"Well, you don't look just the thing to call on a bank president,"

laughed d.i.c.k, "but I am glad you are alive. Are you hurt any? No bones broken, no internal injuries, nothing the matter with you?"

"I don't think there is, d.i.c.k. I do feel a bit sore and bruised but I don't think there is anything serious the matter. A good hot bath will fix me up all right, I think."

"Come on then and get that bag up to the Academy. Here, don't you lift it. I can do it better. Can you run the car up, do you think?"

"Yes. Did you raise an alarm about my having fallen down the bank?"

"No. Herring said he would speak to the doctor. I came right away."

"All right. Let them think for the present that I did fall down."

"Very good, but as soon as I am certain which one of those fellows it was that pushed you down I will make it warm for him."

"I don't believe you ever will know, d.i.c.k."

CHAPTER IX

ANOTHER OF JACK'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The two boys went up the hill to the Academy with the bag which one of them had found in the creek and had an interview with Dr. Wise.

The doctor looked his name in some respects and in others he did not.

He was a tall, spare man, dressing habitually in solemn black and a huge white choker, his face being clean shaven and showing the firmness of his chin and his square, well-set jaws.

He was very bald, however, and the big round spectacles which he always wore gave an owlish aspect to his face, the gla.s.ses being set in a heavy black frame which made his eyes look even deeper than they naturally were.

However, the doctor was of a most kindly nature and all the boys under his charge, with a few notable exceptions, were greatly attached to him and treated him with admiration as well as respect.

He listened attentively to Jack's story of falling down the ravine and finding the rubber bag and then examined the latter, saying:

"H'm, ha! yes, this is a most important discovery. I am not privileged to examine it closely, that will be the duty of the agent at the station and the officers of the bank, but I am very glad that the bag has been recovered. This packet doubtless contains registered letters for me. I was expecting them and their loss would have caused us all some trouble.

One thing, however. Has no one told you of the danger of wandering through our woods, especially at night?"

d.i.c.k Percival was about to say something which Jack did not want him to say at the moment and he quickly interposed:

"Yes, sir, they have, and I will admit that I was careless. However, I will take better precautions in future."

"Do so. I should be very sorry if anything happened to you and I do not like to restrict the enjoyment of the young gentlemen under my care.

They enjoy walking through the woods but all of them know the danger and I need not restrict them as long as they know where to go."

"Then these things had better be taken to the station and to the bank at Riverton?" asked Jack.

"Yes. To-morrow you and Percival may attend to it. Meanwhile, I will wire the bank officers that some of their property has been found. There will doubtless be a reward given for its recovery and I am very glad that this is so, for your sake."

"My finding it was quite accidental, however, Doctor."

"Even so, the reward has been offered and belongs to you. It is immaterial how the property was found as long as it was found. You must have had a thrilling adventure but I am glad that only your wearing apparel and not you suffered injury."

The bag was left with the doctor and the boys left him, Jack to get whole garments out of his meagre store and d.i.c.k to house his car.

Outside they came upon Herring, who turned pale when he saw Jack and muttered, half under his breath:

"Then you were not killed? I was afraid that----"

"No, he was not," said d.i.c.k, "little thanks, however, to----" but Jack gave him a sudden look and he stopped short.

Herring hurried away to join some of his companions at a little distance and d.i.c.k said:

"I was too much in a hurry, I see, and now it will be harder to discover the truth. Herring will be on his guard."

"And we don't know that he had anything to do with it."

"It lies between him and Merritt, I am certain, but I will keep still after this until I am certain."

Those of the boys who had heard of the accident to Jack were quick to a.s.sure him of their satisfaction that he was not seriously hurt and there the matter rested.

The next day d.i.c.k and Jack went in the runabout to the bank where they delivered the cash box and other things which evidently belonged to it, leaving the package of registered letters and the postage stamps at the station at the foot of the hill.

"I am authorized by the bank to pay you a reward of one hundred dollars for the recovery of this property," said the president, after he had thoroughly examined the contents of the bag. "Shall I pay it to you or put it to your credit in the bank? I will have a book made out if you prefer the latter."

"I think that will be satisfactory," the boy replied. "Then if I desire to draw against it or add to it I can do so."

"Very good, my dear sir. You show the proper spirit. Many young men would wish to spend the amount at once."

"I believe I have learned the value of money, sir," said Jack, quietly, while d.i.c.k laughed and said.

"H'm! I am afraid I would have done just what the president hints at.

Perhaps I have not learned the value of money from having so much of it."

The money was left to the boy's credit and he was supplied with a bank book and blank checks, feeling quite proud at having so much money as it would give him an opportunity to help his mother as well as to pay his bills at the Academy.

"You did not expect to get this, did you, Jack?" asked d.i.c.k.

"No, but I am glad to get it just the same. It means a good deal to me, d.i.c.k, although I suppose you regard it as a mere trifle."

"Well, not so much after all," laughed d.i.c.k, "but, come on. I want to stop at the office of the Riverton News. I furnish them with school items now and then and this is the day before publication. You might tell the editor of your experience yesterday. I have no doubt that he will regard it as a bit of valuable news. He does not get much."

"I would like to see him at any rate," Jack returned. "I always did like to go into a newspaper office."

The newspaper office was down the street a short distance and on the opposite side from the bank and in a decidedly less pretentious building, being in a little two-story wooden affair which looked fully a hundred years old and as if it might fall down at any moment.

They found the editor in his office, sitting at his typewriter in his shirt sleeves and busy preparing an article for the paper, this being the eve of publication day.