and see if the Codfish is there?"
"Run over yourself," suggested Lewis.
"'Fraid cat. I can't go," said Frank. "I'm stage manager of this act, and I can't leave the job."
"I'll go," said the Wee One. "It will keep me from freezing," and he dashed off. He was back in a few minutes, and reported that Gleason had been there, but had gone a few minutes before. One of the fellows who knew Gleason was positive that he had gone out, probably to his room.
"Why did you want to know?" added the messenger.
"Well, I didn't want him messing around here. He'd think we were crazy, sitting out here on the cold ground, waiting for a spirit to make its appearance."
"Well, if it doesn't indicate its presence in about three shakes of a lamb's tail, I, for one, will be after wishing you a hearty good ni——"
He paused in the middle of his sentence and pointed. There over the clump of trees near the boat-house rose the Thing. It seemed to come right out of the trees, and headed across the field in the direction of Warren, just as it had done before. The boys watched it with bated breath, as it approached them. Lewis, who had been a little way down the bank, now hastily got to his feet and went to the rear of the group, ready to make a flying retreat if necessary, but meanwhile keeping the others in front of him as a measure of present safety. On the Thing came till it was within a hundred yards or so of where they were hidden, then it stopped and appeared to go backwards in the direction of the football stand and the river.
No one moved. They sat watching, expectingevery moment that it would disappear as it had in the past. And it did disappear, but not just in that way. All of a sudden the sound of a yell floated up to the ears of the watchers. The white thing took a curious circular motion in the moonlight and sank to the ground; but it did not disappear, instead it seemed to flop around and then lay quiet.
"Come on, fellows," yelled Frank. "David, you stay here," and he started to run in the direction of the ghost as fast as his legs would carry him. Jimmy and the Wee One followed him. In a minute or two they were up to the ghost. There seemed to be two of it, one white and the other black. The white thing lay in a heap on the grass and the black thing rolled around in agony.
"O Lord, I'm killed, I'm killed. My arms and my legs are all broken."
"Great Scott! it's the Codfish!" cried Jimmy. "Here, help him. He's hurt."
The three boys got on their knees beside the repentant ghost.
"I was just doing it for fun," he said. "I learned to walk on stilts this summer. Oh, my arms! and I thought it would be a good joke to start a scare in the school—so I got a sheet—andwrapped it around me down there in the woods—and then walked around here and—down behind the football stand, where I hid the stilts—Oh, I know I'm going to die!" This confession came out in gasps, for the fall over Frank's cord, hampered as the "ghost" had been by the entangling sheet, had been a severe one. But, fortunately, it had broken no bones, and the worst damage it had done the Codfish was to knock all the wind out of his body.
He was a very humble ghost as the investigators helped him up to his room that night.
"But for heaven's sake don't tell any one about it. I'd never hear the last of it," he begged. But like the other joke on the Codfish, the story somehow got out and the "ghost" was guyed about his tumble for the rest of his school course.
And the next day the MiltonRecordhad another story of how Frank Armstrong trapped the mystery of Queen's School. It was the sensation of the year.
With the laying of the ghost, excitement dropped temporarily from the life of Queen's School. It was the time for work now, and right valiantly did every one study, making up for some of the lost time in the glorious fall days which invited one out in the open to waste the hours. Examinations were coming along, and the evenings were put in poring over the books.
Mrs. Armstrong was a visitor at the school for a day at this time, and Frank conducted her around the grounds, to the boat-house, the football field, the baseball field and the gymnasium. She wanted to know where they had trapped the ghost, and he showed her. It was a happy day for Frank, who pointed out the various things of interest around the old school as if they belonged to him personally.
Mrs. Armstrong noted the look of health onher boy's face, and was glad. She felt that he had already gained something physically, for even in the short time he had been at the school he seemed to have increased in stature. She told Frank that he was growing like a weed.
"You think I'm growing. Just cast your eye on Jimmy," said Frank. "Jimmy grew bigger every day of football and he is as hard as a stone wall. Feel his muscles. Come on, Jimmy, show the lady." And Jimmy obligingly flexed his biceps and offered the bunched-up knot of muscles as a proof of his growing power.
"And look at David there. He's going to be the champion strong man of Queen's, if he doesn't look out. He spends all his spare time down at the gym. You should see him dipping on the parallel bars and doing stunts on the flying rings. Patsy has to actually drive him out of the place," which was a fact. "David has made up his mind to be a 'champeen.'"
"I can't do anything else, Mrs. Armstrong," said David. "And I've got so much to learn that I have to keep at it."
David had set his heart on winning a place on the gymnasium team, and to do this he had taken up the work he was best fitted for. Owingto his light body and a natural strength in his arms, he was already able to do things in raising himself with his arms, which a boy fully developed, of greater general strength, might have accomplished only with the greatest difficulty.
David's strength of arm was in evidence one day at the gymnasium when the four friends, David, Frank, Jimmy and Lewis, were on the floor. A certain amount of physical work in the gym was called for by the school requirements, or, at least, a certain time had to be spent in some kind of exercise. Boys who took part in any of the outdoor sports were not called upon to do work on the floor during the period of practice of the teams they represented. To Lewis, who was indolent of body, the hour in the gym was the hardest of the day, but he made his task as light as it could be. His way of exercise was to stroll over to a chest-weight and give it two or three pulls with the lightest loads he could find for it, and then walk to the other end of the gym for two or three pulls at some other piece of apparatus. Patsy kept after him, but athletic work for Lewis was like pulling teeth.
On the day in question, the four boys had justabout finished their work and stopped by the end of the parallel bars.
"How many times can you dip?" said Jimmy. Dipping, as of course every one knows, consists in raising oneself up and down from a bent position of the arms to a straight position, the weight of the body being carried entirely on the arms during the raise and drop.
"I don't know," said Frank, "never tried."
"Go on and show your speed," said Jimmy, "it will be good practice for your pitching arm. All good pitchers have lots of muscle, you know."
"Yes, go ahead," said David, "we'll all try."
Frank, thus urged, swung up on the end of the bars. "Count for me," he said, as he let himself down between the bars and straightened up; "I'll need all the wind I've got."
Jimmy began, "One, two, three, four, five, six, good boy, keep a-going—seven, eight,—getting pretty heavy, eh? Nine, ten—eleven, twelve—going, going, gone;—no, he has one more in him,—thirteen—don't stop there, it's unlucky." But Frank had stuck. He got down all right on the fourteenth dip, but could not straighten up. He dropped off, puffing. "Gee, that's work," he said, "Go ahead, you try," indicating Jimmy.
"No," said that individual, "I want to see Lewis try it."
"Oh, I'm not feeling very strong to-day," said Lewis, "I'll do it some other day."
"Here, here, no shystering," said all hands. "We all agreed to do it. Take your turn."
So Lewis reluctantly struggled to a position on the bars. "I'll count," said Frank. Lewis let himself down gingerly, and there he hung. He was heavy and fat. He made desperate efforts to push himself up again, and struggled and kicked, but although he got part of the way up, he couldn't straighten those arms, although the blood was almost bursting out of his cheeks in the effort. The boys were howling with laughter.
"Kick with your left leg."
"Hold your mouth straight, and you'll make it."
"Get a step ladder."
"Give him a push."
"Get an elevator."
These and other suggestions the tormentors offered Lewis as he hung there struggling. Finally, in despair, he let go and dropped to the floor.
The boys were screaming with laughter, and Lewis was not any too well pleased.
"Good work, Lewis, you did it just half a time. That's a record."
"Try it yourself," said Lewis, "I told you I didn't feel very strong this afternoon. I've got a lame wrist, anyway." Lewis always had an excuse.
It was Jimmy's turn and he mounted the bars. Frank counted, and Jimmy, who was remarkably strong for his years, being a sound and sturdy youngster, dipped down and swung back again no less than nineteen times before he gave it up.
"Whew!" said Frank, "that beats me. I guess you're it."
"No," said Jimmy. "David hasn't tried yet."
"I guess I can't dip that many times," said David, preparing for his trial. "Patsy says it's one of the hardest things to do and shows actual strength. I can't measure up with much success against Jimmy."
But nevertheless he climbed to the position on the bar. "Count for me," he said to Frank, and Frank began, while David swung up and down with the regularity of a pendulum. He passed Jimmy's figures without a bit of effort apparently, reached twenty, and then the boys began to open their eyes. He did not stop attwenty, but kept it up without fatigue until he reached the great number of forty-two times. Then he stopped, but looked as though he might have continued for five minutes longer.
"Hats off to David Powers," said Frank, which, seeing that they had no hats on, was not a thing difficult of accomplishment. "Isn't he the dandy little dipper?"
"He certainly is," agreed Jimmy. "How on earth do you do it?"
"Oh, I'm built for it," said David, looking down at his twisted legs. "Patsy says all my strength has gone to my arms and shoulders. He says the record for the dip is 66, made five or six years ago by one of the football fellows."
"I'll bet you beat it before you get through," said Frank, admiringly.
"I'd like to."
"Then the record you made would go down over on the wall there to stay until some other fellow did better."
"I don't think I can ever do it, but as it is one of the few things I can do, I'll keep busy at it," said David.
Patsy strolled up at this moment, and they told him what they had been at.
"You can never beat David Powers at dipping or pulling up on the horizontal bar. Did you ever see him climbing the rope? He's been down here in the mornings, learning how to do that."
"O-ho, Mr. Powers," said Frank, "is that where you sneak off to in the mornings, down to the gym, eh? Well, you are out after the records, aren't you?" But there was a note of pride in Frank's tone as he looked at the little chap.
"Come on, David, show them how a cat goes up a rope," said Patsy. He loosened the climbing rope from the side of the gallery, and let it swing to its position with a clear space of twenty-five feet to the rafters, where it was attached by an eye-bolt. David moved over to the rope by the aid of his cane, with which he could get around in the gymnasium, seized the rope and went up it hand over hand, like a sailor. It seemed hardly more than a half dozen breaths before he had reached the very top of the rope, touched the rafter, slid down the rope, and was with them again on the floor.
"There's only two fellows in this whole school who can beat that, and even now I think he'd give them a good tussle if it came to a contest.Before the winter is over we'll have the gym trials, and then you'll see some good contests. I'm backing this young fellow Freshman to win some points if he keeps up his improvement," said Patsy, laying his hand on David's shoulder. David smiled in a pleased manner and looked down.
"Well, I'll take good care I don't get into any rope-climbing contests with him; I'd come out at the little end of the horn," said Frank.
"And I'll dodge them, too," remarked Jimmy.
"And I'm thinking of entering the dip contests and the rope-climbing myself," said Lewis, which raised a laugh.
"Lewis, you could climb a rope if it was stretched along the ground, all right," said Jimmy, "or if you had a convenient elevator."
"You are all very discouraging to a really good athlete. Some day I'll show you fellows," said the disgruntled Lewis.
It was a few days after the incident in the gymnasium that the scouts of the Gamma Tau looked in on Jimmy and Frank again, but they were met with the same answer. "This is the last time," Cuthbert said to Frank. "We've got about all the men we want now. We'd like tohave you both come in. And don't forget that you can't get very far in this school without the help of Gamma Tau."
To this very direct threat both boys who were sought, answered firmly that if they couldn't get along without Gamma Tau they would have to do without the delightful backing of that autocrat society. Frank was so outspoken that he raised Cuthbert's ire before the call was over; and the caller intimated that if Frank had any ambitions in the direction of the baseball nine in the spring he might as well bury them, for he couldn't get on it.
"Why, Simpson, the captain, is one of our biggest men, and I think you're a fool not to play for his friendship."
But the argument had no strength with Frank, who saw more and more the bad effect of the fraternity in the school life. It made a clique of fellows who considered themselves a little better than the boys who were not in its membership.
"You fellows are going to have a tumble some of these days. You can't run things here all the time."
"Well, I guess we can run them as far as you'reconcerned, Mr. Frank Armstrong. You can set that down in your diary and refer to it next spring about baseball time. Good night. Remember, it's the last call for dinner."
"All right, Mr. Cuthbert. I know it is considered an honor to be given the chance to come in, but I'm going to stay outside, for I think I can do better without Gamma Tau. And if I can't, well, then I'll have to do worse. If you fellows don't look out, some one will start another society."
"It's been tried," said Cuthbert, now at the door with his hand on the knob. "It's been tried two or three times, but it never comes to anything. All I can say is, that you are letting a good chance go. But fools will be fools. Good night."
It was a very open fall that first year of Frank's at Queen's School, and despite the fact that the boys who were inclined to the game of hockey prayed fervently for good ice, Jack Frost held off. Several times it threatened to freeze up, and there was a great polishing and sharpening of skates and seeing to the leather straps.
"When the ice comes we'll get up a hockey team," said Frank to Jimmy one day, meeting him in the yard. "Neither of us will get a chance at the school team, so we might as well have some fun ourselves."
"And who will we play with, I'd like to know, supposing the ice did come, and supposing we could get up a team?"
"I'll bet you the best hockey stick in Milton that there'll be lots of chances. There'll be so many scrub sevens out that there won't be enough ice. Are you game for it?"
"Sure thing," said Jimmy. "We can rope Lewis in. There's a fellow in my entry named Hazard who drops in evenings to borrow a book. He says he can skate. Lewis isn't a half bad skater, and he's so fat that he would naturally get in the way of the puck without being very quick. So he would be a good goal tender."
"Good enough," returned Frank. "That makes four, and we can pick three other fellows up somewhere. Be on the look out and I'll keep my eye out, too. Meantime, pray for the ice."
But all things, as the copybooks say, come to him who waits. About the middle of December sharper weather came on, and then one afternoon the mercury began to slide down the tube of the thermometer. At six o'clock in the evening it stood at zero, and the boys covered the distance from their rooms to the dining hall supper table and back in record time, owing to the biting air.
Frank was over to see Jimmy that night and reported that the big thermometer that his father had given him, and which hung outside his window, registered seven below.
"And it's going down further, and what'sequally good, there hasn't been a bit of wind since the cold snap came."
"And what has wind to do with it?" inquired Lewis.
"Hasn't anything to do with the freezing, but with wind the ice is rough. I met Potter coming up from the ice just before dark and he says it's like glass, and is so thick now he could hardly punch his heel through it."
"Sounds good," said Jimmy. "We will then, to-night, organize the great Armstrong hockey club."
"No, don't call it after me. I may not be good enough to stick on. But we've got to have a name. Suggest something, Lewis."
"Well," said the goal-tender-to-be, "I guess we might as well call it the Lollipops. Sweet things on the end of a stick, you know."
"Hurray for the goal-tender. Lollipops it will be! The Lollipop Hockey Club of Queen's School. First practice to-morrow afternoon at three thirty. How does that hit you?" said Frank.
"All right for me," said Jimmy.
"And me, too," piped up Lewis. "I'll showyou the way to stop 'em. If you can get them past your Uncle Dudley, you will be going some."
"All right, Fatty," said Jimmy. "If you play half as well as you talk we will have the real thing in a hockey team."
Frank's prediction came true about the freeze, and what it would do. Before the thermometer got through on its shivering downward course it touched ten below, some time during the night, and then travelled upward again; but by the middle of the next forenoon it was back to ten degrees above. It was still pretty nippy, but just the right brace was in the air for violent exercise. The boys could hardly wait for the middle of the afternoon to come around. Some of them had already been on the glittering surface of the river, and reported it like glass, and four inches thick.
Frank had selected a place about a hundred yards up the river for the site of his rink. It was a spot in a small cove, pretty well sheltered by trees and protected from the sharp winds which blew across the more exposed parts of the river. For the first day the Lollipops and a dozen others of the class, any one in fact who came along, contented themselves with tearingup and down the ice and shooting a puck between piles of coats which did duty for a cage. Wearying of this unorganized exercise after a while, Jimmy, Lewis and Frank picked up their coats and started up the river in the direction of Warwick, five miles away.
They swung along easily, enjoying the freshness and crispness of the air, and the really wonderful ice under foot. Half way up to the rival school they met several of the skaters from that school, among them big Channing of the football team, who nodded pleasantly to Jimmy and came to a halt.
"Are you going to have a hockey team down there this year?" Channing asked, nodding his head in the direction of Queen's. "If you are, we want to get a game or two."
"Yes, there will be a school team I guess, particularly if the ice holds out, but we are only Freshmen and will probably not get a chance at it," said Jimmy. "They had a team last year, didn't they?"
"Yes, but we beat it 15 to 4, and we want to get a chance to do it again. It might help Queen's to put a few lively young Freshmen on it. I'd advise you to try."
"We have, or are going to have a team of our own, and we will masquerade under the splendid name of the Lollipops. We'll give you a game when we learn how to stand on our skates," said Frank, laughingly.
"All right, Lollipops, that's a go, in case Dixon can't get a classy seven together."
"Chip Dixon, is he the captain?" said Frank, quickly.
"Yes, I think I heard he was elected. He's about the roughest player Queen's has had on the team, but when he roughed it we roughed it, and the result was while he was doing nothing else but roughing it, we were playing a little hockey. Dixon was one of the best players on Queen's, but lost his temper and hit one of our forwards a deliberate blow over the arm with his stick. It came to be pretty nearly a general row all around. Our fellows are just aching to get at Queen's again."
"Well, you'd better send a challenge down. I'm not on good terms with Mr. Dixon," said Frank. "Perhaps he will take you on. But if he doesn't, we'll put you on our schedule when we learn to toddle around and hang onto a stick."
The group parted company. When the trioreturned to the float, scores of fellows were darting around here and there on their skates, and a large bonfire had been built on the bank, which threw a cheerful light over the sparkling ice and helped to dispel the darkness which had already begun to fall.
Before night came on, however, our founders of the Lollipop Club had laid out their rink in the little cove. They set down four blocks of wood about five inches in diameter, two at each end of the "grounds," chipping out little pockets in the ice, into which the blocks were set. Then they filled these pockets with water.
"Those posts will be as steady as the gate posts of Queen's School by to-morrow morning," observed Frank, "if nobody bothers them. It will certainly make a dandy place to play," he added, looking around. "It's just off the line of travel, enough so it won't interfere with general skating, and our posts will be in no one's way."
Every one was well tired that night. The unusual exercise of skating and the violent way most of them had gone into it left them with aching bones and muscles. After supper Frank and Jimmy went around, and completed the Lollipopseven from the ranks of Freshmen they knew.
"When we get started, I'll bet we have dozens more than we want. And when they see Lewis on the job they'll pay us money to let them in with us."
The weather held sharp and clear, and the following morning two inches more had been added to the river's coating. It was now safe beyond any doubt. Frank, during the forenoon, was down to the river to see how the marks they had set were standing. He reported that they were as stiff as rocks. They were like posts which had been let down through the ice and anchored in the mud of the river.
That afternoon the Lollipops made their descent on Wampaug river in full force. Jimmy had succeeded in finding a couple of other Freshmen for substitutes to complete the quota of players. When the news of the formation of a Freshman team was noised around, it was evident that there would be no trouble in finding plenty of opponents, for every one on the river had a stick, and the novelty of gliding up and down merely for skating's sake had passed. Frankwas besieged by applicants. So they rushed down across the field, got into their skates at the boat-house float, and struck up the river to a chatter of excitement at the beginning the club was to have.
"Well, what do you think of that for a nerve?" cried Frank, as coming around a curve from the float which had hidden the "grounds" that they had laid out the night before, they saw that the place was already occupied. "And, by George, it's Chip Dixon. I'll be jiggered if it isn't."
The Lollipops skated up slowly, but their arrival seemed to have no effect on the boys who were occupying their rink. Frank recognized, besides Chip, several of the Gamma Tau men, among them Cuthbert of the nine, who had been after candidates for the society not so long before, Boston Wheeler, the fullback of the eleven, and several others. They paid not the slightest attention to the real proprietors of the territory, but kept on gaily with their play.
A slashing drive sent the puck to the river bank, and while some one was recovering it Frank sculled slowly over to Chip and said, "Ithink you have our 'grounds,' haven't you? We laid these out last night, and planted the markers."
"Oh, is that so?" said Chip, indifferently. "Very nice of you. We like the place very much, indeed."
"But it is ours, and we want to play. It isn't the regular practice place of the school team, is it?"
"Our regular practice place is wherever we want to play, so run along, Freshie, and don't bother us. All right, I've got you"—this to a mate who sent the puck spinning across the ice in Chip's direction. Thereafter Chip was busily engaged, and paid no attention whatever to the Lollipops, who stood around glumly, hardly daring to break out into open revolt.
"Dixon has done this for spite and nothing else," said Jimmy. "The Wee One told me that the school team generally practises just below the boat-house float. I'd like to knock his head off," and Jimmy grabbed his stick and swung it around him vigorously. "I'll get even with him for this, see if I don't."
"He's got it in for both of us," said Frank, whohad now turned his back on the players. "We can't make a fuss, although we do know he has chucked us out of our own place. Come on, let's go up the river and find another place where——"
Frank had not done speaking when a terrific collision sent him sprawling on his face, and as he got to his feet again a sarcastic voice said: "Can't you keep out of the way? Can't you give us room to play our game?"
It was Chip, who had deliberately run into Frank when the latter was unprepared and given him a nasty fall. Blood was trickling from a cut over Frank's eye where he had struck the ice. The sight of the blood made Jimmy wild with anger. He helped Frank to get his balance and then turned on Chip, who had started to skate away.
"That was a contemptible trick, Dixon," he said, "and for two pins I'd punch your head for you, although you are the captain."
Chip heard and wheeled like a flash. He drove straight at Jimmy, and swung his stick at the latter's head. Jimmy saw him coming in time, sidestepped the rush, stuck out his foot, and Dixon went head over heels sprawling on the ice. Jimmy followed him, just as eager as Chip wasto settle the matter there and then with blows, but Chip had received a tumble which took a good deal of the fight out of him, and by the time he had regained his feet a crowd of boys were in between the two.
"You'll pay for this, you red-headed little chump," said Chip, savagely, rubbing his bumped skull. "I'll pound you within an inch of your life if I ever catch you where your friends can't interfere."
"It's your friends who are interfering," said Jimmy, coolly, holding his ground. "I'll settle it right now if you wish, you cowardly bully." And Jimmy threw his stick on the ice, his eyes blazing.
Frank, who had recovered from his cruel fall, skated over to Jimmy and slipped his arm around him, saying: "Don't mind about it, Jimmy. He isn't worth while. Let's go up the river and pick out another place, and have our little fun, for there isn't much daylight left. Come on, Lollipops." Jimmy picked up his stick slowly, keeping a savage eye on Dixon, and somewhat reluctantly followed Frank and the others a hundred yards or so up-stream. The encounter had been watched by a score or more of boys, none ofwhom cared much about Chip's way of doing things. But they were much attracted to the young Freshman who had dared the mighty Dixon in his own lair. So they followed Frank and Jimmy to the new place, where coat-markers were laid down. In the vigorous play that followed, the clash of the afternoon was soon forgotten.
"I was a fool to get mad," said Jimmy as they trudged homeward over the frozen ground, "but he set me boiling, and I lost my red head entirely."
"I'm afraid he'll try to get you some time and may do you some harm."
"Not he. I can take care of myself, and don't you worry about that, Frank. I believe he has a yellow streak in him. I'm ready for him any time."
And at about the same time Chip Dixon was travelling back to the yard in a group of his cronies. "I'll get that red-headed guy some day and knock that carroty nut clean off his shoulders," said Chip. But at the moment he said it, he wondered a little if it might not be a pretty hard job.