CHAPTER XXIVTHE UNEXPECTED
The remainder of the afternoon was one long trial for Lefty Locke. He was under the necessity of keeping up an appearance of light-hearted indifference before the girls, when all the time he simply ached to be out there on the diamond.
He saw Redmond pitching the sort of ball to delight the veterans, who batted him mercilessly. He saw Elgin, backed by the whole strength of the regular team, make a showing such as he had never made before. He saw the cubs mowed down, snowed under, beaten to a frazzle; and all the time he had to laugh and joke and fight down any signs of the bitter disappointment which filled his soul.
Janet, knowing him as she did, realized something of what he must be feeling, and tactfully refrained from any comments on Elgin’s pitching. Neither did she tell Lefty how sorry she was at the way things had gone, and for that he was thankful. It seemed as if Janet Harting’s pity would have been the last straw.
When the last inning ended, with a score of nine to three in favor of the regulars, she further won his gratitude by suggesting to Jean that they leave the field at once, before the crowd started, and take Lefty with them.
He accepted with alacrity. When they put him down at the hotel, he said good-by to Miss Forsythe, then held out his hand to Janet.
“Thank you,” he said in a quiet voice as she took it.
The girl smiled understandingly into his eyes. “Come and see us soon,” was all she said, as the car moved away.
Of course, the principal topic of conversation that night was the wonderful exhibition of pitching shown by Elgin. Some of the newspaper men, in particular, were more than enthusiastic, hailing him as the most promising youngster Brennan had discovered, and predicting a bright future for him. The older players had seen too many “infant phenoms” to be in the least impressed; they knew, moreover, how much of his success had been due to their own assistance. The cubs were too downcast over their defeat to think of anything else. Redmond was wearing a grouch, and Locke’s stock began to soar when Ogan expressed a belief at the supper table that if the southpawhad been put in, as he desired, the result would have been quite different.
Lefty missed Jack Stillman and was beginning to wonder where he was when the reporter suddenly issued from the elevator, about eight o’clock, and hurried over.
“Had to get my copy off,” he explained. “Say! Have you seen old Oggie?”
“You don’t mean Oggie Wilmerding!” Lefty exclaimed incredulously.
“Surest thing you know! The old lobster was here when we got back from the field this afternoon. He’s traveling for the Wood’s Hoisting Engine Company. Talk about class! Oh, hush!”
Lefty grinned. “Oggie always did have a hankering for lugs,” he chuckled. “But he’s all right, just the same. Where do you suppose he’s gone?”
“Give it up. He said something about seeing a man the first thing in the morning, but perhaps he’s hunting him up to-night.”
This surmise proved to be correct. About half an hour later a tall, well-groomed, prosperous-looking chap entered the lobby, and was instantly seized by the two Princeton men and mauled after the fashion of college mates who haven’t met each other in some time.
He was unfeignedly glad to see Lefty, and whenthe first exuberant greetings were ended they settled down in a corner of the lobby to talk over old times.
“You’re fat as a pig, Oggie,” Lefty remarked, with fond bluntness. “I’d like to have you on the squad for about a month.”
Wilmerding waved away the suggestion with horror. “No, thanks! I never took to exercise. I’m very well satisfied as I am. Never did like to see every bone in a fellow’s body.” He paused an instant, and then chuckled. “But this is the best ever, running across you three old Princeton plugs in a bunch. Where’s Elgin? I was talking to him before supper, and I’ll be hanged if he isn’t a pretty decent chap. Never cared very much for him at college, but he seems to have improved a lot since then.”
The silence which followed his remark was eloquent. Wilmerding glanced from one frowning face to the other, and raised his eyebrows.
“What’s the matter?” he inquired. “Have I struck a false note?”
“You certainly have if you sized up that cur as decent,” Stillman retorted impulsively.
“You don’t mean it!” Wilmerding exclaimed. “Why, he seemed very pleasant. What’s he done to get you two on his neck?”
“What he did at college was enough to get any self-respecting fellow down on him, let alone the dirty tricks he’s tried since then.”
The plump chap looked puzzled. “At college?” he repeated. “I don’t understand, Jack.”
“You will when I tell you that he was the one who stole Bob Ferris’ watch and money, and then tried to put the blame on Lefty.”
The effect of his words on Wilmerding was extraordinary. The healthy glow faded swiftly from the plump cheeks, leaving them pale and mottled. His jaw dropped, and for an instant he sat staring at the reporter with startled eyes.
“Impossible!” he gasped at last, in a hoarse, trembling voice.
“It’s not impossible,” Stillman retorted sharply. “The whole thing’s as plain as print. Lefty caught him with the goods.”
Slowly Wilmerding turned his eyes on Locke. The look in them was that of one who is unable to credit the evidence of his senses.
“It’s true,” Locke affirmed, wondering curiously what brought that extraordinary expression into the other’s face. “I saw the watch in his possession.”
Wilmerding dropped his lids and swallowed hard. For a moment or two he sat staring at hislap, where his plump, well-cared-for hands lay, the fingers tightly interlaced. His mouth was twitching nervously and his face was still pale. At last he raised his head again and glanced at Stillman.
“It isn’t possible, Jack,” he said unevenly. “You’ve made a big mistake.”
“Don’t be a fool, Oggie,” the reporter snapped. “There isn’t a chance of that. What the deuce do you know about it, anyhow?”
Wilmerding moistened his dry lips. “A great deal,” he said slowly. “I—was the—thief, myself.”
“You?” exclaimed both men together.
Then Locke laughed oddly. “Jove! That was well done, Oggie,” he exclaimed. “We both bit beautifully.”
Wilmerding shook his head. His eyes were tortured.
“You’re wrong,” he said, more clearly. “I’m not fooling; I mean every word I say.” He reached out, and gripped the edge of a small table standing beside his chair; somehow, the action seemed to steady him. “It’s mighty hard to tell you fellows,” he went on slowly. “I thought the whole wretched business had been buried forever. I never expected to hear of it again, but I can’tlet you go on thinking what you do about Elgin. As true as I sit here, I stole those things from Ferris. I didn’t mean to do it, but I took them just the same. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been cursed with a sleepwalking habit, and not the ordinary sort, either. When I’m asleep I do things I’d never dream of doing in my right senses. You remember Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?”
Lefty nodded silently. He was too amazed to speak.
“Well, in a way I’m a Jekyll and Hyde. I’ve often thought that, sleeping and waking, I have two just such different personalities as those. I’ll never forget the awful sensation of finding out the first time that I’d been into somebody else’s room and stolen a scarfpin off the bureau. It was at a summer hotel, and I managed to put it back without any one finding out. At college I did the same thing every now and then, but never very much, and always managed to get my loot back undiscovered. I thought I’d done the same thing with Ferris’ belongings.”
“But, Oggie, this is all rot!” Lefty burst out. “You’re worrying yourself over something which is utterly impossible. I tell you I saw Ferris’ watch fall out of Bert Elgin’s pocket.”
“Could you swear to the watch?” Wilmerding asked wearily and without conviction.
“Well, it looked exactly like it.”
“Must have been some other watch,” Wilmerding returned positively. “Did he ever confess to you that he did the stealing?”
“N-o, I can’t say that. In fact, he denied it up and down; but of course he’d do that. I told him unless the things were returned in twenty-four hours I’d go to the dean. They were back on Ferris’ bureau the next morning.”
Wilmerding nodded. “Naturally, when I put them there myself. In my sleep I had hidden them behind some books on a shelf, and I didn’t find them until that night. I tell you fellows, you’ve made a terrible mistake. I never cared much for Elgin in the old days, and had very little to do with him, but I can’t keep still and let any man suffer for my own wrongdoing.”
There was no mistaking the deadly earnestness of his tone, and, as he realized what the disclosure meant, Lefty experienced an odd, sinking sensation. Thoroughly upright and straightforward himself, the thought that he had been the means of branding an innocent man as a thief was intolerable to him. Moreover, if Elgin was notguilty of that theft, what proof had they of his complicity in recent underhanded doings?
With a feeling that the earth was dropping away under his feet, Locke turned toward Stillman. He saw on the reporter’s face that same expression of groping blankness which he knew was on his own.