CHAPTER VII
A FORCED CONFESSION
There was a sarcastic smile on the dean's face as he turned to Prof. Babbitt and asked:
"That doesn't seem to justify your charge, does it?"
"Why – why – " stammered the professor. "At first blush perhaps it doesn't, but, don't you see, it shows that he had found the way to my room, and the fact that he was idling away his time in Page's room beneath ever since, is proof enough that he was waiting his chance to go up again.
"I'm sure he got the paper, for I have taken a glance at the answers given by him and his particular crew of friends, and I find that every one of them passed perfect papers, and, without cheating, not more than one of them could have answered more than one problem."
"You see, Merriwell," said the dean, "the circumstances point very unhappily – "
"I know they do, sir," said Frank, "and I feel miserable about it, but there's an explanation of how I and my friends have passed perfect papers, that I'm perfectly willing to state."
"Do so, then."
Frank thereupon related Page's joke just as it happened. He told all about the conversation he had overheard between Babbitt and Instructor Frost, and then described how he had got his friends together and led them in studying up the subject.
"It may be that you call that cheating," he concluded, "but you must understand that none of us knew what problems the professor was to put upon the paper.
"We only knew the general subject which he had chosen for the examination, and we set to work to make ourselves solid on that subject, and it seems that we did so."
"Why, yes," responded the dean, with a queer smile. "I must say that if your story is correct, the professor has nothing to complain of. He wanted to compel you to work up on points that you were weak on, and it seems you did so.
"Of course it was a very unusual thing for you to get the warning as to what the subject of the examination was to be, but if the professor himself gave the warning – "
"Who would have dreamed," exclaimed Babbitt, "that a rascally student was listening in the chimney!"
"Tut! tut!" exclaimed the dean, "don't use harsh language, professor. I don't think the situation justifies it. According to Merriwell's story, he was in the chimney without any idea of listening to you, and I think any of us who can remember our student days will admit that if we had been in the same position we would have done substantially what he did."
Prof. Babbitt bit his lip. It was not at all pleasant for him to find that Frank had a friend in the dean, who, next to the president, is the highest official in the college.
"All this," he muttered, "doesn't explain the fact that two examination papers were missing!"
"True," answered the dean, "and we shall have to think that over. Merriwell, will you step into the next room for a short time, please?"
Frank obeyed, and he felt certain that he read in the dean's eyes perfect belief in his story.
"It'll come out right somehow," he thought, as he closed the door upon the dean, Babbitt and Mr. Harding.
He could hear their voices in earnest conversation for fully a quarter of an hour. They were doubtless discussing the discovery of the extra paper upon Merriwell's desk, and Frank wondered what conclusion they would come to about it.
Meantime, another event was taking place that led to a solution of the mystery.
One by one the students finished their work on the examination papers and left the hall; few of them went away from the door; the most gathered there talking excitedly about the accusation against Merriwell.
There were some who professed to believe that Merriwell had been up to a sharp trick, and had actually stolen the question paper, but the great majority indignantly denied it.
There are many students who would have no scruples against cheating at an examination, but few would think of descending so low as to commit theft for the purpose.
Frank's friends were in the majority, and very loud in their assertions as to his honorable conduct.
Among the first to leave the room after Frank's exit was Dismal Jones; he stood around with his hands in his pockets saying nothing, but looking from one to the other with a very worried expression upon his solemn face.
Among the last to leave was Mortimer Ford. He walked through the group with a jaunty air, as if confident that he had come out of the examination in good order, and started for his room.
Jones tried to speak to him, but Ford simply said:
"Ah, there, Dismal, I hope you didn't get plucked," and continued on.
Dismal scowled savagely and stood for a moment looking at Ford's retreating form, and then he turned about, and catching Diamond by the sleeve, said:
"See here, Jack! I want to speak to you for a minute."
"What's the matter?" returned Diamond, feeling a little impatient and provoked, for his mind was full of Frank's trouble, and he could not think of talking of anything else.
"It's about Merriwell," whispered Jones, "and I want you and Rattleton and Browning and Page to come here."
He withdrew to one side, and Diamond, with a mystified expression, touched Rattleton on the shoulder and beckoned him to follow.
"What's up, Dismal?" said Rattleton.
"Get the other fellows," replied Jones.
The others were soon drawn from the group of excited students, and then Dismal said:
"I've got the key to this whole thing, and if you fellows will help turn it, we'll get Merriwell out of this scrape in less than no time."
The boys were too astonished to reply, and Dismal went on:
"Yesterday," he said, "a fellow came to me and after a lot of hemming and hawing and beating about the bush, told me that he could put me onto a way to pass Babbitt's examination perfectly; he also said that I could give the same tip to my friends.
"I'm not letting any tips on examinations go by, you can bet on that, and so I made him tell me what the racket was. He said he had got hold of two copies of Babbitt's paper."
"Who was it?" exclaimed the boys, eagerly.
"Wait a minute," said Jones. "He said the printer accidentally struck off more than was necessary, and he got the copies in that way."
"What way?"
"Oh, I don't know, I didn't ask particularly, because" – Dismal hesitated a moment – "because, well, I'm not putting up a front for being a preacher, or a goody-goody boy, but I didn't quite fancy taking part in a cheat like that, and I told him so.
"Besides that, I couldn't see any reasons why he should give this favor to me: he and I have never been chummy, and I don't believe that he got them from the printer, either."
"Well, well, who was it?" demanded Rattleton, excitedly.
"Ford."
"Ford, of all men!"
"Yes, he was the fellow."
"It's just as Merriwell says," said Page. "Ford is crazy to lead the class, and he will take any means for getting a paper."
"How is it going to help Merriwell?" asked Rattleton.
"You fellows must get after Ford," responded Jones, "and make him own up. Do you remember how he passed down the aisle and asked Babbitt a question?"
"Yes."
"And don't you remember Merriwell's papers were knocked off his desk?"
"I saw that something had happened," responded Diamond, "but I sat too far away – "
"Well, the papers were on the floor," responded Jones, "and I'd like to bet a dollar to a button that Ford tucked in that extra examination paper when he picked the papers up."
The boys looked seriously at one another a moment, and then two or three said together:
"Let's call on Ford!"
Away they went at once, and in a few minutes were at Ford's door.
"Come in," he said, when they knocked.
One of them tried the door, but found that it was locked.
"Wait a minute," called Ford, and they heard him crossing the room.
Rattleton heard the scratching of a match at the same moment. Something seemed to go wrong with the key, for Ford fumbled at the lock for a moment before he opened the door.
"Hello!" he said in a tone of surprise. "Come right in."
Rattleton dashed past the others, and ran to the fireplace. There was no excuse for a fire in September, but a tiny blaze was there, nevertheless.
Rattleton put his hand upon it instantly, to beat the flame out, and stood up with a partially burned and charred fragment of paper in his hand.
"What are you trying to do?" demanded Ford, indignantly.
"Dock the loor – I mean lock the door," cried Rattleton, excitedly, to Browning.
The latter immediately closed the door, turned the key, and stood with his back to it.
"We'll settle this thing in a hurry," continued Rattleton, shaking the charred paper aloft; "this is a part of Babbitt's examination paper."
"Well, what of it?" asked Ford, angrily; "why shouldn't a man burn up a piece of paper that he's got no further use for?"
"Because you left the paper you've been at work on with your answers in the examination room!" retorted Rattleton, "and this is an extra sheet. It shows what became of the two sheets that Babbitt missed."
Ford looked from one to another of the students and broke into a laugh.
"Well," he said, "I don't feel called upon to make any explanation to you fellows, but as I understand it, your particular friend, Merriwell, will have a good deal to explain."
"By all that's good," exclaimed Diamond; wrathfully, "you'll do the explaining for him."
"Me?"
"Yes, you, you skulking hound! You had those two papers; here's Dismal Jones, to whom you confessed to having got hold of them. You wanted Dismal to take one, hoping that he would give it away to Frank and the rest of us, so that if any exposure came we'd be mixed up in it. I know your sly trick!"
Ford had turned very pale. He sank into a chair, shut his teeth together, and muttered:
"You're doing a good deal of guesswork; but if you're trying to pick a row go right along; I'm not afraid of you."
"We're not here to pick a row, Ford," said Page; "I'm beginning to see through the whole thing.
"You're about the only one, except Merriwell, who knew how the chimney in my room communicated with Babbitt's, and I remember you were coming away from my room at one time when we were coming from dinner. You had been up there then to steal the papers. You managed to work one of them off on Merriwell's desk to-day. Rattleton there has got a part of the other."
"Well, see here," said Ford. "What does it all mean? Ever since there were colleges, students have done their best to get ahead of the faculty, and if I've succeeded, what's the harm? It isn't hurting you fellows, and no student ever tells on another."
He said this with a haughty air, as if to imply that they would be beneath contempt if they should report his doings to the faculty.
"We're not going to do any tell-taleing – I mean tale-telling," blustered Rattleton. "We're here to make you do that."
"What do you mean?"
"I tell you," said Browning, slowly, and there was a dangerous glitter in his eyes, "I'm not above telling tales in a case like this, and if you don't go straight to the dean and tell him the truth, I'll go and lay the matter before him, and what's more, Master Ford, I'll give you such a thumping that you'll carry the marks as long as you live."
Browning spoke quietly, but there was a businesslike ring in his tone that Ford could not misunderstand.
The others were very quiet, and they looked at Ford, awaiting his answer.
"You take a mighty high attitude," he muttered.
"Shut up," muttered Browning, savagely. "I for one won't hear any argument about it; you've got to do what we say, or take the consequences. And to make certain of those consequences, I'm going to give you a licking now!"
Browning pulled off his coat, threw it upon the floor, and advanced upon Ford. The others stood aside, their eyes glistening, and their fists fairly itching to take a share in Ford's punishment.
As to the latter, he retreated to a corner, and placed a chair between himself and Browning.
"Hold on," he said, huskily. "You've got the best of me because there are so many of you – "
"I propose to lick you alone!" interrupted Browning.
"All the same," suggested Dismal Jones, slowly, "when Browning gets through with him, I think the rest of us will take a turn one at a time."
Ford was thoroughly frightened.
"I give it up," he stammered. "You force me to it I'll do what you say, and I guess my standing in the class is good enough, as I never have done anything before this – "
"Never been caught at it," interrupted Diamond, sarcastically.
"Don't waste any talk," said Browning; "he's going with us to the dean's office now; Merriwell is probably there at this minute trying to make Babbitt believe in a student's honor."
Saying this, Browning put on his coat and unlocked the door; then he turned to Ford.
"Come along," he said.
Trembling like a leaf, Ford crossed the room, picked up his hat from the table, and went out into the hall.
The other students followed closely after.
As he came to the stairway Ford made a leap. In his excitement he probably hoped that he might be able to run away from these angry fellows, and possibly escape making the confession that they wished him to make.
With an angry laugh they all leaped after him and caught him as he was two steps down the stairs.
The result was that the whole pack of them went tumbling down the flight and landed with many a bruise in a heap at the bottom.
When they got up Browning had his strong hand clinched in Ford's collar until the miserable rascal was almost choking.
In this way he was fairly pushed across the campus, to the great astonishment of all the students who happened to be there at the time.
He was marched straight up to the dean's office, where the students entered without knocking.
The dean was still talking with Babbitt and Mr. Harding.
Frank, in the adjoining room, wondered what all the commotion was about. The dean wondered, too, and said sharply:
"Gentlemen, gentlemen, what does this mean?"
"It means, sir," said Browning, respectfully, "that an infamous outrage has been attempted, by which an honorable student is made to suffer. Ford will explain."
Ford did explain with many cringing appeals for mercy, and with many protests against the violence with which the students had treated him.
The dean listened with growing indignation, while even Babbitt was stirred to anger against his favorite student.
The upshot of the matter was that Babbitt withdrew his charges against Frank, and even went so far as to make a sort of apology for having suspected him.
Ford's case went before the whole faculty at its meeting that evening, with the result that he was suspended for one year.
"I never was so relieved in my life, Merriwell," said the dean, as he shook Frank's hand, "for if it had been proven that you had done this thing, I am afraid I should have lost all faith in students, but – "
And there was a sly twinkle in his eye.
"I think we shall have to recommend that Prof. Babbitt stuff his chimney with bricks and mortar, or else move to a new room."
"He needn't fear that I shall invade the chimney again," responded Frank; "I'm only too glad that the matter has turned out so that there is no doubt about me.
"Well," said the dean, thoughtfully, "you ought to learn some kind of a lesson out of the experience, I suppose. Let's take it for granted, Merriwell, that you'll give your mathematics a little more attention this year."
Frank, smiling, assured the dean that he would do so, and there the matter ended.
At a later time Page asked Frank why it was that he had insisted on the fireplace being kept secret until after the examination.
"Because," said Frank, "I had got a tip there that was too valuable to lose. If you had shown the opening to everybody, it struck me that perhaps Babbitt would hear you. With his suspicious nature, he might conclude at once that we had good papers because, somehow, we got into his room and found the questions.
"As it happened, you see, the showing of the fireplace resulted in even worse than I feared. It gave Ford his opportunity, and one of the reasons why I insisted on studying in your room was to prevent any such thing by having your room occupied all the time.
"That scheme failed, because Ford watched his chance and got in while we were at dinner."
"I'll have my door fitted with a combination time-lock!" exclaimed Page; "he could have unlocked it as it is now with a button hook."
"You'd certainly better put on a better lock if you think of keeping pets in the chim – "
"Oh, come off, Frank! I thought I'd heard the last of that."
Frank laughed pleasantly, but from that time on he never mentioned the subject.
"It's just as well," he said. "I think we are lucky to get out of the affair so easily."
"Right you are," answered Browning. And then, after a pause, he continued: "Got a letter this morning. Important news."
"Of what?" asked several.
"About the intercollegiate games to come off in New York. Friend of mine at Princeton says they are bound to beat us."
"Not on your life!" came in a chorus; and on the moment the affair of the examination papers was forgotten and all of the boys were talking about the contests to come off and wondering who of the Yale students would take part.
CHAPTER VIII
PICKING OUT A TEAM
"One, two, drop!"
At the word there was a sudden thud as four bodies fell to the ground. Immediately afterward there was a creaking and a sound of straining as the four prostrate men pulled with all their might at a rope.
Then there were long breaths and grunts, and presently one of the four exclaimed:
"I say, Merriwell, I didn't suppose you were going to say 'drop' until you had counted three!"
"You had no business to suppose any such thing," responded Frank, seriously, and yet with a smile; "the man who gives the word in a tug of war sometimes doesn't count at all, and you've got to get used to falling at one word only."
"It will be a pistol shot in New York, won't it?"
"That isn't decided on. You didn't get the rope under your knee when you fell, Taylor."
"I know," responded the one addressed, "and that was because the word 'drop' came before I was ready for it."
"Look out for it next time, then. That will do for the present."
At this word the four young men stood up and looked at Merriwell to await his next command.
They were in the gymnasium at Yale. A corner of the main exercise hall had been set apart for them and screened so that their work could not be seen or interrupted by other students.
Four short pieces of wood had been nailed to the floor at intervals of about five feet. At each of these blocks or cleats a student stood with his hand upon a rope that was tied to a post a few feet distant from the nearest cleat.
These four were stripped to the thinnest of athletic costumes, but Frank, who stood by directing their work, was in his usual street clothes.
He was training the four to represent the college in a tug of war that was to be one feature of some intercollegiate games to take place early in the following month.
The contests were to consist of all kinds of indoor exercises, as the season for outdoor sports had come to an end.
There was to be leaping, wrestling, trapeze and horizontal bar work, maneuvers on the giant swings, fencing and so on.
The entries for these events were not limited to any one class; freshmen could contest as well as seniors, and as a matter of fact many ambitious fellows in the freshman class were in training for the big event.
Every day the wrestlers got together in the gymnasium and varied their work at the machines by wrestling with each other.
The leapers, too, made daily efforts to jump a little higher or a little farther than they had the day before, while those who made specialties of tricks upon the bar and trapeze spent hours every day in perfecting themselves in their feats.
The students talked of little else when they met on the campus, or in one another's rooms of an evening.
Four colleges were to be represented in the meet, namely: Yale, Harvard, Cornell and Princeton. The contests were to take place on neutral ground, and for this purpose the big Seventh Regiment Armory in New York City had been engaged.
The college year had hardly begun before arrangements for this athletic meeting were under way.
As is usual in such matters, where the whole college is concerned, the management was given to a committee of upper classmen.
There were three on this committee, Jack Rowland, and Bed Hill from the senior class, and Frank from the junior.
It was not Frank's intention to take any active part in the contests, although he was well known throughout the college as a first-class, all-round athlete.
It seemed to him better that the contests against the other colleges should be made by those who were specialists in one line or another. He talked this matter over with his particular friends shortly after the term began.
"It won't seem quite right to see you out of it," protested Rattleton, "for when we had our sporting trip across the continent you were always coming in at the last minute to pull victory out of defeat, no matter whether we were jumping, running, playing ball or horse racing."
"That's another story," Frank replied. "When we were sporting it across the continent there were only nine of us, and we were not all Yale students at that. Here there are several hundred healthy men to choose from.
"I don't think there's much doubt that out of all the students now in college there is some one who could beat me at any one thing I might undertake to do, from wrestling to trapeze work."
"But," said Diamond, "if you should go into training for any one event, I think you'd come out on top."
"And that's what I don't care to do!" retorted Merriwell. "I'd rather be an all-round man than be able to do just one thing; I shouldn't know which to choose if I were to start in training."
"But we may lose a cup in some branch of sport if you don't go in."
"Oh, no, I think not. Besides that, there's going to be one event in which I can take a kind of share, and where perhaps I can be as useful to Yale as if I were contesting."
"What's that?"
"The tug of war."
"Is there going to be a tug of war?"
"Yes, siree!"
"Who's going to be on the team?"
"Will it be on cleats or on the level floor?"
"Will it be on the ground?"
These and many other questions of a similar kind were asked so rapidly that Frank had no chance for a reply. At length he explained that the team had not been chosen, and that anybody might be a candidate.
"The managing committee," he said, "has asked me to take charge of the training, and we're going to have trials in a corner of the gymnasium every afternoon. As soon as the team is made up, we shall get down to daily practice."
It was perfectly natural that the tug of war should arouse more interest throughout the college than any of the other events.
Of course it was important that one or another student should be in training to meet the best wrestler or jumper from the other colleges, but the tug of war was an event in which the whole college was represented.
There is never anything like a team event to arouse the enthusiasm of students.
A tug of war team consists of but four men, to be sure, but at that they are supposed to be, and generally are, the strongest men in the college, and so students of all classes looked to them for holding up the glory of the college.
There was another thing that made the tug of war team especially interesting at this time. For two or three years Princeton had been very successful in the tug of war, whether pulling against other colleges of against outside athletic organizations.
It had happened that three very strong men in a certain class had gone onto the team in their freshman year and had stayed there ever since.
That was greatly to the advantage of the Princeton team, for with three men on it who were perfectly used to each other, and who had had a great deal of experience, the team was not only powerful, but it made every other team afraid of it.
There is a great deal more in this than those who are not athletes imagine. A team that has the reputation of always winning is apt to strike terror to the hearts of its opponents and rattle them so that they cannot do their best.
Princeton naturally was very proud of its tug of war team and perfectly confident of carrying off the prize for that event. This was understood not only at Yale, but at Harvard and Cornell, and at each of these three colleges there was a determination to "down" Princeton if possible.
So it happened that when the managing committee at Yale announced that they would examine candidates for the tug of war team, there was so much interest in it that a perfect mob of students gathered at the gymnasium eager for a place upon the rope.
Rowland and Hill, the senior members of the committee, were inclined to dismiss the whole crowd and then quietly pick out four men according to their own judgment, but Merriwell opposed this policy.
"There may be perfect giants concealed in that crowd," he said, "and if there's only one, we want to discover him. Give them all a trial."
"But it would take weeks," exclaimed Hill, "to arrange those men in teams and make them pull against each other until we could sift out the best four!"
"I don't think we need to have them pull against each other to find out what they're worth," Frank responded.
"What other way is there?" asked Rowland.
"I have an idea that I can sift that crowd in a week."
"Well, then, you'd better try it."
So it was agreed that Frank should undertake to examine the candidates for the team, and to superintend its training.
His plan for examining the applicants caused a good deal of amusement at first, but it proved to be remarkably effective as well as a great time saver.
In a tug of war, as in many other sports, it is not only brute strength that tells, but quickness and skill. Frank believed a good deal more in the head work of tugging than he did in solid muscle.
"If a man can't drop right every time," he declared, "he isn't fit for the team. If he can drop right, he's got the making of a tugger."
To test this he had a rope fastened securely to a post, and the candidates in squads of four took hold of this rope and dropped half a dozen times at Frank's command. He gave brief explanations of what was necessary for them to do, to each squad before giving the word; then he watched the men go down, showing them where they had been in error and had them try again.
It took no more than half a dozen minutes for as many trials and then another squad was brought on.
In this way he easily tested from thirty to forty men an hour, and so in the course of three days had given every candidate for the team a chance.
After that it was an easy matter for him to strike off the list fully three-quarters of the candidates; that left from twenty to thirty who might still be useful.
These men he tried in groups of four also, but continually shifted the men from one group to another so as to find out which of them worked together to the best advantage.
At length, after ten days of patient examination in this way, he had Rowland and Hill come behind the screen and watch the efforts of six men who had been selected as the best team workers in the whole college.
The matter was discussed very frankly, not only by the members of the committee, but by the candidates themselves, for everybody was anxious that the best possible team should be selected and nobody would have been offended if he had been left off.
It was decided at last that Bruce Browning should be the anchor of the team. He had been Frank's choice almost from the start, for he was heavy and cool, and from past experience Frank knew that Bruce could be quick if it was necessary.
It is the anchor in a tug-of-war who does the head work for the team.
"I'd rather have a good anchor and three weak men," said Frank, emphatically, "than three giants on the rope directed by an anchor who is either excitable or slow."
Everybody agreed that Bruce was just the man for the Yale anchor, and after a good many trials Taylor, of the senior class, and Jackson, of the sophomore, were assigned places on the rope; that left one vacancy.
Merriwell recommended that the other three men who had stood the test so far be trained equally, so that two at least could rank as substitutes in case of sickness or other difficulty.
The committee and the members of the team suggested that Frank himself should take the vacant place on the rope.
"Everybody knows you've got the muscle and the head, and with you and Bruce on the rope, we'll have as perfect a team as possible."
Frank hesitated a little before accepting this suggestion, but he finally yielded, for without conceit he felt that he could be more useful than the others, and he had a natural eagerness to take an active part in the contest.
Nevertheless, he continued to direct the training of the team, using Rattleton as a substitute on the rope while he stood by and gave orders.
In this way he got the men so that they could fall at the word and fall right, and when this had been gained he took Rattleton's place and gave over the direction of the movements of the team to the anchor.
After that there was a good deal of practice in pulling at voluntary teams from among the students.
It proved that there were no four students in the college who could stay on the cleats half a minute against the team that Frank had selected and trained; so practice teams were made up of five, six, and sometimes eight men.
The dead weight of eight men proved to be a little too much for the regular team, although the latter was never pulled off the cleats.
All in all the Yale students were greatly satisfied with their tug of war team, and as the time for the intercollegiate contests approached their confidence grew.
They believed that they would be able to get away with Princeton, and it did not seem to strike them at all that the other colleges were in it.