Somewhat discouraged over his failure to find Mr. Hardman, Frank went back to his uncle's house. All that Sunday he remained indoors, though his chums called in the afternoon, and wanted him to go for a walk.

"Don't have any hard feelings," Frank said, when he declined the invitation. "I'm in no mood for walking or talking. I'll feel better tomorrow."

Then he went back to his room, to brood over his secret. He debated with himself whether or not he ought to tell his uncle what he had seen and heard, and ask for an explanation of the matter.

But Mr. Dent was rather a stern man, and, though he was very kind to Frank, he did not encourage confidences. So, after thinking it all over, Frank decided he would try, a little longer, to solve the mystery by his own efforts. He did not want to appeal to his uncle and be met with a refusal.

"I tell you what it is," Ned remarked, as the three chums walked away from Frank's house. "We've got to do something to cheer Frank up."

"What would you suggest?" asked Fenn.

"Let's have some sort of fun," replied Ned. "I've got an idea!"

he exclaimed suddenly. "It will be a great joke! We'll play it on Jim Morton."

"Jim's too lazy to play jokes on," said Fenn.

"This is going to be a lazy joke," explained Ned.

CHAPTER XII

THE LAZY RACE

As they walked along, the three chums perfected their plans for some fun they hoped would take Frank's mind off his trouble for a while, and, at the same time, afford amus.e.m.e.nt for themselves.

"Besides it will be a sort of lesson for Jim," said Ned. "He's getting worse and worse. After a bit he'll be too lazy to draw his breath, and then he'll die and it will be our fault."

"I don't see how you make that out," declared Bart.

"Why, it's our duty to prevent him from dying by providing such contests as this I am about to arrange."

"Go ahead," put in Fenn. "We're with you."

The next Monday morning there appeared on the bulletin board in the boys'

court of the high school this notice:

ATTENTION!

"Arrangements have been perfected for a grand free-for-all race, for the championship of the school. The affair will be in the nature of a handicap, and there will be three prizes, for the first, second and third winners. Any boy in the school may enter, and there will be no fee collected. The race will take place Sat.u.r.day afternoon on the school campus. The distance and conditions will be made known at the time of the start. It is hoped that there will be a large number of entries. The more the merrier."

The notice was signed by the school athletic committee, of which Bart was chairman. At the noon recess Bart was besieged by a crowd of boys asking all sorts of questions about the contest, from the kind of prizes to be offered, to the distance to be run.

"I can't tell you any more than is in the notice," Bart answered. "All you have to do is to train for the race, and the committee will attend to the rest."

With this they had to be content. As Ned had suggested, this did serve to take Frank's mind off his troubles to a certain extent. He inquired about the contest, and, when he was sufficiently interested, his three chums took him to one side and explained that it was gotten up for the benefit of Jim Morton.

"Do you think you can get him to enter?" asked Frank.

"I guess so, if I talk to him right," Ned replied. Then he set to work to get Jim to become one of the contestants.

"Why, you know I can't run," Jim complained, when Ned broached the matter to him. "Besides, I don't believe in races. It takes too much time and strength. I'll live longer if I don't hurry so much," and Jim, slowed up in his walk, which was slow enough at best.

"But this is different," Ned went on. "You know you're giving the school a bad name by being so lazy."

"How?" asked Jim, in some surprise.

"Why, you've been made an honorary member of the athletic committee," Ned went on. It was a fact, but he had engineered the matter through. "Now how does it look to see one of our honorary members so lazy he won't even enter a contest? Besides, I think you could win this race, Jim."

"Me win? Why, you know I haven't ever run a race."

"But I think you can win this one," Ned went on, rather mysteriously.

"If you'd only train a little bit I know you could beat lots of the fellows. Let me enter you as one of the contestants, and some of us fellows will practice with you nights."

"All right," Jim a.s.sented, rather flattered that the chums would go to so much trouble on his account. "I'll try, but I know I can't come in even third."

"You wait," counseled Ned.

The news soon spread that Jim had entered as a contestant in the race.

And, what was more surprising, he had begun to train. Few of the High School boys believed it until they saw Jim speeding around the campus one evening, with Ned and his chums. Frank entered into the spirit of the joke, which only the four knew of, and there were impromptu brushes, in which Jim frequently came in ahead. This, of course, was all arranged to give the new athlete confidence in himself. As for Jim, he really seemed to be interested in running. At first he was so stiff, from lack of practice, that he ran like a lame cow. But in a few days he could pick up his heels to better advantage.

"We'll cure him when it comes to the final show-down," declared Ned.

"We'll cure Jim of laziness, and it will be a fine piece of work."

"Best of all, though," said Bart, "Frank seems to have forgotten his troubles, and that's why we undertook this."

"If only he doesn't begin to worry, after the fun, we expect to have Sat.u.r.day, is over," put in Ned, a little doubtful of his own experiment.

There were scores entered in the race, and that insured a good attendance at the event. In spite of many questions the chums refused to tell any details of the contest, and it was much of a mystery as ever Sat.u.r.day afternoon, when all the boys, and quite a crowd of girls, were gathered on the campus. Ned got up on a box to make an announcement, and to tell the conditions of the race.

"Entries are not limited," he said. "We'll admit boys, girls, dogs, puppies or any animal that walks, flies or crawls."

There was laughter at what they all took to be a joke.

"I mean it," Ned went on. "If any of you have a dog or a goat you want to see race, put him in. We'll make the conditions and the prizes fit any person or animal," and there was more laughter.

"What's the distance?" inquired several of the boys who had donned racing trunks and spiked shoes.

"Five times around the campus," Ned answered. "That's about a mile."

"Where are the prizes?"

"They will be shown and awarded after the race. Now are you all ready?"

"Aren't you going to run this off in heats?" asked Lem Gordon. "There are too many to start at once."