Dave Porter and His Rivals/Chapter 22
CHAPTER XXII
IN WHICH THE SHOES COME BACK
"Somebody is in trouble!"
"Who is it?"
"Where is he?"
"It is Tom Hally!" cried Roger, mentioning one of the new boys at Oak Hall. "He must have fallen into one of the holes near the big hollow,"
"Come on and see what is the matter," said Dave, and dropping the flag, he sped in the direction of the cries, and a dozen others followed.
When they reached the spot from which the cries for help had proceeded they could see nothing of Tom Hally.
"He was here a minute ago—I saw him!" declared a student named Messmer. "He must have gone down out of sight!"
"Be careful that somebody doesn't go down on top of him," cautioned Roger.
He had hardly spoken when there came a cry from Messmer, and, looking in his direction, the other boys were horrified to see him sink into the snow up to his waist.
"Hi! hi! help me!" yelled Messmer. "Quick, something has me by the foot!"
"Maybe it's Hally, at the bottom of the hole!" burst out Dave.
"Let us make a chain and haul him out," suggested Phil.
This suggestion was considered a good one, and in a twinkling a long line was formed, the boys taking hold of each other's hands. Dave was at one end of the line, and he approached Messmer with caution.
"Help me!" gasped Messmer. "Something is dragging me down!"
"Take hold of my hand," answered Dave. "Hold tight!"
Messmer did as requested, and then Dave gave the other boys the signal to haul away.
"But be careful," he added. "Otherwise the line may break, and some more of us will go in the hole."
The students hauled steadily and cautiously, and slowly but surely Messmer came out of the snowy hole. As his feet came into view it was seen that a pair of hands were clasped around one of his ankles.
"Tom Hally is there!" shouted Dave. "Be extra careful, or he may slip back!"
He had hardly spoken when Messmer's foot came up with a jerk. The unfortunate boy below had let go, being probably too exhausted to keep hold.
"Oh, Dave, what shall we do?" gasped Roger. He stood next in the life line.
"Make two lines!" cried Dave. "Here, you get hold of one of my feet, and Messmer can get hold of the other. Now don't let go, whatever you do. I'll go down after Hally."
"But the danger" began Ben.
"We can't leave Hally to smother to death there, Ben. Now then, hold tight," answered Dave.
The two lines were formed, each end boy holding tight to one of Dave's ankles. Then Dave threw himself down in the snow and wormed his way to the edge of the hole. Several feet below he saw one of Tom Hally's hands sticking up, the fingers working convulsively. He made a clutch and got a firm grip of the wrist.
"Haul away!" he called. "But be easy, or the edge of the hole may cave in!"
Under Dave's directions the boys hauled away with care, and presently poor Tom Hally came to the surface of the snow, and was dragged to a safe spot. He was all but exhausted, and too weak to stand.
"Here, we'll carry you to the school!" cried Roger, and he and some others made a "chair," and thus the unfortunate lad was carried to Oak Hall, where he was placed in a rocking chair in front of a fire.
"I went down all of a sudden," he explained, when he could talk. "I yelled for all I was worth, and I saw some of you running towards me. Then I went out of sight, and the next I knew Messmer's feet were on my head. I caught hold of one foot and was dragged almost to the surface. Then my strength gave out,—and I hardly know what I did after that."
"Dave pulled you out," answered Phil. "He saw one of your hands sticking out of the snow, and he got us fellows to form two lines, with him on the end."
"I am very thankful," said Tom Hally, and he gave Dave's hand a warm squeeze. "I shall never go near that hollow again!"
"It's a dangerous place in the winter time," said Roger. "We should have known better than to have retreated in that direction."
"Well, the Army of the Red won!" cried one of the students. "Say, wasn't it a dandy battle!"
"It certainly was!" answered several others.
Doctor Clay was much alarmed to learn that Hally and Messmer had gone down in a hole in the snow, and he came to see how the former was getting along. Then he praised Dave and his chums for their bravery in effecting a rescue.
In the past Hally, who was a rather silent student, had had little to say to the other boys, but now he spoke to Dave, and asked him quite a number of questions concerning himself and the other occupants of dormitories Nos. 11 and 12.
"I'd like to be in with your bunch," said he, wistfully. "I don't like our crowd very well."
"Where are you?" asked Dave.
"In No. 13—with Nat Poole and his crowd."
"They aren't very much of Nat's crowd any more, are they?"
"Oh, several boys still stick to him. But he makes me sick."
"Well, I am sorry, Hally, but our rooms are filled up," said Dave.
"Poole is down on you, isn't he?"
"Yes."
"He told me you and he had had a lot of trouble."
"So we have—but I claim it was mostly Nat's fault. He does some pretty mean things."
"So he does, for a fact," and Tom Hally nodded earnestly. "He is down on Maurice Hamilton too, isn't he?"
"Yes, but Shadow never did him any harm. It's just Nat's mean disposition," returned Dave; and there the conversation had to come to an end.
But that talk, coupled with the fact that Dave and his chums had so bravely gone to Tom Hally's rescue, produced an unexpected result. Two days later, when the occupants of dormitories Nos. 11 and 12 got up, they were surprised to find, just inside of one of the doors, a big pasteboard box, securely tied with a heavy cord.
"Why, what's this?" asked Phil, who was the first to see the box.
"Must be a Christmas box!" cried Dave. "And yet it is rather early in the season for that."
"Is it addressed to anybody?" questioned Ben.
"Nothing on it," announced Roger, after an inspection. "Maybe the box was placed in this room by mistake."
"Let us open it and see what is inside," suggested Polly Vane.
"I second that motion," added Luke. "Hope it's got some nice Christmas pies in it."
"Maybe it's a trick," cautioned Shadow. "Go slow on opening it."
The boys pushed the box to the center of the dormitory with care, and then Roger cut the cord with his pocketknife.
"You open it," said Phil to Dave.
"I am not afraid," answered Dave, and took off the cover.
And then what a shout went up!
"Our shoes, and boots, and slippers!"
"Where in the world did this come from!"
"Say, I thought my shoes were gone for good!" "Are they all here?"
"I guess so. Let us sort 'em out and see."
Hastily the box was turned over, and the contents dumped on the floor. Then began a general sorting out, lasting for several minutes.
"One of my gym. shoes is missing," announced Phil.
"Perhaps one of the other fellows has it," suggested Dave, and the shipowner's son started a fresh search. But it was of no avail. Every shoe, slipper, and boot that had been taken had been returned excepting one of Phil's foot coverings.
"Well, I don't care much," said Phil. "These shoes were about worn out, anyway."
"Where do you suppose this box came from?" asked Ben, and then he gazed curiously at Shadow, and the others did the same.
"I—I suppose you think—that is, you imagine I—er—I had something to do with this," stammered the boy who had on several occasions walked in his sleep.
"Do you know anything about it, Shadow?" asked Dave.
"Not the first thing!"
"Did you dream of anything last night?"
"Yes, I dreamed about a—er—a" stammered the sleep-walker. "I—er Oh, it wasn't about shoes, or anything like that."
"Well, what was it?" demanded Roger, sternly.
"It was about a party, if you must know. I dreamt I took a girl, and we had a nice time dancing and playing games. There weren't any shoes in it," and poor Shadow got redder than ever.
Dave looked the box over with care. It was a common pasteboard box, with nothing on it in the way of writing or advertising.
"This certainly is a mystery," he said, slowly. "First the shoes disappear, and now they come back. I give it up."
"Somebody has been playing a trick on us!" declared Roger. "The question is, who?"
"I don't know of anybody who would do such a thing, excepting it was Nat Poole," declared Ben.
"Well, there is no use of taxing Nat with it," declared Dave. "For he would deny it point-blank, unless you could prove it against him."
The boys talked the affair over until it was time to go down to breakfast, but they could reach no conclusion regarding the mystery.
"Maybe it will never be explained," said Buster.
"Well, even so, I am glad to get my shoes and slippers back," lisped Polly Vane.
A few days after the restoration of the foot coverings there came a thaw and then a sudden cold snap. Ice began to form on the river, and soon it was thick enough for skating, much to the joy of the students, for nearly all of them loved to skate. Some of the boys had ice-boats, and these were also brought out for use.
"I understand that Rockville is going to put out a strong ice-hockey team this winter," said Roger to Dave one day. "They are going to challenge us, too."
"Well, we'll have to make up a team to beat 'em," answered Dave.
"That won't be so easy," declared another student. "They have some great skaters and hockey players at the military academy this season. They've got one player who is a star."
"Who is that?"
"Will Mallory. He came from down East, and he is the slickest ice-hockey player you ever set eyes on."
"Well, if they challenge us we'll do our best," declared Dave, and some others said the same.
The next day, after school, Dave had occasion to go to Oakdale on an errand. Roger was going along, but at the last minute had to stay behind, so Dave went alone.
He had scarcely passed out of the school grounds when he noticed that he was being followed. A tall, thin man had stepped from behind some oak trees, and was coming after him.
"I wonder what that chap was doing around the school?" the youth asked himself.
He walked along rapidly, and the man did the same. Then Dave slackened his pace, and the follower did likewise.
"He doesn't want to catch up to me, that's sure," thought the youth. "Maybe he is afraid I'll recognize him. Wonder who he is?"
He turned and looked back. But the man had his overcoat pulled up and his soft hat pulled far down, and Dave could see little of his face.
"This is a mystery," mused Dave. "I am going to speak to him," and he stopped short and waited for the mysterious individual to come up.