“I haven’t! I tell you it isn’t here!”
“Not there!” Gerald turned and stared at the table and from the table to Dan’s hands and from thence to his face. “But—why, I put it there not two hours ago!”
“Are you sure?” Dan looked about the room. “Didn’t you tuck it away in a drawer somewhere?”
“No, I took it out of the bag and put it right here on the table.” Gerald placed his hand on the spot. “And then I went over there to the radiator1 and warmed my hands and feet and looked at it.”
“Well, it’s mighty2 funny,” grumbled3 Dan. “You’d better look in your bureau, Gerald.”
“But I tell you I left it there, Dan!” Nevertheless Gerald opened the drawers one after the[242] other and peeked4 in. “It was there when I went out. I didn’t touch it after I took it out of the bag.”
“What did you do with the bag?” asked Dan, making an unsuccessful search among the cushions of the window seat.
“Tossed it on the table. Isn’t it there?”
“Not a sign of it.” Dan thrust his hands in his pockets and frowned across at his roommate. “Look here, chum, this is sort of peculiar5. Are you certain you went for it?”
“Am I certain—” began Gerald exasperatedly. “Don’t be silly, Dan! Of course, I’m certain. I’m not likely to forget it, for I almost froze coming home.”
“You didn’t drop it on the way? Or leave it anywhere?”
“I brought it up here and put it on the table there,” answered Gerald decidedly and a trifle impatiently. “Some one has taken and hidden it; that’s all there is to it; and I think it’s a pretty poor joke.”
“Was anyone with you?”
“No, I was alone. Let’s look around the room. Some fellow must have stuck it away somewhere.”
“I don’t see who could have done that,” answered[243] Dan. “I don’t believe anyone has been in here this afternoon except you.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” answered Gerald crossly. “I know I left it there and now it’s gone. Look under your bed, Dan.”
They searched the room thoroughly6, looked under the beds and the window seat and the chiffoniers, peered into the dark corners of the closets, pulled things off the shelves, investigated the mattresses7 and, in short, turned the place upside down. Then they sat down and stared at each other.
“Well, it beats me,” said Dan hopelessly. “All I can think is that you imagined it, Gerald.”
“I didn’t imagine it, I tell you! Did you look thoroughly in your bureau?”
“Yes,” Dan replied, but went back to it and took everything out of the drawers, and Gerald did the same with his belongings8. Then they lifted photograph frames and looked behind the radiator and searched in equally impossible places. Finally Dan sank into a chair and Gerald subsided9 on his bed.
“It isn’t in this room,” said Dan decidedly. “Either you imagined that you brought it up here, Gerald, or some one has been in and taken it away.”
[244]
“Then some one has taken it,” said Gerald decisively. “Do you suppose Tom could have come in and seen it and taken it over to Dudley?”
Dan’s face cleared.
“I’ll bet that’s just what happened,” he said. “We’ll stop there when we go to supper and find out. It couldn’t have been anyone but Tom. Alf was at hockey and no one else would have any right to touch it. Let’s wash up and run over there.”
“I don’t suppose anyone would steal it,” said Gerald half questioningly.
“Steal it! Of course not! No one ever gets up here but the fellows and the chambermaids and the faculty10. Besides, it isn’t likely that a thief would have taken the bag too.”
“No, that’s so,” Gerald agreed. “I guess Tom found it and thought Alf wanted it over there.”
But that theory was short-lived. When they reached 7 Dudley they found Tom and Alf just leaving the room to go to commons for supper.
“Say, Tom, did you burglarize our room this afternoon?” asked Dan.
“If I did I’ll bet I didn’t get much,” was the answer. “Why?”
“Didn’t you get the cup?”
[245]
“The cup? What cup are you talking about?”
“The hockey cup. Quit fooling, Tom. You took it, didn’t you?”
Tom saw by the earnest look on Dan’s face that that youth was not joking and so he answered seriously:
“I haven’t been near your room to-day, Dan. What’s up?”
“Why, Gerald says he brought the hockey cup home from Greenburg and put it on the table and left it there when he went to practice. It isn’t there now and we’ve searched high and low for it.”
“That’s a funny game,” said Alf anxiously. “Is that straight, Dan?”
“Yes. The only thing I could think of was that Tom had happened in and taken it over here.”
“Have you looked everywhere in the room?”
“Rather! The place looks like a pigsty11; we’ve pulled everything out of the drawers and even looked under the mattresses. Oh, it isn’t there, Alf. Some one, I don’t know who, has taken it out of that room. I suppose they’ve done it for a joke, but if I catch them I’ll show them who the joke is on.”
“Well, let’s go over to supper. Afterwards we’ll go up to your room and see if we can’t find it.”
[246]
“You’re welcome to look,” said Dan impatiently, “but I tell you it isn’t there.”
“Perhaps whoever swiped it will bring it back by that time,” said Tom cheerfully. “I guess some fresh chump saw it and thought he’d have some fun with you fellows.”
“I’d like to be there when he returned it,” growled12 Dan, as they hurried across to Whitson and supper.
Half an hour later they climbed the stairs to 28. They all more than half expected to see the silver trophy13 standing14 on the table when Dan threw the door open. But it wasn’t there. Alf made the other three sit down and himself began a systematic15 search of the premises16. At the end of ten minutes, however, he was forced to agree with Dan and Gerald. The Pennimore Cup was not in 28 Dudley, wherever it might be. Dan sat down and took one knee into his hands.
“Now let’s get at this thing,” he said. “Tell us just what happened after you got to Proctor’s store, Gerald.”
“I gave him your note and told him I’d come to take the cup back. He went to the window and got it and put it in the flannel17 bag. I took it and walked home with it and when I got up here——”
[247]
“Wait a minute,” Alf interrupted. “Didn’t you say you stopped and got a hot chocolate somewhere?”
“No, I said I wanted to, but I was afraid that if I went into Wallace’s he would recognize me and make a fuss about his broken glasses.”
“So you didn’t stop anywhere after you left Proctor’s?”
“No, not until I got to the bridge.”
“The river bridge? Why did you stop there?”
“Because Harry18 Merrow called to me. He and some other chaps were skating just above the bridge.”
“What did he want?” asked Alf.
“He asked if I was going to skate. He thought the bag was a skate bag, you see. I told him I had the cup in it.”
“Then what?”
“Then,” continued Gerald, trying hard to recall the conversation, “he asked me to go and get my skates and said the ice was fine. I said I had to report for hockey practice. He asked if I expected to make the team and I said not this year. And then I was cold and came on home.”
“What did you do with the cup while you were talking?”
“I kept it under my arm.”
[248]
“Are you sure? You didn’t set it down anywhere—say, on the top of the bridge girder?”
“No, it was under my arm all the time.”
“All right. You brought it straight up here. Didn’t stop anywhere else first?”
“No, I came right up to the room and took the cup out of the bag and put it there. And I tossed the bag about here. Then I went over to the radiator and stood there about ten minutes, I guess, getting my feet and hands warm. And I was looking at the cup and wondering if we would win it. I remember thinking that if Broadwood got it for keeps I’d have dad present another one.”
“Good idea, Gerald. Then what happened?”
“Then I remembered that I’d have to hurry to get to practice on time, and so I——”
“Picked up the cup and put it away. Where did you put it?”
“I didn’t touch it, Alf! I just left it where it was and went over to the gym.”
“Did you close the door as you went out?” asked Tom.
“I—I think so. I’m not sure. I was in a hurry, you know.”
“You don’t remember hearing it close behind you?”
[249]
“N-no, I don’t. But I’m sure I almost closed it, Tom.”
Tom arose and went into the hall, leaving the door some six inches ajar. Then he returned and opened it wider, and finally he came back, closing it behind him.
“The door would have to be almost half open,” he reported, “for anyone in the corridor to be able to see the cup where Gerald put it. You’re sure you didn’t leave it that far open, Gerald?”
“Positive,” was the reply. “I may not have latched20 it, but——”
“Hold on a minute,” Dan interrupted. “The window at the end of the corridor was open at the top this afternoon. I remember that because it was so blamed cold when we came up before supper.”
“What do you mean?” asked Alf. “That some one might have got in that window?”
“Of course not! I mean that if there was a draft in the hall this door might have blown open if Gerald didn’t latch19 it as he went out.”
“That’s so. How was it when you came back?”
“Closed,” answered Dan promptly21.
“Shut tight,” agreed Gerald.
[250]
“Looks, then, as though some one might have been in,” said Tom.
“Great Scott!” said Dan. “There’s no question about that, Tom. Gerald is sure he left the cup here on the table and now it’s gone. Some one came in, all right enough, but who was it?”
“Who is this Merrow chap?” asked Tom. “Is he the youngster that rooms with Arthur Thompson, Gerald?”
“Yes,” answered Gerald.
“You remember Merrow,” said Alf impatiently, “the kid that Gerald and Thompson pulled out of Marsh22 Lake last spring?”
“Oh, yes. Well, he isn’t the sort to try a joke like this, is he? You see, he seems to be the only one that knew Gerald had the cup.”
“Not the only one,” said Gerald. “There were six or seven other fellows around there; Craig and Milton and—and Bicknell; I don’t remember the rest; two or three of them I didn’t know. And Hiltz was there, too, only he was farther away.”
“Hiltz!” said Dan.
“Hiltz,” murmured Alf. The three exchanged questioning glances.
“Was he near enough to hear what you and[251] Merrow were saying?” asked Dan. Gerald considered.
“I don’t believe so. He might have heard, though. You know voices sound pretty plain on the ice.”
“How far was he from where you were?”
“About seventy-five or eighty feet, I think.”
“Was he nearer than that to Merrow?”
“Oh, yes, Merrow was about twenty feet from the bridge. Hiltz was sitting on the bank at the right. I suppose he was fifty feet from Harry.”
“What do you think?” asked Alf, turning to Dan. Dan shook his head in a puzzled way.
“I don’t know,” he said. “He might have. Maybe he thought it would be a good way to get even with the three of us at one fell swoop23. By the way, where does he live?”
“In Whitson; second floor,” answered Tom. “I don’t know his number, though.”
“If we could find out what he did after Gerald left him,” muttered Dan. “Harry Merrow might know how long he was on the ice.”
“Yes, but he might have come in here any time during the two hours from three to five.”
“Yes, but if he meant to swipe the cup he would have done it while he was certain that both Gerald and I were at hockey practice, and he[252] would probably have done it early in the afternoon.”
“It wouldn’t have been a hard thing to do,” said Tom. “He knew you were both on the ice, there aren’t many fellows around at half past three, say, and on a cold day like this most every fellow that is at home keeps his door closed. He might have walked in here, taken the cup, put it under his coat and walked out again, and no one would have seen him.”
“Suppose he did,” said Alf. “What do you think he would do with it? Hide it in his room?”
“Not likely, I guess,” answered Tom, “but still he might. There are plenty of places around the school he might have put it. If we were only certain he had taken it——”
“That’s the trouble,” growled Alf. “We can’t go to him and say, ‘Hiltz you stole the Pennimore Cup out of Dan’s room this afternoon and we want it back!’ After all, I don’t believe Hiltz is a thief.”
“I don’t suppose he is,” said Dan, “and he probably wouldn’t call it thieving. If he has taken it he’s done it just to make trouble for us and with no idea of keeping the cup himself. Probably he means to return it before the game, or leave it where it will be found.”
[253]
“It’s just the same as stealing,” exclaimed Gerald angrily, “and I’ll bet he did it! He knew I had it and he hates me like poison since I beat him in the cross-country, and more since I got into Cambridge. And he hates Dan for defeating him at the election.”
“Well, I’m inclined to think you’re right, Gerald,” said Alf. “But the question before the meeting is: What are we going to do? We’ve got to get hold of that cup before the game on Saturday, and to-morrow’s Friday. We’d look like a pretty lot of idiots if we had to tell Broadwood that we’d lost the cup! I wish we hadn’t gone and exhibited it in Proctor’s window.”
“Oh, we’ve got to get hold of it before Saturday,” said Dan. “What we’d better do, I guess, is to report it to Mr. Collins. On the face of it it’s a plain case of theft, and we’re not supposed to have any suspicions of Jake Hiltz.”
“That’s so, I guess,” agreed Alf. “Perhaps Collins can scare whoever took it into giving it back. Anyhow, I’ve got to go home and study. Suppose you and Gerald come over after study hour and we’ll find Collins and put it up to him.”
“All right,” Dan agreed. “But I would like to know where Hiltz spent his afternoon!”
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1
radiator
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| n.暖气片，散热器 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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4
peeked
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| v.很快地看( peek的过去式和过去分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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6
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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7
mattresses
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| 褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 ) | |
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belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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pigsty
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| n.猪圈，脏房间 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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trophy
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| n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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18
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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19
latch
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| n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁 | |
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latched
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| v.理解( latch的过去式和过去分词 )；纠缠；用碰锁锁上（门等）；附着（在某物上） | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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swoop
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| n.俯冲，攫取；v.抓取，突然袭击 | |
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