CHAPTER III.
A BIT OF A MYSTERY.
During his walk home Harry pondered in his mind the question of how to raise the remaining two dollars with which to pay for the silk hat. He did not wish to ask his parents for the amount and he felt reasonably certain that neither of his sisters possessed that sum.
"I've got to raise it somehow," he told himself. He thought of Fred and his other friends, but shook his head. Every one of the lads spent his money about as fast as he received it.
On the following day Mr. Montgomery Jadell appeared at the school with another silk hat—one he had been wearing years before. He lost no time in calling Harry up to his desk.
"What do you and your folks propose to do about my hat?" he asked, coldly.
"I have already ordered another hat from Mr. Carew," was Harry's answer. "He says it will be exactly like the one that was ruined. I shall have it in a day or two."
"Oh, very well. Now go to your seat and see that you behave yourself," and Harry went, glad to get away thus easily. During all of that day the principal watched the boy closely, but Harry was on his guard and took care not to do anything for which he might be censured.
After school the majority of the boys went off to play ball and other games, but Harry slipped away by himself and did not get home until supper time.
"Where have you been?" asked Joe.
"Oh, I've been out about that hat," answered Harry, and would say no more.
"The boys are talking baseball club stronger than ever," said Joe, a little later. "Fred has an idea we could get up a fine nine if we tried."
"Well, if we want a good nine for this summer we'll have to get together pretty soon. It takes lots of practice to make a nine work together—and that is what counts, they tell me."
"To be sure it does. No matter how good individual players are, if they can't play in harmony they are sure to botch a game. Frank was telling me that the Brookside fellows are in practice already. George Dixon is captain of the club."
"He's a good batter."
"Yes, and a good shortstop, too. Roy Willetts is their pitcher. They tell me he can pitch a swift ball."
"And who is going to catch for them?"
"Little Ike Gass."
"What, that midget?"
"He's small, but he is a good one, so they say. I wish we had the club organized," went on Joe.
"Well, the only way to do is to go ahead and get the fellows together, Joe. Why not issue a call for, say, next Saturday afternoon?"
"That is what Fred suggested. But as we want to hold the meeting in Link's father's carpenter shop I suppose we ought to get Link to issue the call."
On the following day they talked the matter over with Fred and Link, and as a consequence a call was issued to about a dozen boys to come to the "clubroom," as it was designated and help organize the Lakeport Baseball Club.
"I'll have the upper floor of the carpenter shop in order by that time," said Link. "Father said we could fix it up to suit ourselves, as he isn't going to use it again until next winter."
"I'll help you fix it up," said Fred. "Just wait till we get going and have a little money in the treasury! We can have pictures on the wall and all sorts of athletic things—punching bags, boxing gloves——"
"Our first money will have to be spent for bats, balls and uniforms," came from Bart Mason. "The Brooksides have uniforms. We don't want to be behind them."
"Well, I guess not!" ejaculated Joe. "If the Lakeport Baseball Club can't have things as good as Brookside it had better go out of business!"
"Exactly what I say," was Fred's comment.
After school that afternoon Harry went to Mr. Carew's store and purchased the silk hat for the school principal.
"You are certain this is exactly like the other hat?" he asked, as he paid for the purchase.
"Yes, Harry—the two hats came out of the same box, as the saying goes."
"I don't want to have any trouble over it—I've had trouble enough."
"I guess Mr. Jadell is getting the best of the bargain. His hat must have been pretty well worn by this time."
"I suppose it was. But as I couldn't present him with a secondhand hat I had to get this new one," answered Harry, and left the store with the headgear in a box. Not caring to take it home he walked directly to the teacher's house with it.
"Is Mr. Jadell in?" he asked of Angelina Jadell, who came to answer his ring at the front door.
"He is not."
"Well, here is a new silk hat for him, to replace the one that was damaged a couple of days ago."
"Oh! Are you the boy that knocked my brother's hat from his head?"
"Yes."
"It was a wicked thing to do."
"It was done by accident, Miss Jadell."
"Oh, that's what any boy would say. If I'd been in my brother's place I should have had you arrested." Miss Jadell took the box. "Is this hat as good as the other?"
"Mr. Carew said the two were exactly alike. Kindly give it to Mr. Jadell and tell him Harry Westmore brought it," and without waiting for a reply the boy turned and hurried away.
"I suppose it's paid for?" called Miss Angelina after him, shrilly.
"Yes, it's paid for, and you won't have to give up a cent for it!" cried Harry, half angrily. "Oh, my, what an old maid!" he murmured to himself. "How I would hate to have her keeping house for me! No wonder Old Stovepipe is so crabbed!"
Harry and Joe went over to the carpenter shop that day after school and assisted Link in cleaning up the place. This was no mean task, for the upper room was full of shavings, bits of boards, and sawdust. They had also to pile up some saw-horses and put a number of tools in their proper places in a big chest. This done they swept up and dusted and fixed up an end of a carpenter's bench so that it could be used for a table.
"Now, I guess we are ready for the meeting," said Link, after the task was finished. "I wish we had some good pictures of baseball games to hang on the walls."
"I'll tell you what I'll do," answered Joe. "I'll write to the dealers in baseball supplies for catalogues of their goods and also ask them for advertising pictures. Maybe they'll be glad to send 'em along."
The news had circulated that our young friends were going to organize a baseball club, and, as was to be expected, it became the talk of the town. Many of the lads were very enthusiastic, but others, who had not been invited to attend the first meeting, "stuck up their noses" when the matter was mentioned to them.
"That club won't amount to a hill of beans," said one of the big boys, a lad named Voup. "Why, the Westmore boys can't play ball a little bit, and that Fred Rush is too stout to do anything on the diamond."
"Well, why don't you organize a club then, Si?" asked one of Voup's cronies.
"Maybe I will," answered Silas Voup. "If I do, will you join, Sid?"
"To be sure I'll join," came from Sidney Yates. "Say, wouldn't it be great if we organized a club and knocked the spots out of the other club," he added, earnestly.
"Reckon we can do it. I could pitch and you could catch, and we could get Longback Muggs for shortstop. That Westmore crowd wouldn't be in it with us."
"Right you are, Si! Let us organize by all means. We can meet in my father's carriage house." And then and there Silas Voup and Sidney Yates laid their plans for organizing a rival club to defeat the other organization. It may be added here that both Voup and Yates belonged to the aristocratic branch of the Lakeport community. They considered themselves a trifle superior to the other boys, and spent a good deal of their pocket money for cigarettes and pool playing. Their arrogant manners were the cause of the Westmores and Fred Rush leaving them severely alone.
Joe was the first to go home from the carpenter shop, and as soon as he appeared his mother sent him down to his father's store for a bag of flour. When the youth arrived at the store he found his parent very much exercised over something.
"What's the matter, father?" he questioned.
"I've lost some money, Joe," was the unexpected answer.
"Lost some money? How much?"
"Ten or twelve dollars—I can't exactly tell which. I had the bills in a tin box on the back desk and now the box is gone."
"Perhaps you put the box in some other place?"
"I've looked about every place I can think of. No, the box must have been stolen. The desk is so close to that back window anybody could have reached in and taken it."
"When did you put the box there?"
"A couple of days ago. The bills were on the old Lumberville Bank and had your Grandfather Anderson's signature on them, and I was going to show them to your mother."
"Was there anything else in the box?"
"Yes, an old society pin I used to wear years ago. That's gone, too."
"When did you see the box last?"
"I can't remember, exactly—I've been so busy. But I am certain I put it there two days ago. I ought to have put it in the safe," continued Mr. Westmore.
The two hunted around the store, but could find no trace of the missing box. The desk upon which it had rested was but a few feet from an open window, and outside was a narrow alleyway running to a back street.
"Somebody must have come into the alleyway and taken it," said Joe. "You didn't see anybody?"
"Not a soul. I sent Harry out there yesterday to pick up the rubbish."
"Harry?" Joe mused for a moment. "Did—did Harry know the box was there?" he asked.
"I suppose so. By the way, what about that hat he was going to get for Mr. Jadell?"
"He got it and took it over to Mr. Jadell's house."
"Did he pay for it?"
"I suppose so. He didn't want to say much about it." Joe's heart began to beat rapidly. "Oh, father, you don't think——" he began.
"I guess I'll ask Harry if he saw the box," returned Mr. Westmore, shortly. "You had better run home with the bag of flour. Your mother may be waiting for it."