CHAPTER VI

THE ACCUSATION

"Wasn't it glorious!" cried Madge Tyler, as Tom and his chums came up.

"I was just gripping the seat when you threw that last ball, Mr.

Parsons."

"So was I," admitted Ruth. "Phil, I'm proud of you, even if you are my brother."

"Humph!" grunted Phil. "If it hadn't been for Sid's home run we wouldn't have been in it. The fellows who followed him fanned."

"You should be very proud, Mr. Henderson," remarked Mabel Harrison, who looked charming in some sort of a soft, clinging dress which I'm not going to describe.

"Oh, it was just luck," spoke Sid modestly.

"Luck nothing, you old walloper!" cried Tom, thumping his chum on the back. "You just laid for that one, and lambasted it out where the b.u.t.tercups and daisies grow."

"Oh, how poetic!" cried Miss Harrison.

"Some ice cream would sound a heap-sight more poetic," decided Phil.

"What do you girls say? Will you come and have some?"

"Oh, I've provided a little treat for you boys," said Ruth quickly. "By rare good luck Miss Philock, the ogress of Fairview Inst.i.tute, is away to-day, and I secured permission from the a.s.sistant to have a little tea in one of the rooms. We three girls will feed you lions of the diamond, if you promise not to eat up all the charlotte russe and lady fingers I have provided."

"Great!" cried Tom. "I haven't the appet.i.te of a b.u.t.terfly, but----"

"Me either," interrupted Sid, with a laugh.

"Come on, then," invited Phil's sister. "We are just in time to catch a trolley for Fairview. I have a letter from home for you, Phil," she added.

A little later a merry crowd of young people were walking up the campus of the co-educational inst.i.tution, where the three girls were pursuing their studies. It was Sat.u.r.day afternoon, and a half holiday for everyone. Ruth, having secured permission, escorted her brother and his two chums to one of the rooms set aside for the use of the girl students in which to entertain their friends.

"Why, sis, this is quite a spread!" complimented Phil, as he saw the elaborate preparations in the shape of paper napkins, in the colors of Randall--yellow and maroon--spread about on the table, and as he noted the flowers and the rather more generous "feed" than that indicated when his sister had named lady fingers and charlotte russe.

"Yes, we provided this in case you won," replied Ruth, "but if you had lost----"

"Well, in case we had lost?" asked Sid, who was close to Miss Harrison.

"We were going to eat it all ourselves," finished Madge.

"And be ill afterward," interjected Tom. "I'm glad, for more reasons than two, that we won; eh, fellows?"

"Yes, but--er--if it's all the same to you, let's eat," suggested Phil, with the freedom of an elder brother.

There was a merry time. The fair hostesses had provided coffee and sandwiches, with plenty of ice cream and cake, and when they had been at the table for some time, Phil, with a sigh of satisfaction, remarked:

"I'm glad this didn't happen before the game, fellows, or I couldn't have caught even a pop fly."

"Ditto here," agreed Tom. "Pa.s.s the macaroons, Sid. I see you and Miss Harrison trying to hide them between you."

"No such a thing!" retorted the second baseman, while the blue-eyed girl blushed.

"Oh, Phil, I promised to get you the letter from home!" suddenly exclaimed Ruth. "I'll run up to my room for it. Excuse me," and she darted off, to return presently with two missives. "Here's one for you, Mabel," she said. "I found it on your dresser. It must have come in after the regular mail."

"A letter for me," repeated Miss Harrison in some bewilderment. "I didn't expect any."

"Unexpected ones are always the best," ventured Sid, and when Tom whispered "Bravo," at the attempt on the part of his chum to shine in the society of ladies, Sid muttered a threat to punch the captain when they got outside.

"Mother is well, and dad as busy as ever," remarked Ruth as she handed her letter to her brother, and pa.s.sed the other to Miss Harrison. The latter gazed curiously at the missive.

"I don't know this writing," she remarked. "I wonder who it can be from."

"Better open it and see," suggested Sid.

She tore open the envelope, which fluttered to the ground, as she took out a piece of paper.

"Why, how funny!" exclaimed Miss Harrison. "There is nothing but a Haddonfield newspaper clipping, and--and--why it seems to be about you, Mr. Henderson," she added. "Why--why!" she stammered. "How odd! Of course it must be some one else. Just listen," and she read:

"'During a raid on an alleged gambling house kept by Tony Belato in Dartwell, just outside of Haddonfield on Thursday night, a number of college students, believed to be from Boxer Hall, Fairview or Randall were captured. Several got away, and those who were locked up gave false names, it is believed. One young man, who stated that he was Sidney Henderson, fought the officers, and was not subdued until after a struggle. None of the college boys seemed to know him, but it was stated that he had lost heavily in playing poker. The prisoners were fined ten dollars each, and this morning were discharged by Judge Perkins with a warning.'"

There was silence for a moment following Miss Harrison's reading of the clipping.

"What's that?" cried Tom at last, and his words seemed to break the spell. "Arrested in a gambling raid--Sid Henderson? Of course it must be some one else! But who sent the clipping to you, Miss Harrison?"

"I don't know," was her answer, as she looked full at Sid. "It was a piece of impertinence, at any rate," and she began to tear up the newspaper item. "Of course it wasn't you, Mr. Henderson. I should not have read it. I don't suppose you were within miles of the place where it happened. These newspaper reporters are so careless, sometimes. You weren't there, were you?" she went on.

As they all remembered it afterward it seemed strange that Miss Harrison should so insist on her question, but, later, it was explained that her family, as well as herself, had an extraordinary abhorrence of any games of chance, since her brother had once been fleeced by gamblers, and there had been some disgrace attached to it.

"You weren't there; were you?" repeated Miss Harrison, and her eyes were fastened on those of Sid.

His face was strangely white, and his hands trembled. His chums looked at him in surprise.

"I--I wasn't arrested in any raid," he said, and his voice was husky.

The girl seemed to catch at the evasion.

"Were you there?" she demanded. "I--of course--I have no right to ask you that--but--this clipping, coming to me--as it did--and under the circ.u.mstances----"

"I wasn't--I wasn't arrested," faltered Sid. "It's all--it's all a mistake!"

Almost instantly there came to Phil and Tom at the same time a memory of Sid's queer actions of late--of his strange absences from college--of his hurried departures on receiving notes--of the smell of tobacco on his clothes.

"Were you at the gambling place, in Dartwell?" asked Miss Harrison coldly, and it was not until later that the others understood her strange insistence and hatred of games of chance. "Were you there?"

"I--I wasn't arrested!" blurted out Sid. "I--I can't explain--I was in Dartwell that night--but--but it is all a mistake--I don't see how my name got in the paper."

"Sometimes these matters get out in spite of all that is done to keep them quiet," remarked the girl, and her voice sounded to Sid like the clash of steel.

"I tell you I wasn't arrested--I wasn't there--that is, I wasn't gambling--I--I--er--Oh, won't you believe me? Won't you take my word for it?" He was pleading with her now.