The Boys of Bellwood School/Chapter 23
CHAPTER XXIII
UNDER ARREST
"There's some one at that transom!"
"Quick, see who it is?"
Frank, Bob and Ned sprang to their feet as the latter gave the alarm, and Frank's words started them speedily into action. Bob, half crippled though he was, reached the door of the room first, tore it open and gained the corridor.
"It was some one from the crowd next door," he reported. "I fancied I saw Gill Mace vanish into that room. It's just like him—a sneaking spy."
"Ritchie said those fellows were nosing around a good deal to find out about my being away from the academy," observed Frank. "I suppose they're pretty curious."
"Yes, and they're bolting away from the ball game the way you did stirs them up," said Bob.
"Well, the transom is nailed shut, so any eavesdropper wouldn't be likely to hear much," declared Frank.
"No, but they might see that," and Ned pointed to an object on the table, where they had been seated for an hour discussing Frank's circumstantial story of all that had happened to him from the time of his kidnaping. "I shouldn't suppose you would care to have that Mace fellow see it."
"Oh, anybody can see it and welcome, as soon as I have a talk with the president," responded Frank carelessly.
Frank took up from the table and pocketed the bracelet he had found on the floor of the old hut. It was bent and dented as though it had been handled roughly.
Frank had just returned from the town, where he had seen to it that the man called Dan was placed in a comfortable room at a hotel, with a physician in charge of his case.
The doctor told Frank that the man must have been in a terrible fight with some one, for he was wounded in several places and unconscious.
Frank told the hotel keeper that he would be responsible for the expense incurred in caring for the sick man. Our hero offered to pay the farmer whose wagon had brought Dan to the town. The farmer refused any payment, but Frank made little Lem a present out of his pocket money.
Now Frank and his two fast friends had gone over the details of his recent stirring adventures.
"I think that this man Dan is the best of the crowd of plotters," said Frank. "There must have been a light over the bracelet. I'm glad I've got it. I can prove my innocence now."
"What are you going to do with it, Frank?" asked Ned.
"Turn it over to Professor Elliott in the morning, and tell him the entire story. I am sure that Dan can be made to tell who stole it. I believe it was Brady."
"He may tell you, too, where to find that lawyer," suggested Bob.
"Grimm—yes," answered Frank. "There's something he's been up to with Brady that is of interest to Ned here—I am sure of that."
Frank felt certain that affairs were now on a basis where a good many things would come to light within the next few hours.
He was up bright and early the next morning, and was somewhat disappointed to learn that Professor Elliott had not yet returned to Bellwood School.
Ritchie came up to him on the campus after breakfast and took him to one side.
"I say, Jordan," he began in a confidential tone, "there's a good deal of mystery going on around these diggings."
"How's that?" inquired Frank with a smile.
"Banbury's crowd are up to something, and I feel sure it concerns you in some way."
"I can't understand how that can be."
"Nor can I," said Ritchie; "but one of our scouts says they were hobnobbing late into the night. That Gill Mace went to town last evening and sent off a rush telegram somewhere. This morning the crowd are buzzing like a lot of bees, whispering together and looking at you, and Mace walks around with his eye in the direction of the town, as if he expected something to happen. Look there, now—what's up?"
Gill Mace had hurried toward the campus of the school to meet a man coming up the road. Accompanying the latter and acting very important and excited, he advanced across the campus toward the spot where Ritchie and his friends stood.
"That's the boy," pronounced Gill Mace in a loud tone, pointing to Frank.
"Is your name Jordan?" demanded the stranger of Frank.
"Suppose it is?" inquired Frank.
"Then I've come to arrest you, that's all," said the man. "I'm a constable, and the charge is stealing and having in your possession a certain diamond bracelet belonging to Samuel Mace of Tipton."
"Yes," cried Gill Mace, "he's got it about him. I saw him with it last night."
"Oh, then you are the sneak who was spying over our transom last night, eh?" said Frank, with a glance at Gill that made him quail.
"Search him, officer—get that bracelet," vociferated Gill. "He stole it from my uncle."
"Come with me, young man," ordered the officer, extending a hand to seize Frank's arm.
"Hold on," spoke up Ritchie suddenly, stepping in between the two. "You don't arrest Frank Jordan until we know the particulars of this affair."