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Or, THE TURNING
a | By BURT L.

CHAPTER I.

RHODA’S BROTHER.

>

~ Bully Carson, of Carsonville, arrayed in his “glad rags,
"Was pawing over the piles of queer clothing displayed on
the counters of Epstein’s Emporium, in Fardale.
~~ Bully considered himself a “sport.” The colors of
©) his clothing would have made a flower garden envious.
AY Tn his necktie, which was a screaming scarlet, was a glit-
© © tering paste diamond, that was half as big as a pigeon’s
* egg.
As he pawed at the clothing, he rolled round in (his
coarsé mouth a thick cigar; which was unlighted.
~ *Y™ ain't got anything with bright colors etough,” he
grumbled to Epstein. “Bright colors, the brighter the
better, is what goes with any kind of a masked business.
These here are sober enough for them Fardale cadets.
They might suit Chip Merriwell and his bunch, but not
MiG. .
; Epstein threw out another load of the queer clothes.
\Here. iss brighter,” he said; “here iss a domino vot
ih big’ black and white; here iss a pirate suit vot goes
init a sword and pistol and mit high jack boots; here iss
a brigand vot vears a peaked cap and a red cloak, and
_ here iss a Highlander, vot haf a plaid suit and stockings
_and iss naked on his knees—but dot vouldn’t be fine for
vinter and a skating at night on de ice. I must send
» dot back to de wholesaler, and tell him he iss a fool to
"send me a suit mit naked knees in de vinter. De nicer
vuns are fife dollars, and de nexdt three dollars, and
‘de next two, De domino he iss two. Take your choice.”
"Then Epstein hurried away to the front of his store;
“because a customer whom he knew favorably had appeared
_ there.
“| ign Looking at the piles of clothing were a few other

| people, among them a young fellow who strolled along
fs tag .

    
  
   
   
   
 

 

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
  
  
    
   
 

FRANK MERRIWELL, JUNIOR, AND THE ICE MASQUERADE

OF THE TABLES..
STANDISH.

leisurely, with a cigarette hanging limply betwéen his.lips.
His face was a pasty white. He was well dressed and
assumed the air of a gentleman.

He glanced at Bully Carson, as Epstein hurried away.
Sidling up.to Carson, he said:

“So you don’t like him, eh?”

“Who ?”

“Chip Merriwell.”

Carson swung round and looked hard at the youth who
had addressed him.

“I guess 1 wasn’t talkin’ to you,” he said.
I don’t know yuh.”

“Where is the masked ball going to be pulled. off?”

“Anyway,

said the other, nodding toward the piles of clothing.

“Enough stuff here to fit out a town. I judge it’s going
to be an exteisive affair.”

“Ice carnival,” Carson explained. “Y’ ever been out
on Lily Lake? There’s where it’s to be. The ice is
great now, and I reckon there'll be hundreds o’ péople
there.”

“It’s to be at night?”

“Oh, sute! There’s a great moon now, and thé nights
are ’most as light as day. There'll be people from all
round. There'll be a bunch up from Carsonville, and
from Franklin and Fairport, and other places. Then,
there’s the Fardale crowd, and the students.”

“And Chip Merriwell?”

He noted the frown with which Bully Carson heard
the name.

*T can see that you don’t like him. See here; I’m willing
to pay you for information.”

“What kind uh information?”

“About Merriwell.”

Carson flicked a glance round.

“Come over to the end o’ the counter,” he said; “at
the rear o’ the room; nobody back there.”

  

 
   

  

2 ae Rea me : : EW. ‘Lie

 

jpHe let his"eyes rove back to the face“and figure of the
youth before him, and then he turned and led@ the way.

“Merriwell’s no friend wh mine,” he growlétipwhen they
were together near the rear door. “Pll say that. Buot—I
Se don’t know yuh!”
~ }“My name is Realf—Robert Realf, and I live in Cam-
Pi ee bridge.”

Me “Realf?” said Carson, with a stare.
Mg “That's what I said! Anything funny about it?”
“Tt ain't a common name. There’s a girl here wearing
it, She is from Cambridge, too.”
wait @ My sister.”
wy > Catson shrugged his thick shoulders.

“I guess | don’t want to say anything to you about
Merriwell, then.”

“No? Why not?”

Carson chewed his cigar round, and looked steadily at
Realf.

“Huh! You don’t look anything like your sister! What
© yuh got against Merriwell? If Miss Realf is your sister,
* FT cam tell you that she thinks Chip Merriwell is about the
oo “onliest thing that ever came down the pike.”

Realf’s eyes narrowed angrily. He glanced round,
' Make sure no other person was near, and then he vehad
‘closer to Carson.

  

od

%
:

/

“Tell. me something about that ?” he invited.

z . Carson continued to chew at his cigar, Here was a
. singular youth, he was thinking.
“"Bout what?” he asked. “And—I ain’t seen the color
@ your money.”

Robert Realf drew a roll of bills out of his pocket,

“Tm going to say to you what you said to me—TI don’t
know yeah! Come across with the information,” he urged.
“Maybe we can do business together, and maybe we can't.”

Although Bully Carson, morally and physically, was a
most unwholesome young animal, he had a. very high
opinion of himself and his position in life.

“Glad to 'commodate yuh,” he declared, taking out his
Cigar and: waving, it round in his pudgy hand. “You'll
find: I’m all right.. I’m Bully Carson, son of Colonel Car-
son, of Carsonville. If I do say it, my father is one
of the best known’ and Jeadin’ men anywhere round here.
And "he’s: a sport... Yeh wouldn’t think it, to see him, but
he'll back a ball. game, or any old kind uh ‘game, plum’
to the limit; and nine times in ten he'll win. When he
loses,. he loses like a gentleman. I'll say all: that,. and
feel proud of it; though, right now, him and.me are at
outs: So there’s my pedigree.”

“And Chip Merriwell?”

“No use for him. He’s got me in bad two or. three
times. Some day I'll be in a position to even things with
e him, and Fl do it regardless. You hear me!”

“He has: returned to the Fardale school?”

“T don’t know, and I don’t care. All I know is, he’s
here; been here all through the Christmas holidays, He’s
had a great time—in his way, and all the Fardale fellers
tailin’ round after him. That’s what he likes.”

Robert Realf peeled a five-dollar bill off the roll that
bulged his pocket, and passed it to Carson, who. clutched
it eagerly, and looked at the roll with envious eyes.

“Pay me like this all the time,” he said, “and you can
command me, Want me to beat up Chip Merriwell?, Make
it ten, and [ll do it any old time.”

“Alt. I want right now,” said Realf, “is for you to
explain what you said, about Chip Merriwell and .my sis-

 

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a di

ay

ter. I don’t mind telling you that’s whys I’m down here. %
She claimed @pt she wanted to come to this place for awe
visit with a Srl frien@ through the Christmas holidays. 2
But she must have Wtiown, then, that Chip*was to be heres
Maybe you know that he had be«
I thought he meant to stay there
self not long ago, and my sister was, and: it’s there a
got to know him. My father bought a silver mine near. S
Santa Fe, and Dick Merriwell investigated it for Him fa
That’s how I got acquainted with ’em. |My sister made oF
a fool of herself about Chip, and father brought her 7
home. The other day my mother got a telegram from Mrs.” ‘ay
Winfield, who keeps the boarding house where my sister a
is stopping here, and there was soniething in it about aaa
Chip Merriwell. Then, as soon as I copped a roll, T came aaa
here myself, just to look into things. He’s a cheap skate, "| on 1h.
and I hate him, and I’m going to break up this affair =
between him and my sister if I can,’ %
“Give me a tenner to pound his head in. Pll send hint ee
to a hospital, and then you can take your sister back om ay
home, and a
. There was an interruption, a
They. had not noticed that across a corner of the room, ©
curtains were strung, forming a tiny dressing room, where
prospective purchasers of clothing could retire. J
The curtain was. swept, aside, and a strange figure came
out—a figure clothed in ghostly. white from head to foot.
The head covering was of the.same material, and drose y
in a peak. This head covering came down to the Meck, ‘ie
but there were holes in it, representing eyes, nosé, and |
mouth. Altogether the sight furnished would have been
enough to frighten. the timid, on a dark night. There
were several of these ghost: suits on Epstein’s counters; -
and some one evidently had slipped into the little dress
room to try one on. Yet.the thing was startlingly sin
lar, when the ghost began to speak, which it did, after,
had pranced. belligerently forward:

      

   
  

   
  

  
   
  

n down in New Mexico

  

| was down there my- i

ina

    
    
   
    
  
  
   
   
  
  
  
   
  
   
   
    
  
    
  
   
   
   
   
  
    
 

   

  
  

    
  
    
   
 
  
   
   
    
   

 

 

“You ton’dt know me und I ton’dt know you, but’ i‘ta.3
am hearing vot you saidt it. Und uff you saidt it aan
I vill make you eadt. my vords,”

A round arm and a fat ‘fist came out of the Sowing
sleeve, and the fist was shaken vidhently under ‘the. nose
of Robert Realf: 1

Realf stepped back so. suddenly’ and with such aj ter j
that he came near swallowing his cigarette.’ He cough “
it out, choked, and threw it on the floor. ae

“Who—who is this fine he demanded of Bufly tlt a
son. |

   

 

        
   
  

  
   

“I am mysellef, und I can We der veller vot says,
ferent. You vos sbeaking uff Chip Merriwell. it
going to vhip him vor ten tollars.
und I vill smash my face in.”

Carson retreated against the counter, and he did it
with such haste that he pushed a pile of clothing so that
it sagged, ready to fall to the floor. Realf retreated with ~
him, \

“Qh, I know who you are,” said Carson, and tried to
laugh; “you’re one of the fools that sneezes every tine a)
Merriwell takes snuff. Your name is Kess!” We tale

“Right I'am. Villum Kess iss me I'am bicking: me ea
suidt yor to vear at de ice carnifal, und you ton’dt’
it, und you make der talk mit your moudh ‘so big. ;
it to me yonee again, und I vill make you eadt m
tidn’t know I am listening. As vor dis odder velle

Say idt vonée ag my

          
       
       
  

       
      
 

  

    
  

  

     

  

      
     

         
   
    

(<8

had

V
stef
tow
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any more sensitifness dan to dalk apowet his sis-

er——” we ” ’
“Aw, cut it out!” Realf growled.

_ “Uff he vos yoost a liddle pigger I vouldt smash his

face in. But ledt me say somet’ing. Der poy who vill talk

as he has apowet his owen sisder may vear fine clodings,

und smoke cigareddes, und haf blendy uff money, but as.

vor being a chentlemans, he ton’dt know efen der mean-
ing. Dot iss my obinion uff you, youngk man.”

Realf fell back, as if he expected a blow.
“Oh, I vouldt not hidt you! You are no pigger as twice.
_ Uff I fighdt somepody idt iss dhis odder veller. I vouldt
velcome a fighdt mit him. Aber you ton’dt know him,
ledt me dell you dot he haf been already arrested vor
purglary dis past week, und.der meanness uff vhich he iss
guildy , f

_ “Recollect they couldn’t prove anything,” said Carson.
“Chip Merriwell was back of that, too, and you know
it. He sent the constable. Why don’t you tell the rest
of it—that Chip Merriwell was himself suspected of doing
that burglary, and that at first the constable was after
him? I think he was the one who did it, too. He accused
me, and had the constable take me, just to draw suspicion
away from himself. Why don’t you--—”

The white-robed figure came leaping at him, with the
round fist’ uplifted. Carson ducked backward. Then the
ends of the white robe caught under Kess’ clumsy feet,
vand down he vent, shaking the building. At the same
instant the pile of clothing toppled from the counter to
the floor, falling on top of him and burying him from
sight.

Bully Carson laughed, and retreated again.
“Come along,” he said to Realf. “We'll go and find a
place where we can sure talk in safety.
just a fat dub that tags round after Merriwell, and who
sometimes thinks he can fight because he is big and awk-

He’s only a Dutch windbag. If he had said any-
thing more to me, I would have hammered his head
in.”

Realf looked -at Carson queerly, then glanced at Kess.
The pile of clothing was squirming. From one end a pro-
truding foot kicked and waved.

_ Hellup! Hellup!” came in a smothered call.

‘The proprietor was ‘approaching.

“What iss der matter?” he demanded.

“That big fool accidentally pulled a pile of stuff down
on top of him,* Carson reported.

“Ach, my peautiful maskit suits; dhey are being ruined!
I shall sharge fife tollars for dhis.”

“Charge him, then,”
had nothing to do with it.”

When Villum Kess kicked himself free, aided by Ep-
stein, Carson and Realf were gone. The proprietor
towered angrily over him.

“Dot peautiful ghost suit vot you haf on, you haf
-Tuined it!” .

“Und der odder vuns fall down und ruin me.
a equality. Vare iss der odder vellers?”

“Tt iss fife tollars I sharge you.”

Kess unwound himself and stood up, shedding parti-

colored garments. The white peak of his cap was knocked

So idt iss

| to one side, and one eye was looking out through the .

_ ring, were peasant costumes, sailor costumes, Indian war
bonnets, brigand ‘outfits, ghost suits, and imitation armor.

As for him, he’s -

said Carson—‘“charge him ten ; ; we /

forth.

’

“uff, I can dake ditis ghost
suidt mit me vor ‘my owen. I bat heardt feefdy tollars ©
vort! When I am standing behind in der corner I heardt
idt. Tvice vun iss two;-tvice two iss four. Yoost , so
sure also und likevise, dhem vellers iss blanning a schemes
against Chip Merriwell. say.idt to him. Und uff
he ton’dt knock dot schemes into der mittle uff der nexdt
veek

“I sharge you fife tollars.
lost me dhose customers.”

“You losdt . nottings.
sdore.

“It iss vort idt,” he said,

I shall

Idt should be

Dhey are a disgracing to your
Ledt me gidt me oudt uff dhis suidt. A ghost.
ton’dt haf no money.” ;

He shed it, and threw it on the counter.

Epstein looked regretful, as Kess went out an thie’
suit under his arm. a

“T shouldt haf made him pay me more.
ghost suit cost me two tollars.”

Dot peautiful —

CHAPTER II, *
VILLUM KESS REPORTS.

The information brought by Villum Kess,\ that Robert
Realf was in Fardalé, and plotting with Bully Carson, was,
an unpleasant bit of news for Chip Merriwell.

The thoughts of Rhoda Realf’s unworthy brother that
he had managed to keep at the back of his mind were
forced to the front.

That so fine a girl as Rhoda could havea brother so
lacking in honor and all the better qualities had from
the first been a mystery that was no nearer solution now
than when he made young Realf’s acquaintance in
Santa Fe.

There, Robert Realf had not only done small and mean ‘
things, but cowardly and criminal ones. Chip could not
forget the contents of the letter that Barney Mulloy had
taken from that arch villain, Herbert Hammerswell, which
showed that Hammerswell had been hired by Realf to attack
Chip out in the New Mexican hills. Hammerswell had
gone beyond his, instructions, it is true, and had tried
to kill Chip.

“Oh, well, Pll just keep away from hin” said Chip.

“Und make oudt dot you are as big a cowardt as I am?”
Kess protested. “Dot iss enough to: make you ashamed
uff me.” ‘

Kess had put on his ghost suit over his regular cloth-
ing, and was walking round the room in it when Clancy
appeared. Clancy stopped in the door with his hands
uplifted, pretending fright.

“Help! Help!”

“I make a peautiful disguise in idt,” said Kess; “you
don’. know me vhen you seen idt. Yedt already I am
peginning to be afraidt dot I can’t vear idt by der ice
carnifal. Vhen I exblanadion you will know vot I mean.
Bully Carson und youngk Realf haf seen me in idt. Dot
sboils idt, ton’dt idt?”

“Help! Help! + Chip, tell me what Kess is driving at.
Or, does he know. himself?”

Chip did not wish to talk about it. Kess set the matter

‘

Clancy had dropped into a chair; and clattered his
skates to the floor. He had blown in like a breath of
fresh air, his cheeks glowing. As he sat down, he threw
back his coat and drew off his mittens. They were in
Clancy’s room, at the academy.

 

ten, vor you |
  

 
 

/

NEW ‘TIP

The redhead laughed as he listened to the confused story
of Kess’ experiences at Epstein’s, Then he remarked:

“Old Ep cheated you out-of your eyetecth: Hé offered
to jet me have that ghost suit you've got on, or one
just like it, for fifty cents; that is, he would rent it to
me for the night of the carnival for that; and who would
want it for a longer time?”

“But der misinformation vot I got!
mot buy vun corner uff der walue uff dot!
know vot dhose two vellers vill be doing?”
@ We do, eh?” Clancy grunted doubtfully. “You hand it
over to me.”

“Dhey vill git oop a schemes against ower friendt here.
Iss idt not?” 2

“What kind of a scheme?”

“Oh, T’ton’dt know yet. Idt iss for us to find idt oudt.”

He turned to Chip.

“Ve vill vatch ’em mitout sleepiness—avake all der time
ve vill be, und yoost ven dhey are going to blay der
schemes, ve vill be on der chob. JI can vhip dot Realf
vhen his handts are tied behint me, unt Clancy can vhip
dot Carson feller, und you can vhip bot’ uff us, und .

“Help! Help!” Clancy cried again.

“Vot iss der matter?”

“You make my head, go round too fast, trying to follow
you, If you could look at yourself, Villum!”

Kress waddled over to the little mirror on the opposite
wall.

Fife tollars vouldt
Now. ve

 

“Idt iss make me afraidt, yoost to seen me,” he ad-
mitted. “Uff I shouldt meet me in a dark nighdt I shouldt
run avay from mysellef. Vot do you say, uff ve all get
’em, und be t’ree uff a kind?”

“It- wouldn’t do, Kess. We'd, scare everybody off the
lake.”

“I musdt t’ink me oop some plans by vich I can scare
dot Carson feller indo a lunadick asylums for der insane,”
Kess declared. “Idt vouldt serfe him righdt uff I scared
him oudt uff my head.”

Chip went down to the lake, shortly afterward, accom-
panied by Kess, who still wanted to talk about what he
had overheard at Epstein’s, though Chip did not en-
courage it.

The lake was now in fine condition for skating. Two
days before, the-weather had turned suddenly warm, and
a rain had fallen. This had cleared the ice of snow. Then
a hard freeze had followed, and the water left on the ice
by the melted:snow and the rain had been turned into ice
so clear and smooth that it was like glass. So now the
skating ground extended from one end of the lake to the
other.

This change in the condition of the lake was the thing
that had suggested the ice masquerade.

The only thing which Chip had regretted was that the
sleighing snow was gone, and he had enjoyed sleighing
over the snowy roads about Fardale.

Not until Chip and Kess were out on their skates, skim-
ming over the ice, were they aware that among the other
skaters was Robert Realf. He passed them, swinging
easily along, showing that he was a good skater.

“De wery feller vot I seen,” said Kess, “He ditn’t efen
look at you.”

“We'll pay no attention to him,” said Chip. Fa

He wished Kess would drop the subject. After all,
Realf was Rhoda’s brother, and to talk about him seemed

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hemes peoPEP Treo é > ie

    

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mentioned ; ded ee vaishileed clad
“T ain’dt vearing der ghost suidt,
me,” said Kess. “But she shouldt of known you.”

“We'll skate down to the other end of the lake,”
Chip; “here’s to race you!”

It would have been the easiest thing in the world for him
to have run away from Kess, but he moderated his pace,
so that the heavier German boy could readily keep close
to him.

“T ought to have der ghost suidt on, und be bracticing
mit it,” Kess observed, as he plugged along.

When they returned to the starting point they saw
that Robert Realf had left the ice and was walking away,
with his skates in his pocket. %

They then went on toward the other end of the lala,
thus following the course taken by Realf when they first
beheld him.

Near this lower end of the lake, Chip, who had kept up
an almost preternatural watch, noticed fine parallel lines
that cut across the ice there.

He came round with a whirling stop when he saw them,
and stood looking, when Kess drew up beside him.

“Vot iss?”

“Nothing,” said Chip. Then he asked: “Is there an ice
company in Fardale that cuts ice here now?”

“Not yedt. Along in Feb’uary dere iss some-ice cut-
tings. You mean dhose lines?”

“It looks as if they had been drawn there to show the
ice cutters where to begin.”

Kess ran his eyes along them, then said the thing that
was in Chip’s own mind:

“Dot feller vot ve seen, eh? He vos down here. Vot
uff he made idt? Und vhy vouldt he?”

“T don’t know,” said Chip, “Others have been down
here. Some one drew those marks across the ice—just
to kill time.”

“To kill time, heh? To drown somepody, you mean. He
iss going to kill de ghost? . Dot iss me. Vell, I von’t vear
der suidt. So I vill miss idt.”

“T think it doesn’t mean anything, Kess. Come along.”

It seemed silly to think it meant anything, and Chip tried
to put it out of his mind.

At neon, when he went over to Mrs. Winfield’s boarding
and lodging house, where he was still stopping, he encoun-
tered Robert Realf in the long hall.

said

A flush sprang to Realf’s face. He stopped and stared.
Then he put out his hand, forcing a smile.

“Well, I’m glad to see you. I didn’t know you: were
staying here. How is old.Santa Fe? Th’ tap av th’
marnin’ to yez, as Barney Mulloy would say.”

The effrontery of the fellow was astounding.

Though Chip was not deceived, he was glad to have it
this way, and he gave Realf his hand; yet it was almost
enough to daze’ him, the light way in which Realf men-
tioned Barney Mulloy. For Realf knew he had full knowl-
edge of that infamous deal with Herbert Hammerswell.

Chip affected a light air, and they stood together talk-
ing, in general terms, about Santa Fe and matters of com-
mon knowledge in the Southwest.

“No doubt,” said Realf, and he twisted a laugh, “you've
heard before this, from your fat German friend, about
his experience in Epstein’s store? He probably has. told
you all the stuff he thinks he overheard there, and doesn’t

know that we knew he was behind the curtain, and that

und he ton’dt ese ae

   

 
    
  
 
 
   
  
  
   
 
  
 
   
    
   
    
    
    
   
     
    
   
   
   
    
  
   
  
  
  
   
   
   
  
    
  
  
  
   
    
 
   
  
   

 

te pus

an -~ “ Spel = aa . ie SS ae ele mae ate et a eee

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all we said was for his exclusive benefit. Did he tell
you how that pile of clothing fell down on top of him?
That was funny.”

“It was funny, the way he told it,’ Chip confessed.

“So he did mention it? Carsoh said he would be sure
to. By the way, what do you know about that fellow—
Bully Carson? I’ve been told since that he is crooked.
If that’s so, I can’t afford to speak to him again. I just
happened to fall in with him at the station.”

“I haven’t anything to say against Carson.”

“You mean you don’t care to?”

“That’s what I mean. You can find out all about him
by making a few inquiries of disinterested parties.”

Chip hurried on to his room as soon as he could escape.
He was mentally ruffled. Apparently, Robert Realf had
changed. Yet he knew the change was only apparent. In
his new guise, he was likely to prove even a more dan-
gerous enemy.

CHAPTER III.
AT DICKEY’S.

One of the places in the town to which strangers almost
invariably drifted, if the time ‘was evening, was Dickey’s
cigar store.

Dickey did not have the very best of reputations. It
was whispered round that in a back room there, any one,
who could be trusted not to talk, could find a drink by
paying exorbitantly for it, and that upstairs was another
room, fitted up restfully, where young fellows who had
an ache for a card game were privileged to risk their
money.

It would have been hard for a rank outsider to prove
any of these things. Dickey was shrewd. He had a
twinkling eye, a pleasant manner, and an itching palm.
The gerieral public knew that, and knew little more, though
they mistrusted a great deal.

Bully Carson was now and they, when in the town, a
frequenter of Dickey’s. He liked to stand round in the
cigar store, display his loud clothing, and be seen smoking
Dickey’s, strong cigars.

Dickey tolerated him, because, when he had money,
Carson was a good spender. In addition, being of. the
sporting variety, Carson seemed by instinct able to “affix
himself to every man of like proclivities who came to
Fardale, and guided them unerringly into Dickey’s. If
Carson won, Dickey received ten per cent of his winnings
for the use of the upstairs room; while, if Carson lost,
Dickey was out nothing.

Dickey, therefore, was not surprised, that evening, when
Carson came into the cigar store with a young stranger,
whom he introduced as Robert Realf, of Cambridge.
“Some good cigars, Dickey,” said Carson; “good ones,
- now, mind you! No two-fers. Two for a quarter is what
\ I want. Realf ain’t used to smoking no cheap brands,
y peer
Dickey rolled some cigars out on his show case.
“Any uh the boys in?” said Carson, with the faintest
swing of his head, to indicate the room above.
“Not yet,” said Dickey. “Be in by and by, some of ’em.
Your friend that kind?”
He looked at Realf, smiling.
“Well, Realf here ain’t no easy thing,”
can tell yuh that. He’s been about.

said Carson; “I
Lives in Cambridge,
« I a 'Y’ ain’t never heard uh Ruel re now ?”

;

He winked at Dickey, and covered the wink by scratching
his match and lighting his cigar. Realf, at the moment, _
was bending over to light his at the flame of the little —
lighter that burned in a red globe by the counter. —~

“Sure I have,” said Dickey, winking back, and sil smil= eae

ing. “Rich, ain’t he?” a%: .

“About the richest man in these parts,” Cat declared
“Rob, my friend Here, is recently back from New: “Mexico,
where his father bought a silver mine. Do you catch
on to that? A whole silver mine! I wish Phad one
corner of it.” i Sete

“Oh, well, that’s nothing,”
like this boasting, though it gratified his vanity.

Carson laughed, and sucked at his cigar.

“To a feller like you, Realf, it maybe ain’t, but ’twould
be a whole lot to me. One little silver mine don’t amount —
to much to a man like Realf’s father, so Realf don’t think
anything about it. Maybe if my father owned real estate
in Boston and Cambridge and Brookline, and had bales
of bank stock and bonds and all that besides, I’d feel the
same way.” Be ee

“Silver mine down in New Mexico,” said Dickey mus-
ingly. “That’s where Chip Merriwell has been, I think.”

He caught the frown that came to Carson’s face.

“But Merriwell is a bluffer,” he added, understanding — ka

the meaning of that frown. “He was here in the academy —
last year, and made more enemies than he did friends.
I’ve heard a lot of the fellows say in here that they’re
hoping he never comes back.” é

“That’s right,” said Carson; “I’ve heard the same thing.
Just because his father and his uncle went through Far-
dale, when he came here he seemed to think he owned «
the whole place, and a lot of the fellows wouldn’t stand
for it. That’s why he wasn’t here the first half of this
year, and made an excuse that his father wanted him to
stay down in Santa Fe.”

Realf leaned back against the counter and blew rings of
smoke at the ceiling, while Carson and Dickey talked thus
across the counter for his benefit.

Some other fellows drifted in, and Carson treated thai
to the cigars. The air began to be blue with smoke.
of them sat round the stove, warming up while they sm¢
and talked. Dickey had long talked of installing s
heat, but had not yet “got round to it.”

Among others who drifted in was a ‘sailor boy who was
already half-seas under. His face had coal soot on it, and —
was screwed up and wrinkled, as if his “jag” was hurting
him, ~He lurched heavily as he came in at the door, and
flung staggeringly against the counter.

“Look out that you don’t cave the show case in,” Dickey
warned. '

“No, I’m all right,” the young fellow drawled;
Dickey’s place?”

“Yes, this is Dickey’s,” said the proprietor.

The young fellow sprawled against the counter, looked
heavily at Dickey, and winked.

“*Sall right,'then. I w-was tol that if the’ was any
place in this town where I c’d git drink it was Dickey’s.’

Dickey flushed.

“Wrong, my friend,” be said. \

“Nossin’ doin’ here?” \

“Not a thing, my friend. Everything I. have for sale
you see right before you. Perhaps you'd like a cigar? Or
a package of cigarettes?” ite

The young sailor straightened up saad looked round —

 

said Realf, as if he did ‘not A

Some —
  

_ at the other occupants. His hat was pulled down, and his

hair was in. his eyes. His sooty, screwed-up face had a

rea flush. (Evidently he had already taken more liquor

‘than was good for him.

“Great oF town!” he sputtered. ‘“Nossin’ to drink!

fell, we got do somethin’. How many in here? Lemme

feo 1?

» tie began to count them, beckoning with his forefinger

band coumune aloud.

“Yen im Here. Zat right, landlord? I see ten, *£ my eyes

-aim t lookin double.”

" *That’s right,” said Dickey.

“Set *em up th’ cigars—best ye got. I don’t smoke.
"Taint allowed on the schooner yacht Minerva... You know
th’ Minerva, don’t yuh? Course, all you fellers knows, th’

Minerva! Hauled up\in th’ basin at Fairport f’r th’ win-

7) tee. “Well, I'm one o’ th’ crew. Stoppin’ in Boston till

is | spring, when J go in her again. Owner sent me down yes-

<< _terday to look her over and see how she’s doin’. Then

%

| have Cigars. Set ’em up, Dickey.”

Dickey threw a handful of cigars out on the glass.

All the fellows in the room, including Carson and Realf,
‘Stepped up and selected-their weed. And soon the air
Was blue with tobacco smoke.

In paying for the cigars, the sailor boy had jingled
What seemed a handful of coins in his pocket, and then

. had drawn out a roll of bills, from the top of which he
had pulled a bill to tender in payment.
fi Carson’s covetous eyes watched where that roll went
F when it was slid back, and observed the bulge of the pocket
e that held it. Immediately he wanted it.
Half an hour or so later the sailor boy was in the room
upstairs, with Bully Carson and Robert Realf, and cards

’ were on the table before them.

Carson had maneuvered it, aided by Dickey, who saw
that Carson desired to “pluck” both Realf and the sailor.

“My name’s Sim Sample,” the sailor had told them;
“and some people changes that round to Simple Sam. I

 

Te reckon I am that, too, at times. ’Casionally I’m that all
ts the time, ’r I wouldn’t go round pullin’ ropes’ on no
Rg schooner yacht for thirty dollars a month and found; I’d
: be tunnin’ a place like Dickey’s, here,.and makin’ a bar’l

* "+ 0” money.”

But when he got upstairs he refnsed to drink from the
bottle that Carson produced and passed round.

“When I first came in,” he said. “I wanted it; but I’m
gittin’ the fool kinks out uh my head now, and I’m recol-
lectin’ that I’ve got to be back in Boston to-morry and face
the owner; make a report to him. How’m I goin’ to, if I
throw in another drink? So I pass it up. Help yerselves;
I’m, givin’ yuh my good wishes. Recollectin’ about that
makes me see that I can’t drink with ye.”

He refused again, when Carson once more pressed
him.

Soon he was too sleepy even to play cards, and fell over
against the table, letting his cards slip out of his hand to
the floor. ©

CHAPTER IV.
THE PLOTTERS.

_ “All in,” said Carson, with a laugh. “Oh, well, it’s all
right; you and me, then, for a little game. Eh?”
g
Realf had been drinking, in Dickey’s back room, and was

 

 

NEW TIP TOP. WEEKLY.

Wicome up to this town. Nossin’ to drink! Well, we can .

ready for the tempter; also, he had a good opinion of his
ability as a card player.

“Drag that thing to one side,” he growled, when the
sailor snoréd, lying with his arms hooked over the edge of
the table. “Maybe you’d better throw him out.”

Carson had no desire to throw the sailor out until after
he had been given a chance to put his thieving fingers ‘on
the money that lay in the sailor’s pocket.

So he dragged the sailor away from the table, pulled
him with little ceremony to the end of the room, and let
him drop there. The sailor lay in a heap where he
fell.

“Dead to the world,” said Carson, and laughed, in his
coarse and contemptuous way as he came back to the
table.

The sailor snored, as the card game proceeded.

In the intervals of the play, while the cards were being
shuffled or dealt, and sometimes while the play was in
progress, they talked of other things aside from the gamé—
of their meeting in Epstein’s, and of Kess and Chip Mer-
riwell.

“It will be easy enough to spot Kess,” Carson observed,
“as he will be wearing that scary ghost suit and falling
down on himself every time he turns round. He’s an
awful bungler.”

Realf snapped a catd down on the table.

“Yet you\told me he was in that last hockey match!
Don’t get into the unpleasant habit of contradicting your-
self. I'd like to be able to believe somebody in this
town.”

“Well, it’s funny about that,” observed Carson, raking
the cards to his side, as he took the trick, “but Kess is one
of these lucky blunderers. I don’t know how to account
for it. Sometimes I think Chip Merriwell is that kind, and
just naturally draws the same sort round him. Kess will
tumble round on the ice, and step on himself, yet at the
same time he will manage somehow to send the puck
along, or stop it, if he is goal tend. Usually when he’s
in a game they have him guard goal.. He’s big and heavy.
Still, everybody knows he’s half a fool.” ‘

Realf studied his hand and put down a card, slapping it
down: noisily.

“Perhaps he seems that just because he is German and
can’t manage English. He twists his words all up. But
that is no sign a fellow is a fool. I don’t think he’s a
fool, myself.”

“Why, you don’t even know him!”

“T saw him to-day. Chip Merriwell is no fool; I'll say
that, though’ I don’t like him. And if he has Kess round
him all the time, then, take it from me, Kess is no
fool.”

Carson glanced into Realf’s face, wondering if Realf,
who claimed such shrewdness, had been sizing him up, too.
Realf, studying his cards, and moving them about in his
hands, seemed not. to notice the glance.

The sailor; CarsonNhad observed, had been flushed by

the liquor he had swallowed; liquor, he knew, usually ©
produced that effect. But it was different with Realf, His

face seemed to grow whiter, so that the skin looked almost
transparent, while his eyes became bigger and brighter.
“What an awful load this fellow must,be able to carry,”
Carson was thinking; “he could drimic me under the table.
He'll do it, if I dop’t look out. I’ve got to keep my head
steady, if I’m to cop his roll to-night.”
“Speakin’ of Merriwell,” he said. “I allowed you’d have

ee ee ee ee es

 

 

 

 
    
   
  
  
    
    
 
    
  
     
  
   
   
    
  
  
  
   
   
   
  
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
   
  
    
    
    
   
  
    
 
     
  
  
    
   
 

ie ~*~

ee = SC

  
    

al

sy

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 
 

_ somethin’: worked out—some plan that you wanted me to
‘put over for you. I’m in with you in anything, if it’s

against Merriwell. You hinted somethin’ about having the
ice cut, where you saw those marks, and contrivin’ some

‘kind of football wedge that would crowd him into the

hole. A duckin’ in that ice water wouldn’t be pleasant.
But, of course, you wouldn’t want to drown him?”

Realf looked toward the end of the room, where the
sailor was snoring.

“Dead to the world!” said Carson, liveraretins the look.

“It’s perfectly safe to talk up here?” asked Realf, glanc-
ing on round the room,

“Sure. Say anything you like.”

“Y’ve blocked out a number of plans, and may use none
of them. I don’t know who marked out the ice there,
but it gave me that idea. What I want to dé is to make
Merriwell ridiculous before a large crowd. If I could
have him skate into an ice hole, and do it that way, it
would suit me. Of course, I shouldn’t want to hurt
him.”

“Not if there was danger—the thing might be fastened to
you, eh?”

Carson glanced at Realf queerly.

Realf returned his look with one that was savage in its
expression,

“If we’re to work together——” /

“Forget it!” said Carson.. We're to be friends, you
know.” : i 4

“My notion is that this masking at the ice carnival will
give me a chance. Of course, Kess will wear that white
ghost suit. Now, if we could know what Chip Merri-
well will have on, we: could plan something.”

“T ean find that out,” said Carson confidently.

“How?”

“From Epstein. Chip will have to get his things there,
and Epstein will tell me for a dollar; I know Epstein.”

“Find out, then.”

“Alb right.”

‘ “And find out what the other fellows are to wear.. Bribe
Epstein in advance, so that he will be sure. to take notice.
Vit put up five dollars for that{ Give Epstein a dollar or
two in advance, with a promise of the balance if he makes
gpod.. That ought to work it.”

“Sure to.” es ae

“Oh, say—that will work out fine! If I don’t make Chip
Merriwell the sickest-looking guy that: ever walked the
streets of Fardale, I’m going to be mistaken.”

“You've got it in for him hard?” said Carson, with a
grin of pleasure. “Don’t. want to take any chances of him
bein’ your future brother-in-law, eh?”

“Cut that out!” commanded Realf. “If there’s to be any

a talking along that line, [ll do it myself. My sister is a
‘Tady.”

Carson’s eyes glittered, but he swallowed his sudden
wrath and mumbled an apology.
“Say, play,” he urged; “you're forgettin’ we're. flippin’

the pasteboards, ain’t yuh?”

Realf flung down his card savagely, without even lochs

ing at it.

“What I’ve got against Chip Merriwell goes rather deep,”
he admitted, his mind being on that, instead of the game.

“Down in Santa Fe we failed to-hitch completely, and in

the end he put me in bad with my father. For a month
after that I didn’t have enough money to aa cigarette

. payers. Father cut me right off.”

NEW ‘TIP ‘TOP WEEKLY.

    

“Merriwell went to your father with some complaint
about you?” /
“He’s too smart to do anything personally.

 

you've noticed that he always puts some other tae a

forward, to do his dirty work. That time it was an Trish- oh
man named Barney Mulloy. Mulloy went to my father »
with a mess of lies. Then the old man and Et #.
time. Oh, I'll not forget it!” CA aoe

“Your old man seems to have eased up on y
where did you cop the kale?”

“He has restored my monthly allowance,” said Realf,
with a superior air. “And I took the train for Fania
as soon as I got the money. I came here to get even
with Chip Merriwell, on my own account.”

Carson laughed again in his coarse way, and remarked:

“Too bad he’s sweet———”

Realf half rose, lifting the table as he did so.

“Say anything like that again and we quit right here!”
he flared.

Carson sat looking into the white face that ene
down at him over the card table.

“Just a slip,” he said, but his heavy voice rehblet

He was afraid that Realf was about to quit the game,
and he wanted Realf’s money.

  

Not for a number of minutes after that did Realf say a
word; he simply played his cards, and by paying atten- -
tion to them he was able to show Carson: that he. really
knew the points of the game. .

Then he began to talk again; about his hatred of Sei
Merriwell and his plans of revenge.

Tt was getting late when Realf suddenly refused to play
longer.

“Tm not sure you aren’t cheating me,” he ‘ieclauee:
“Anyway, you have got the most of my money, and I stop
right here.” ,

Carson’s heavy face twitched with anger. -

“T play a square game,” he said coldly. “I hope you ain’t
goin’ to be a piker. Luck run my way, that’s all. If a
man ain’t willin’ to stand his losses, he ought to keep out o’
the game, ‘But Vil give you the Chance to win back every
cent. What do yuh say?”

“T say I’m through.”

Realf flung his cards on the table and sprawled back in
his chair.

“ve had rotten lack to-night.”

“Anyhow, that sounds better than what you said. a while
ago. I'll lend you money, and take your I O U. f

“No, you won’t. I’m through.”

He got up stiffly and walked round the room, snapping
his fingers and trying to whistle. His face jerked nerv-

ously.

Then he noticed gi sailor by the wall at the end of the
room.

“What are you going to do with him?” he asked. « had
almost forgot that the fool was here.”

“Dickey will look out for him,” said Carson.

“Well, I’m going down.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s
getting late. A fool, and his money are soon parted. I
guess I take the booby prize.”

“What about this other matter?” said Carson, watching
him narrowly. He did not want to lose his hold on Realf.
“Shall I go ahead, and get the information out of Epstein?
You're still game for that, and willing to pay for it?”
Realf walked on round the room, snapping his fingers and

 

   

  
 
  

  

whistle. The muscles of his face jerked and
Otherwise, his intoxication did not show itself.

  
   

y rer oeiet: “Tl get Chip Merriwell’s goat before
ave this. hamlet, or know the reason why.”

rent downstairs together, and Carson accompanied
‘out to the street. All the other fellows who had
the cigar store early in the evening were gone.

| night,” he said to Realf outside. “I'll see you
out that in the mornin’. It’s to-morrow night,
ow! I guess we can swing it. I'll not tell old Ep
T have to. Just keep it dark. We'll talk it over

 
 

 
 
    

    

  

 
 

He went back into Dickey’s, when he had seen Realf
“was making preparations for closing.

urrying through the front of the store, Carson made
his way into the back room and upstairs. The sailor boy
__ was lying where he had been all the time.
_ S$tooping over him, Carson went through
deftly, extracting some silver and the roll.

The latter he examined by the light of the lamp above
the table. Suddenly his face flamed.

“Sold!” he grunted, staring at the roll with bulging eyes.
Sold!”

Two one-dollar bills were wrapped round a roll of news-
‘paper, to give bulk to what had seemed to Carson a “bale
of money.”

“Two dollars—and thirty-five cents in silver.”

He lifted his foot, to give the drunken sailor a. kick, but
lowered it.

“Well, whad dah yuh know about this?” he growled
to Dickey, downstairs. “Here’s that sailor’s big bundle of
long green that he flashed in here before he went up to
sleep in the hay mow. I was to divvy. with you on the
per-cént basis, and you can see what your share of that
is goin’ to be. ’Twon’t take yuh long to count it up.”

“Just like a sailor,” growled Dickey; “he was tryin’ to
throw a front. I ought to pitch him out for that. But
*tother fellow? You sheared him?”

“Oh, did I?” said Carson, grinning, “Just look here. I
skinned him alive. He got suspicious and quit, finally.
TPve still got my grip on him, and I’ll have the rest, before
he leaves town.”

It was nearly an hour later, after Bully Carson had de-
parted, when Dickey went upstairs, to take a look at the
drunken sailor; his idea Aeing that perhaps Carson, had
not looked for the sailor’s money in the right place, and
he might be able to do better.

But /the sailor was gone.

“The room was gittin’ cold, and that woke him up; and
he got. down an’ out the back way. I ees Well, it’s too
badl?..«:*])-

It hurt Dickey to think that possibly some money fad
slipped through his fingers, which he might have had as
well as not.

 
  

his pockets

~

 

CHAPTER V.
CHIP MERRIWELL.

When the young sailor came down the back stairs and
pout at the back door of Dickey’s, he was moving softly.
He did not close the door behind him; sie it pur-
posely a bit ajar.
As he appentet. another ° pain clad in the dniforni of

   

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

But,

a Fardale cadet, came from behind a clump of evergreens
farther down the street.

The Fardale cadet turned and walked away, and was
followed by the sailor.

When they were well beyond Dickey’s, they met, and
were joined by a third. This third figure wore cadet
clothing, and was short and stout.

“Vm about frozen,” said the first! cadet, “waiting for
you. If I’d thought you were to be gone in there so
long, I’d have brought a camp stove.”

“Yoost der same mit me. I am freeze oop vorse as
der ice uff der lake. Und I am beginning to t’ink dot you
had been kilt and murtert. Uff I ton’dt git me der
roomonia from dhis, idt vill be a surbrise.”

The-cadets were Owen Clancy and Villum Kess, and, as
the reader thas.doubtless long since surmised, the sailor
was Chip Merriwell.

“Did you succeedt in succeedting?”
through his chattering teeth.

“Ves,” said Chip, “I succeeded in a way. I
even suspected.”

“When I saw your make-up and how you could puil
your face into that drunken twist, I knew you were safe,”
Clancy declared. “I shouldn’t have known you, myself.
Tell. us about it as we hustle along. I’ve got to con-
nect with the heat in my room right off.” /

Kess

wasn’t

“Nopody ‘choomped ondo you?” said Kess: “T vos lis-
tening for dot all der time. You vos to holler, you know,

uff you needed a helping; und you ditn’t holler. Aber
vunce I t’ought it, und began to run, but Glaticy say’ it
iss some poys celebratin’ me. Dit you vin a games?”

Chip tried to enlighten them as they hurried along, but
he didnot tell the whole story until they were all safe in
Clancy’s room at the academy.

They gained it im a sneaking manner, slipping along and
listening when they neared the academy; for, though
Colonel Gunn had announced a great relaxation during
the holidays in all the rules and requirements, the worthy
colonel still did not favor late hours, and the hour was
now very’ late. |

When they had/reached and entered Clancy's room, they

blinded the windows before they turned on a light; then
they sat talking in low tones.

Clancy and Kess hugged the radiator. Chip, having
been -all the while in a comfortable room, felt no need
-of that.

“You're about frozen?
lows in bed——”

“Tm going to put myself in bed,” said Clancy, “just
as soon as I’ve had all the sailor yarn you're able to
spin. You didn’t drink anything?” f

“Not a drop.” ;

“How’d you get out of it?”

Chip informed him.

If this puts aie’ of you fel-

“By the smell of your clothing, you must have beet ah

smoking, though.”

“No. I didn’t dare to, and didn’t want to.
have made me sick, probably. But, say, you could have
cut the smoke in there with a knife; it was almost too
thick to see through, Fact. But upstairs——”

He went into details, to which they listened with interest.

“T see where old Epstein is due to make some money,”
Clancy laughed. “We've got to bribe him now to tell
us what Carson and Realf hire in the shape of Carnival
a re

It would ©

é

demanded ,

 
 
    
      
      
    
  
    
     
    
      
 
    
     
 
 
    
  
   
  
   
  
   
   
 
  
  
  
  
  
   
   
   

 

    
     
     
      
    

      
 

   

      
 

    
   
 

      
    

   
   
   

    

ee, ee foek bee ev a

   

re ait

ai

wt
vl

 
   
   
     
    

    
   
   
   
    

  
    

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let

  
 

 

 

— Ve

 

 

-_

  
   
 
   
  
 
 
  
  
  
    
   
  

 

 

   

_ him.

—tvice o’clock.”

NEW

 

“The suits we hire will not be the ones we shall use
at the carnival,” said Chip. “So Carson will be fooled,
aiter paying out his money.”

“Dot iss goot!” kicking out with his heels.
“Dot Bully Carson vill nodt know himsellef from me,
vhen he sees der clodings vot I ain’dt vearing.. Vhen he
tinks I am a ghost und I ain’dt a ghost vot vill he say?
Und vhen Chip ton’dt fall in der ice vater——”

“Billy Mac can hire the extra suits for us,” said Clancy
“Oh, there’s plenty here we can trust to help us. We
ought to be able to have some fun to-morrow night.”

Chip began. to get out.of his sailor suit and into his
proper clothing. He also washed off the “make-up”
which had given his face its red flush.

“I wonder what would be the effect if you wore that
suit to-morrow night, and then let them discover that

said «Kess,

 

color

you played this trick on them to-night?” Clancy queried.,

“You could be the fellow from the schooner yacht, minus
the jag. You'd be masked, of course, though you could
carry it off without one.. I don’t know but that. would be
a good idea. They’d not suspect the sailor, and you
wouldn’t need to get anything at all from Epstein’s.”
'*“But Epstein knows you got der sailor suidt uff him
dhis afdernoon.” /

“That’s so,” Clancy admitted. “He. might tell about
the sailor suit, too. I wonder how much it would cost
to get him to do some tall lying for us?”

“We've got to be careful with Epstein; we must make
no breaks that, will lead those fellows to get onto us,”
Chip urged. “I/ wonder if Dickey is smart enough to tele-
phone down to Fairport?. There’s a schooner yacht
named Minerva laid up there for the winter.
even if he inquired no one there could tell whether or not
a sailor had been sent down. from Boston to see that it
was properly protected and lying well.”

“Dickey will never dream of making any such inquiries,”
Clancy assured.

“T hope not,” said Chip. “But the way I cut out of
his place may make him suspicious.”

He sat down, laughing, after he had changed his

‘clothes,

“There was one time there,” he admitted, “when I
thought trouble was due. If Bully Carson had. kicked me,
when he found my fake roll, I doubt that. I could have
kept up my shamming. I think I should have climbed
It would have jolted a surprise into him if he had
kicked me, and I had come out of my stupor with a
jump !”

ATE you had trounced ‘him, he’d have done the howling
for help then, and that would ‘have brought Kess and
me, and—— Well, I think it’s best that it didn’t happen.
Yet I’d like to have seen it.”

“IT am getting varm over dhis,”

“Over what?” \

“Over der radiador.”

“Hit him, Chip!”

“Und uff I ton’dt gidt me to my owen room soon, der
inspecdor vill make me sdill varmer. Idt musdt be getting

said Kess.

“Two o'clock? No!”
“Say, fellows, it’s ticking along toward one, anyhow!
Colonel Gunn will howl until he can be heard on the deck

of the Minerva, if he learns of this.”

“And if I don’t get a

move on, I’ll not get out of the
building.”. 4

TIP TOP. WEEK

Perhaps

\
Bani snapped open his watch. |

  

ys 9

 

“Too late for that, anyway,” said Claney “You'll have
to camp down with me to-night, Chip.”

Chip did not want to do this, for a number of reasons.
He put his declination, however, on the ground that per-
mission for him to stay with Clancy that night bed not
been given. Bdiae

“ll be seen in the morning, and some fool will go to .
asking questions, and Gunn will hear of it,” he urged. .

So, when Kess had sneaked to his room, Chie eee C
stealthily out of Clancy’s, through the hall and corridors, ©
down to the outer door, and found it—locked. | eee

“Wow!” he ‘breathed. “Here’s a go!” He elancedse
cautiously about. “If I’m seen here it will be worse for
Clancy than being round without permission at this time
of night in his room.’

He tried on the door the key that fitted his room at
Mrs. Winfield’s. e

“No go!” He glanced round again. “Do I feel burglari-
ous? Well, rather. Gunn has been kind to me, and

”

 

He heard some one walking in one of the corridors.

“Me for Clancy’s,” he whispered, and turned tail.

Clancy was on the point of retiring, when Chip came
again to his roofn, rapped softly, and was admitted.

“Hello!” Clancy greeted him. “Concluded to accept
my kind invitation? That’s good.” :

“The door is locked below, and I can’t get out, anid a
guard, or some one, is prowling about. You used to
have a rope ladder hid in this room, I remember. But
perhaps I oughtn’t ask you to risk anything like that for
me?”

“Chip Merriwell seeketh wild adventures,” commented
Clancy lightly. “He wants to be captured and ked
before old Gunn. There’s a thrill to it—going out by
my. window on that-rope ladder. More than once I’ve
been on the point of being caught, and escaped by the
skin of my teeth. But it’s safe enough now, late as
it is. So, if you. will do it

He rummaged round and brought out his rope ladder.

“A. fellow has to take chances in a place where they
coop you up like they do here,” he said. “Still, I guess
I do it for the thrill of the thing, Funny how a fellow
will take such risks! when he knows that discovery may
mean stispension, or.even dismissal, or something equally

_bad.”
‘For a minute Chip. Merriwell stood hesitating, after

 

/Miancy. produced the ladder.

“If you're thinking of getting to see Bob Realf early
in the morning, to note his condition,itake it from’ me,”
said Clancy, “yowll.not.be able to, for “Mrs. Winfield’s
select boarding house won’t see him prowling round until
about noon.’ / .

But. it was -the feeling that Clancy had mentioned
which tugged now at the heart of Chip Merriwell—the
thrill of Adventure.

He began to gather his sailor clothing sobetiee and
make them up into a bundle.

“T think I'll take these along,’ he said. “There ‘may be
some reason why I'll want to wear them again.”

Clancy extinguished his light, hoisted the window care-
fully, fastened the ladder to the radiator, and lowered
the other end.

“Here you are,” he whispered. \

With his sailor clothing in the bundle, under his arm,

     

    
     
 

 

     
 
 

    
       
    
   

   

10 NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

Fis feet were almost on the ground, when he became
awate that a man whio had been walking close by the
wall was rushing upon him.

With a low cry of warning to Clancy, he dropped the
rest Of the distance.

Burelin’, «h?” was screeched at him, in triumph. “T’ve
got ye!” ;

.* "Chip recognized the voice as that of Zenas Gale, the
* + queer old farmer-constable with whom he had had some

mémorable experiences during his Christmas visit to
Fardale.

He turned like a flash to plunge away, as the ladder
went sliding upward, knowing that now he had to run
or be captured.

“No, ye’ don’t!” howled the constable wrathfully, and

- made a grab.

His fingers fastening on Chip’s bundle, tore it away,
and Chip fled at the top of his speed.

“Halt!” the constable yelled. “If ye don’t halt, Pil
open on “ye!” ;

Chip heard thé threatening click of the constable’s re-
‘yolver; but the constable did not fire, though ‘he pursued
i$

Chip sprinted, gained the wal, and went over it with-
bat: toucly bounded into the street, and ran on, leaving
the constable distanced and winded.

Hevheard Mrs. Winfield’s clock strike one, as he entered
the boarding house.

‘¢

CHAPTER VI
THE BLUNDERING CONSTABLE.

Zenas Gale knew Bully Carson well, and knew no good
of him. Not many days before he had arrested Carson
on the double charge of burglary and safe blowing, but
he had not been able to make his case hold. Neverthe-
less, he implicitly believed that Carson was guilty.

It was, therefore, the most natural thing in the world

for the rather stupid constable to connect Bully, Carson
with what he gonceived to have been an attempted burglary
at the academy.

The constable was looking for Carson the next morn-
ing, and.saw him-slide into Dickey’s.

“Goin’ jest where he belongs,” he thought. - “That’s a
thieves’ roost, if the’s one in Fardale, I'll jest.go in after
him.”

Carson was picking up a cigar out of a sciuher that
Dickey had thrown out on his show case when Gale
entered.. He looked round with a start when he saw the
constable, for he knew the constable had no liking for
him, and held him as a suspected. person.

Gale was blunt and free spoken.

“T jest come in f’r a word with ye,” he said to Car-
son. “I-got.somethin’ here that I want to show ye. Ain’t
ye got a back room, Dickey, where I can talk with this
young limb o’ Satan?”

“What do yuh want o’ me?” snarled Carson, showing
his big teeth.

“Oh, that’s all right; ye’ll know soon enough! You've
got a back room, Dickey, I know; though, if report speaks
true, it’s so full up with whisky that ye won’t care to
let me look into it. Some day, Dickey, I’m goin’ to raid
this j’int. Come nigh doin’ it last week. Colonel Gunn

   
     
   
   
   
   
   
     
   
 
    
  
  
   
   
    
    
  
  
   
   
   
     
  
   
   
    
   
   
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
 
  
   
  
    
      
   

Chip ‘climbed out upon the ladder, and went down swiftly
aid silently.

was on th’ p’int of swearin’ out a warrant fer me to do
it under. He says yer ruinin’ some o’ his boys here.”

“Did Gunn say that?” Dickey flared. “Well, the “old
fool better be careful! I'll sue him for slander.”

“Naw, naw, ye won’t, Dickey; and ye know ye won't!
You wouldn’t dast do it. The’ might be things proved
agin’ ye, Ye know.”

He cackled in a way that drove Dickey frantic.

Carson, chewing savagely at his unlighted cigar, sidled
toward the door, but Gale kicked it shut with his foot
and stood before it.

“Stay where you aire, young man,” he channaennnils "a
ain’t through with you. You been in the burglin’ line
again, eh? I come mighty nigh gittin’ ye, too, didn’t I?
Jest had my paws on ye, when ye dropped yer bundle
an’ kited.” Oh, I got it right here! I en show it to ye.
You'll recotnize it.”

“1 don’t know what you're talking about,” ‘sputtered
Carson, but he quailed; for he had done so many things,
at various times, that he was always afraid.

“T don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” he repeated.

“Can I use yer back room, Dickey; or have I got to
make ‘my talk right here?”

“I guess you:can make it right here,” said Dickey, wink-
ing at Carson. “Carson’s-a friend o’ mine, and knows
that I ain’t goin’ to say anything. I make my livin’
’tendin’ to my own business, Gale, and that’s the way
you ought to do.”

“Oh, I do. This is my business—rootin’ ‘out the wicked-
ness that’s goin’ 6n round here and hereabouts.. Well, if
you say so——”

He pulled open thé bundle, and ne the sailor
suit.

Carson fell
as if he was

Dickey stared, leaning over his counter.
back against the show case with a crash,
about to break it in.

“Where'd you git that?” said Dickey.

“From him,” said Gale,
“Oh, no, you didn’t!” sputtered Carson, with-such an
air of truthfulness that even the stupid constable no-
ticed it,

“Where did you get it—if you got it from him?” Dickey
persisted,

“Well, I’ll tell ye. I’m suspectin’ this feller. I had
him arrested t’other day, ye know. He got off that time,
but I'll git him yit.”

“Cut it out!” Carson grated. “You’ve no right to go

round makin’ charges against me, even if ‘you are con-—

\”

stable, so I say cut it out!

“Let him tell where he got it!” urged Dickey.

“Well, it’s known that if a feller burgles, he'll do it
again,” said Gale; “Same’s if a feller drinks, he’s got to
take another drink. Ain’t that right, Dickey? Y’ ought
to know about-the drinkin’ part! Well, believin’ that, I’ve
been watchin’ round, and I’ve been watchin’ Carson. Oh,
I admit it, Carsong I’ve been watchin’ ye, and if you
don’t walk straight, [’ll git ye. I ruther think T’ve got ye
now. If not, tell me why you was slidin’ down from one
of the academy winders, at about one o’clock last night,
with this bundle under yer arm? ‘I happened to be along
there—and I seen you! I made a grab, and you got away,
but I pulled this out o’ yer hands, as you made the break.
Now, ain’t that so, Carson?”

“Nothing of the kind!” Carson shouted.

 
 
  
 

2s es

 
  
  

    
  

  
    

senna
z

  

(EP,

Site

a ane eee Se aed 7s
-

 

   
 
 
 
   
   
  
 
   
   
   
  
  
  

   
   
    
  
  
   
   
  
  
    
   
 

  

  

yr

~

. dale boys wearin’ em, though, did you?

Dickey opened his“lips as if about to say something,
then stopped.

“Go on,” he urged.

“Well, that’s all; only I know it was Bully Carson, and
he had been into some one o’ the boys’ rooms there.”

Carson opened his lips to speak, then, like Dickey, he
closed them without a sound. Both feared to mention
the sailor, lest an investigation should lead to disclosures.
The sailor might tell of that back room, and that upstairs
room, at Dickey’s, and of what went on in them.

Another thing holding them silent was that they were
puzzled, for if the sailor’s clothing had been in this bundle,
what then had the sailor been wearing? There was a
hint in this that hé was not a sailor.

“Lemme look at them,” said Dickey.

He spread the sailor suit out on his show case, and he
and Carson looked at it closely.

“These yachting sailor clothes aire all pretty much alike,”
observed Dickey. “I never heard of none of the Far-
So I-——’”

He stopped abruptly.

“What was ye goin’ to say?” demanded Gale.

“I, was goin’ to say. that none of the Fardale fellows
would have clothes like these in his room, but I’d. for-
got about this ice carnival. Mebby this suit came from
Epstein’s. He’s got a lot of stuff for) the carnival, ye
know; some that he had over from last year, and some
that he had sent on from Boston yesterday. He'd know
who hired this suit of him, if it’s from his place.”
“Mebby so,” “But that ain’t got

>

said the constable

‘nothin’ to do with who stole it out of the ’cademy rooms,

has it? I’m chargin’ Carson with doin’ that. If he wasn’t
there at the time, he can tell me where he was about one
o'clock last night.”

“TY don’t have to answer that question,” said Carson

sillenly.

“If'I pull ye for that work at the ’cademy, young man,
you're goin’ to be only too glad to say where you was
right round that time, to git out of it. I can swear
that I believe it was you.”

“You said the fellow you saw,” went on Dickey, “was
sliding down from one of the ‘winders. I s’pose you
could tell which winder? And what was he slidin’ down?”

“Slidin’ down a rope.”

“What became of the rope?”

“Tt was pulled up.”

“Aha!
Don’t you see how your supposed case against Carson flat-
tens out?”

\

“Some one in the ’cademy is in with him, and was
helpin’ him, I admit; that is the way I figgered it.”
“You figured it wrong.”

“T did? I expect you to stand up f’r this limb o’
Satan! Recklect, I’m watchin’ you, Dickey, as well’s
him.”

“When you get anything on me, Gale, go ahead,” said
Dickey, smoothly. “I’m only tryin’ to point out to you
what a fool you’re making of yourself. This suit was
probably got by some one for the carnival. Say it was
got by an academy boy. Then, ain’t it as plain as the
nose on your face that he was making a sneak with. it

out of the academy by one of the rooms, and some one

was helping him? He slid down a rope, and the fellow

helping him pulled the rope up. You grabbed his bundle,

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

said Epstein.

Then some one in the academy was helping!

  

.

 

and scared him, and-he ran. So, where’s your case against
Carson? And where’s this great burglary?”

~ Carson laughed, for this clever presentation of the «ase
pleased ‘him, and it was gratifying to. see old Zenas Gale’s”
foolish charge so completely hamstrung.

The stupid and stubborn constable was made to, see ‘at
last that he had doubtless made a mistake, buted 3
when he went away, he would not apologize. He®shouie’
his finger at Caran. oe

“Tl git ye yit,” “Dickey ¢’d make black
look white, and white no color at all. It takes that kind
to run a place like his. But I’ll git ye both} some time.
Mind ye! Now I’m goin’ down to Epstein’s, and see
what he has to say.”

“Ym going with you,” said Carson.
what he says about that myself.”

“J dunno as I want ye along, young man.
my, taste to walk along the street with ye.”

“l’ve a right to go to,Epstein’s if 1 like.
T'll hire a carnival suit.”

He went along.

“Jest cast yer optics on these ere yac’tin’ sailor clo’ es,
and tell me if you ever seen ’em afore,” the constable
invited, when he had invaded Epstein’s and exposed the
contents of the bundle.

“T’ree suits I haf let out like that, for the carnifal,”
He consulted his sales book. “Vun to a
féllow at the station, by the name of Volcott; vun to
Chimmie Tanner, outsite of town, and vun to Chip Mer-
riwell, This iss vun of the tree, but I ton’dt know
vhich. Usually, I set down der measurements, but I
vos in a hurry yesterday. You see,” he explained, “as
der suits are hired, I must keeb a record of who dakes-
them out.”

Bully Carson went back to Dickey’s to report about this,
strangely bewildered.

“I will telephone down to Fairport,”
Minerva. That’s the name.”

The report came that no member of the crew of the
Minerva had been seen in Fairport.

Dickey and Carson stood looking at each other.

“Try ’em again,” Carson urged; “get some friend down
there to make an investigation; hire him, so’s he'll make
it thorough. I'll stand the cost myself.”

He pulled out some of the bills he had won from
Robert Realf.

There was, as a result, an investigation at Fairport,
which lasted two hours, and became almost a house-to-
house canvass for news of the sailor.

. At the end of that time Dickey received this:

“No member of the Minerva’s crew, no sailor, nor any
one even looking like a sailor or yachtsman, has been in
Fairport for more than a week.”

Dickey and Carson canvassed the situation. And both
were frightened. To Dickey, it seemed that officers had
sent in a detective in “disguise, and his place was to be
raided.

Carson reached a different conclusion.

“That fellow,” he said, “was Chip Merriwell, or one of
his friends. Great gallinippers! He heard everything
that me and Realf said upstairs, while I was relieving
Realf of the care of lis money. That’s why he was
at the academy, don’t you see! If it was Chip, he went |
theres to report to his friends; if it was some cadet, he
went to report to Chip. And he was making a sneak

.

he warned.

“T’d like to hear
It’s not to

I think

said Dickey. “The

 
    

      
       
 
 

     
       

        
   

a, » 3

when that constable came on him. Say, that gives me

the Willies!”

we Oefit.couldn’t have been Merriwell.”

“You've just said yourself that the fellow was likely
a detective in disguise. If a detective could disguise, why

could some one ‘else—Chip Merriwell, for instance?”

it didn’t: look like him; didn’t look like any

bette MPardale fellows.”

Scissors! I'll bet it was him. I’ve got to hustle out

_ and tell Realf. Some plans he is. making will have to go

by the board.”

‘ Carson dived for the door, and was gone.
Dickey, still holding to his detective theory,

to put his place in order for the anticipated raid.

   
   
  
  
  
    
      
  
    
   
   
 
  
   
  
    
  
   
  
    
   
     
    
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
   
   
   
  
  
   
  
  
  
   
   
 
  
  
  
   
   
  
   
   
     

 

began

CHAPTER VII.
RHODA REALF.

Bully Carson found Robert Realf at Mrs: Winfield’s.

Réalf jhad not been long out of bed, and was in a bad
fiumor. He had a splitting headache, and the loss of
_* the money taken by Carson was beginning to trouble
Page or him,
Pia? Hence, when he saw Carson at his door, his unamiable
BK temper showed itself in a snarl.
ee But Carson was not to be discouraged.
‘ He came in, unabashed, and closed the door softly
a : behind him.

“You'll excuse me,” he said, “but I got news that won’t
keep.”

 

» I haven't had my breakfast yet,” urged Realf wearily.

“Mebby this will give yuh an appetite,” Carson said,
with a grin.

Realf pointed languidly to a chair, and Carson dropped

into it.
“You recklect that sailor last night?”
\ “Well, what about him?” said Realf ungraciously.

“That feller was Chip Merriwell!”

Realf’s lethargy vanished, and he sat up with a jerk.

“Can’t be!  You’re mistaken about that. Why, I
know Chip Merriwell.”

“You mean you think you know him. Listen to my tale
of woe. Then, tell me if it ain’t the limit?”

Forthwith he told it, as he understood it,
surmises.

Realf was skeptical.

“I don’t believe it,” he said. “Chip Merriwell couldn’t
play a game like that to save his life. Just because that
sailor wasn’t seen in Fairport, and that sailor suit was
captured by the constable at the academy, doesn’t prove
it to me.”

with many

Out in the hall a slim young girl had come along, and
stopped suddenly when she heard her brother speaking
the name of Chip Merriwell in that fashion. She did not
mean to be an eavesdropper, and had not known until
that moment that Bully Carson was closeted with her
brother. Now, she found it impossible to move on before
she had heard more.

“Then, we'll have to abandon everything—all our plans
of making Chip Merriwell the most ridiculous thing that
ever happened in Fardale? Is that your idea?” said
Realf.

“Well, we’ve got to change our plans, and change our
costumes and makes; and I'll have to double up that

NEW TIP TOP WEERLY.

  

payment to Epstein, to keep him Hats saying anya e

to Chip’s crowd. Got. any ue ideas ?”
“No. And no more money.”

“Oh, well, if you want to drop this thing——”
lips curled. 5

“{ don’t,” said Realf. “I don’t believe that yarn—that
Chip was the sailor who came sprawling into Dickey’s
last night. That’s too much, you know.”

“*Twon’t hurt to change our plans, anyway; that will
make ’em safe. If that sailor wasn’t Chip, it was one
uh his crowd. What’s your idea for a change of our
plans?”

“I can’t think now, for my head is too thick. Come
back this afternoon.”

Carson’s

“We ain’t got any too much time, yuh know. I’ve got
to get together the fellers. That. kidnappin’ game won’t
work?”

“That’s too old a plan, anyway; you couldn’t work it
on him. We’ve got.to get up something new. I want
something that will make him ridiculous—make him the
laughingstock of Fardale for the balance of the academy
years. I’d like to make him feel so small that ‘he’d keep
away from this place for all time.”

They talked over a dozen plans, discussing and discard-
ing them one by one. Some of them looked good, and
they were to be considered again. Realf kept complain-
ing that he could not think clearly, and needed time.

They were to settle it that afternoon.

When Carson opened the door leading into the hall,
to depart, he found himself confronted by a very pretty
girl, whose cheeks were set with burning-red roses, and
whose blue eyes were flashing both indignation and
scorn.

The big fellow ducked back; he saw that the girl must
have been listening.

Realf started out of his chair.

“Why, what are you doing here, Rhoda?” he demanded.
.“U’m here because I felt that it’ would be sneaking,
after I had heard you, to go away and pretend that I had
not heard.”

“You've been listening at that door?”

“To everything you’ve been ‘saying,’
“And, Robert, I’m ashamed of you!”

“Don’t you think,’ he fumed, “that you ought to be
ashamed of yourself?”

she confessed.

“I am—for listening. It’s mean to listen. I didn’t in-
tend to, but when I heard you speaking, I just couldn’t
go on.” \

“Youre a sneak!” he sputtered.

She turned as if to move along the hall.

“Just clear out, Carson, will you!” Realf commanded

roughly. “Two is company, and three is a crowd, you
know-~in a time like this. Rhoda, I want to talk with
you.”

“But I don’t care to talk with you,”
moved on and away.

she announced, and

Carson stood hesitating, a look of confusion on his

' face.

“Eavesdropped another time!” he cried. “Say, ain’t
there any place on the earth where we two can talk
without being overheard? If I had a sister like that-——~”

“I’m through with you if you say a word about her,”
Realf warned.

Carson ‘shrugged, and came back into the room.

“ a yt a

 

    
   
  

  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
 

 

 

   
  
  

had told Chip Merriwell all she had heard,

Ce ceot A ee a eR
; : SY Ent ees
List - =

 

     
  
    
 
    
 
   

et: reckon all the fat’s in the fire now, for she'll tell
Merriwell. am

I think he won't.
We'll just abandon all the plans we have talked about
here, and at Dickey’s, and start all over.”

“Then you ain’t out of it? I thought yuh was! And,
say, you needn’t be rough with me; I’m trying to help

"you, understand ?”

“There’s one thing,” said Realf; “she might have gone
on and not admitted that she had heard anything, though
that wouldn’t be like her. If she had done that, and then
he would
have turned matters round in some way, and put us in
bad.”

Realf got ready to leave the room.

“T’ll feel better after I’ve had something to eat.
I'll see you at Dickey’s this afternoon.”

“Make it Re. urged Carson. “And as for your

And

”

sister-——
“Cut it out, I say!” Realf roared, his face contorting
with rage. .

Bully Carson retreated, feeling very much as if an under-
sized, white-cheeked bulldog had snapped at-his face.

After he had had his breakfast—it was nearly noon at
the time—Robert Realf tried to have a, quiet talk with
his sister. He sought and found her in her room, where
she was awaiting him, knowing what to expect. Her
cheeks still showed those hot flushes, like red roses, and
her bright-blue eyes had not lost their look of anger and
indignation.

“IT knew you'd come to see me, Robert, after that,”
she declared. “You seem determined to make me ashamed
that you are. my brother.”

“What about you?” he sneered. 7

“T listened because I couldn’t help it, after what I over-
heard just by chance.”

“You didn’t sneak up there purposely, after seeing Car-
son call on me?”

“You know that I didn’t.”

“T suppose you'll tell this precious fool, Merriwell, all
you heard?”

“T shall certainly tell Mr. Merriwell the essential parts
of it. It will be merely a warning\to him to be care-
ful; for certain persons, whose names I shall not mention
—TI’d be ashamed to mention yours, Robert !—are planning
to harm him, or make him ridiculous at the ice Tene anetae

- this evening.”

“Why don’t you go home?” he asked bluntly.
“Because my visit isn’t out. I am here with the con-
sent of my parents, and am Mrs. Winfield’s guest. When

I’m ready, I shall return home.”

“After Chip Merriwell has gone away?”
“Perhaps he isn’t going! Why did you come here?”
“T’ve a right to be here, and see this Fardale school,

even more than you have to be here,” he remarked. “I

may even enter it as a student.” ;

 

 

 

for visiting here, won’t it?

She did not answer this.

“Why don’t you talk?” he growled.

“If you enter Fardale, it will give me a lovely excuse

I hope you will, Robert.”

“Then I won't.” :

_ “Mother knows you're here?”
“Of course.”

\

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

_ “Will he know any more than he does now—if you're
right about him being that sailor?

> '
“Do you know what the reputation of Bully Carson is
here?”
Oh, he’s got enernies, I s’pose; every one has.”
“Won’t you drop all thought of injuring or harming

any one? Do that ape me, Robert. Mr.
never injured you.” F
“Oh, he hasn’t! That’s all you know about it.”

“He would like to be your friend, Robert.’

“T don’t care to be his, then.’ You will be out on the
ice with him this evening?”

“T’ve promised him that I would, Robert.”

“Don’t go. Forget it! Accumulate a headache, and stay
away. For I tell you he’s going to get into trouble out
there to-night. You’ve heard so much, that I'll say that.
Take my advice and stay away.”

Having duly warned his sister of the terrible things
which were to happen—which he had not even yet planned,
because of the difficulties he had encountered—Redff, went
down to the lake, taking his skates. "¢ &

He still had that headache, and he tough cool
air and the exercise would help it. ae

There was much life and movement on the. ie ‘a all
through that day, and Realf found plenty of ‘skaters
there, iti

He did not see Chip Merriwell on the ice cng later
in the day, when he visited the lake again, after ‘he had
talked with Carson, and had laid what he considered
some clever plans for Chip’s undoing.

Chip was skating with Rhoda at the time, and that
brought a frown to Robert’s face. When she left the
ice, which she did almost as soon as he appeared there,
going away with Chip, he moved on, and soon saw Kess,
Clancy, and Billy Mac.

The thing which chiefly attracted his attention was that
ice cutters had come out on the lower end of the lake,
and were sawing through the ice along the lines he had
seen marked. . .

They had a lane cut through the water across that
end of the lake. But they had stopped work, and he
saw that they were being remonstrated with _Raeaaae
of the danger.

“Who ordered this ice to be cut?” a man was demand-
ing.

“The Fardale Ice Company,” was the answer.

“They ordered you to ctit the ice now? They don't
cut their ice till February.”

“The ice is so good they’re- going to cut some now.
But there’s a load of boards coming, and we had orders
to fence it off before night, so that it wouldn’t be pos-
sible for any skater to get in where this hole is. Be-
sides,” he added, “the skaters seldom come down to this
end at night.” ‘

The boards of which the fence was to be built arrived,
and the fence was begun, before Realf went away.

“We can’t push him into that hole,” thought Realf, “un-

‘ less we came up here after dark and tore the boards

away. I thought first’ of that as a plan to duck him, but
I guess it wouldn’t work. Our other plan, to fool him,
is a good deal better and safer. Then Carson can pound
his head off.” :

He went back to Dickey’s, for another talk with Bully
Sek reg

  
    

Merriwell has : 2

 

       
    
       
        
  

1% 3 ehh

CHAPTER VIII.

ROPE LADDERS.

  

“Zenas Gale. fancies ‘that he.is a regular human blood-
gnc, Kess, and he'll be back here at the academy to
4 * “investigate that business. ' So we’ve got to be ready for
ty him. We'll tip the word to Billy Mac and all the others
who are here, and haye them get their rope ladders out
of their rooms before the storm breaks.”

It was: Owen Clancy who said this, and Clancy, in this
instance,.was a true prophet.

The) worthy constable was not satisfied with the mys-
terious case as it stood. He wanted to fasten a crime
upon Carson, and his inability to do so did not please
him

,

“The’s suthin wrong some’eres,” he
“thinking it over. “I’ve heard said that ‘truth lies at the
uy hettem@pt the well, whatever that means. Allus th’ way
~~ to thi it at the bottom of a well, is to go to the top
#-and ch down it. The top is over there, at th’ ’cademy.”
|. In ‘de time, having reached this conclusion, the con-
sable took the bundle of sailor’s clothing and marched
@fs fo the academy, with the intention of interviewing
«en : Colanél’ Gunn and letting him know that all was. not as
hey it shoulditbe in his meritorious school.

ieee saw him coming, and announced the discovery
Op) apd to Billy Mac, who were all who happened

assured himself,

   

 

a
tf
ae

pean

; . bs be *near him at the moment.

a : y “AN the fellows got their rope ladders out of thein
( , rooms?” Clancy asked.

4 ® “Sure. I told eferypody,” said Kess. “Ain’t you see
; ‘em going mit bundles? Vhen he iss asked,, efery poy

say he has got a shirt vot musdt be vashed very esbecial,

out in der town.”

They saw the constable enter, and then, having Clancy’s
door ajar, they heard him demand an audience with
Colonel Gunn.

4 with fierce official
here

“In the name o’ th’ law!” said Gale,
pompousness. “The’s been queer doin’s
in this ’cademy, and I’ve got out papers arthorizin’ me
to look into it. Won’t be no harm done to nobody what

goin’ on

ain’t guilty, if I’m treated right. If,I ain’t, look out.
Tell me where Colonel Gunn is. He/ain’t no idee what
\ young limbs o’ Sdtan he’s harborin’ on ‘these here

premises.”

Gale disappeared, piloted, apparently, by some one.

“Wow! Don’t you wish you could hear, him when
he goes up against Gunn?” said Clancy.

\“He’ll be shot, going up against Here! ‘here!
Keep your hands off me, Clancy!” Es

“Kess,” cried :Clancy, “did you ever hear so poor a

joke as Billy Mac sprung then? Going up against a Gunn!

Help! help!

“There once was an idiot named Mac,
Who thought that a joke he could crack;
And he made ‘such a pun
On the name of old Gunn——

“Come to my assistance, Kess, and help me finish this
beautiful Limerick. What rhymes with crack?”
“A kick in the back,” said Billy, and gave him one sa
slammed him against the door.
“Say, you tvice-by-two vools,” Kess protested, “you're
; going to haf dot gonstable oop here und gidt uss all in

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

der lockib dhis efening; und ve :-von't be sole (8 ed ae do
mask icequerade. .Sdop idt!”

Zenas Gale was having his interview with ‘the head. Py!

of Fardale Acade my.

‘the’ was a burglary
I’m ‘sure, aided an’
So I thought

“Colonel Gunn,” he was declaring, ‘
committed in this place last night,
abetted by one o’ your stewdents.

“Shocking! Shocking!”

 

in his office chair and
the constable.
I’ve come to

Gunn reared back indignantly
glared as fiercely as he could at

“T know it’s shockin’! Now,
gate “

investi-

 

“My dear man,” said Gunn, trying to smooth his war-
like front, “what you say is—ah—quite unthinkable. I
will not say that a—ah—burglary might not be—ah—per-
petrated here; but that one of my students should have
been an accessory to a criminal act like that—it is, sir, I |

!??

repeat, unthinkable!

“Thinkin’ ain’t got nothin’ to' do with it, colonel,”
Gale. “I seen the burglar comin’ down from
th’ winders on a rope, and I grabbed this out o’ his hand
when [ tried t’ ketch him ; then I seen the rope go slidin’
towafd the winder. Who was up there pullin’ that rope, if
not one of yer stewdents?”

“[mpossible—impossible——”

“That’s all right, colonel. But I’ve come to s’arch the
rooms of yer stewdents. Here’s a s’arch warrant, reg’larly
issued, arthorizin’ me to do that. Now, am I, as an off’cer
o’ th’ law, to be resisted; or am J——”

“We are law-abiding pevple,” said the colonel, with dig-
nity. “If you ,saw that, then the burglar had an ac-
complice in the academy; that is the only way I can
account for it. On any other theory, sir-——”

Gunn got heavily out of his chain

“I will go with you, sir. You say you are an officer,
and your search warrant seems regular. Yet it is an
outrage, sir.’

said
one oO’

The colonel’s face purpled with offended dignity and
wrath. ;

A little later he appeared in the upper hall with the
constable, and they heard him at oe ene door.

Billy stuck his head out at Clancy

“Oh, it is you, Colonel Gunn,” he said, eae due humility.
“Kess and I are im here with Mr. Clancy, sir, for a few
minutes, There is some hard work in Greek that. we’ve
got to do-soon, and we were just looking it over to-
gether,”

Gale pushed toward Clancy’s door.

“Greek!” he sniffed. “Jest as likely to be Choctaw.
[f you said it was cards an’ cigarettes that you're int’rested

I might believe ye. I’m here to look through these
rooms, young man; and I’d as soon begin with this as
the next one. Strikes me this is jest about where that
room was, too.”

When Gale entered, with Celonel Gunn, he saw a num- /
ber of Greek text books scattered about, on the cots and
the table. Clancy, sitting by the window, had one in
his hands. He seemed much surprised by this invasion.

“A rope—that’s what I’m lookin’ for,” the constable an-
nounced. “Open up yer things here and I’ll make my
s’arch.”

He explained why he was searching; then he rummaged
round, poked into the closet, inspected the cots, and dug

down into the contents of Clancy’s trunk. -
\

      
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  
   
  
  
  
     
   
 
  
  
    
     
    
  
   
   
  
    
   
  
  
  
     
 
   
 
   
  
   
  
  
   
   
  
    
 
   
    
   
    
   
   
  

   
 

   
     
      

 

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and hourly wish to inculcate, but, on the contrary-—

- they. were opened.

was the occupant of this room. A

“Now answer me straight, young man!” ‘he warts.
“Didn’t you lower somebody from that winder last night
(with a rope?”

“Really—really——”

“Let ’im answer that question,”

“Sure, I didn’t,” said Clancy.

“And nobody, so fur’s you know, lowered anybody from
any winder with any rope?”

“No, sir.”

“This is outrageous, Mr. Officer!” Colonel Gunn bristled.
“Tt is wholly uncalled for and insulting to me and—ah—
these worthy young men who you see before you. If
you were not an ‘officer of the law——”’

“What would ye do? I’m goin’ to see the other room
now. But what would ye do?”

“I should certainly bring an action against you, sif;
an action for slander and—ah—defamation of character ;
for what you are doing is calculated to cover this academy
with unmerited obloquy and disgrace, and smirch the—ah

ieee ent reputations of these most worthy young gentle-
men.”

“Ye would? Waal, now that yetve got that off yer

mind, colonel, come with me intéw these other rooms. I’m
‘goin’ to find that rope, er know that it’s been tuck away

from here. Them critters ain’t the innercent ER ye
think they be, colonel.’

“Wow!” Clancy breathed, as the colonel and the con-
stable passed on and away. “He asked about\a rope! If
he had said rope ladder, he’d have had ‘ire: Anybody
‘seen any old rope anywhere round here, fellers? I ain’t.
But a rope ladder——”

In none of the rooms that were occupied by students
who were remaining at the academiy during the’ holidays
could Zenas Gale find a thing that even looked suspicious.
The other rooms, of students who had gone home, were
locked, but Gunn had keys that would open: them, and

Then ‘the constable began to find

the colonel protested.
snapped the constable.

1?

thin
“The purple had gone out of Colonel: Gunn’s face, when
he sat again in his office chair, ant saw. piled on the
table before him a large and miscellaneous assortment. of
rope ladders, some of ordinary hempen cord, others of
silk; excellent, every one, in its way, for the purpose
apparently intended, of lowering its owner: out .of his win-
gow into the grounds.

The constable surveyed the isis -up pile in triumph;
Gunn looked at it limply, without.a smile.

“Innocent young fellers you’ve got here, eh? All sprout-

in’ wings and ready to jine the angel band. It certainly
looks it. More’n half the rooms had them rope ladders
in ’em. What ye got to say about that? You ought to
pay me good money, colonel, for exposin’ th’ yung repro-
‘bates, instead of settin’ back and starin’, as you’re doin’.

 

  

) There’s proof o’ th’ high jinks that’s goin’ on all th’ time
here, right under yer nose, and ye don’t know it. But

it’s hard t’ fool me.”
“Tah—deeply regret that the apparent——~”
“They're apparent, all right. Jest look at ’em.”
“T deeply regret, and sorely grieve over the fact that

- these singular articles have been—ah—unearthed ; showing,
as they indubitably do, that some at least of my students

do not have that high sense of honor which it is my daily

”»

NEW TIP TOP: WEEKLY.

- He faced Clancy at the last, having learned that Clancy

“Life’s short, colonel.
bled down is wuth a hogshead 0’ th’ other kind. 7’m
doin’ some regrettin’, too. My regret is that in the
rooms .at present occypied we didn’t find ary single rope
ladder.” ai

“Proving that those, at least-——”

“Not at all.
to git the things out o’ the way before I come.’

“You are—ah—inclined to be most ma wasreine bly and
unreasonably harsh in your judgments, and

“The only other thing I regret is, that I didn’t git
track’o’ that burglar. One o’ the fedllers in here, and
maybe all of ’em, knows \hings, ‘but they won't tell.
Couldn’t ye ‘see it in their faces, colonel?” f id

“I saw nothing in their—ah—countenances indicative of —
guilt or a shrinking of fear, Mr. Officer, but, on. the con-
‘trary, many things to indicate to my larger experience

 

 

that in making your most preposterous charges against

them and against those—ah—who are not at the pr
moment here to hear your accusations and answer them”
with the—ah—spirit and dignity——”

“Well, I gotta go! Time flies. I got to keep a wae
out on the lake to-night, to see that. somebody ain’t killed
and murdered, and, at the same time, look out closely to
see if I, can git another squint at that burglar: You're
a good sort, colonel. Only take it kindly, will ye?—talee”
it kindly! You're jest a leetle soft.”

Looking from Clancy’s windows, the three boys in the >
room there saw Zenas.Gale go stamping over the campus,
bearing in his arms a pile of rope ladders.

“Wow!” Clancy whispered. “I’d give a dollar if, right
now, I could let out one good yell.”

“Latters,” said Kess, flattening his nose against the pane.
“Now, uff he had yoost saidt rope ve vould haf been

' adt.”

\

CHAPTER IX:
CHANGING PLANS.

That was.a busy afttfnoon in Epstein’s Clothing. Em-
porium, and a profitable one, as well.

The weighty secrets confided to Epstein might have bur-
dened another man. They’did not trouble Epstein ;. per-
haps for the reason that he got rid of a number of them
as easily and readily as they had been acquired.

“Yes, sir, for two tollars I vill show you my books,
and you.can pick out. all de names you like, and write
down describtions of the carnival suits.”

So he said to. Bully Carson. .

“Chip Merriwell,” Epstein went on, after he had seen
the color of Carson’s money, “has hired a ghost suit, like,
Villum Kess’.. He saidt he vould of vore Kess’, bat it is
too big for him.”

In an obscure corner of the store, while Epstein at-
tended to the wants of customers, Carson looked over the
book Epstein had put in’ his. hands.

Later, approaching Epstein, he remarked:.

“T don’t see anything in here showin’ if Realf’s sister
has hired a suit yet; maybe I’ve overlooked it.”

Epstein turned a page, and put his finger against a.

line.
Carson read:
“Rhoda Realf, Hungarian maid, peason costume.”
“You know vot it iss.

in Hungary.”

Cut it out! -A pint o’ words.

It jest proves that they was slik enough

Like the country girls veat f

     

oh

   
 
 
 

   

      
    
   
     
     
      
  
 
 
 

| “Any other gitl got one like it?”
J**No, I beliefe not.” :
“You've got mor® of ’em?”

; "Oh, “yes; t’ree suits.”

yy) “Veli Pit take one.”

be You?™ You vill vear it?”

‘AY That doesn’t matter, does it, if I pay for it? Just
roll it up, and I’ll take it now, to be sure of it. You're
getting all my money, Epstein.”

“Vell, pitzness iss pitzness. I am not running dhis
é6mborium for my healt’. You know vhere you can get
more money, I don’t doubt. Your fadher is rich. He
miusdt be, for you don’t vork any.”

Carson\ winked.

, » ~Brain work, Epstein. It,beats hand work all holler.”
When Clancy came into the store, some time later, he
iso was forced to oil Epstein’s hand’; and then was given
ghe book, and Epstein answered his questions.

**“A Hungarian maid suit for Miss Realf, and vun also
sror Bully Carson; you see vare it iss set down. Chip Mer-
well and Villum Kess haf ghost suits. Vot iss it you
Vill. take ?”
“i think I'll be a pirate. Suits my temperament, don’t
a think?”

*Cabtain: Kitt! Here he iss.”

©All right; just roll up Captain Kidd for, me, whiskers
and all. And you’re not to talk about this; Epstein; no-
( "4 body must know about it!”

Laas ee “Oh, sure not. Nopody haf seen that book but you. I
fet yould show it to you and your friendts, because you. bay
me vell, and also because I am friendts of the Fardale
boys. But nopody else. And so I trust you not to say
anything. You understand that?”

Epstein made the effort at all times to speak good Eng-

 
  
 
  
 
   
  
   
   
  
  
   
    
   
  
   
   
   
  
  
    
  
 
 
      
   
   
  
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
   
 

   

    

not in a hurry, he said “that”; but if in haste, he said
“dis.” :
“Look through the book as much as you like, my
friendt. You are my friendt, you know. But other
people; I do not show it to other people.”

However, Clancy was not so readily to be fooled, for
he knew ‘that Epstein would show his book to any one
for a proper consideration.

ing that they would have to look out for changes in
/ costumes,
“And in the name of Mike, what does Bully Carson
want to wear a Hungarian peasant girl costume for?”
“He didn’t get that for himself,” said Chip.
“No. Who for, then.” ;
“For Robert Realf, is my guess.” tel
j ‘“Whew!. Brother and sister going to skate together
as a pair of peasant maids.”
“Perhaps,” said Chip dryly.

* * * * ea + *

Realf and Carson were consulting, about this time, over
the final shape of their plans for Chip Merriwell’s undoing.
“Y’ see, it’s going to be safe for all of us,” Carson urged.
“The disguises and masks will make it so’s no one can tell
who we are. So there can’t be any come-back. That is,
if you can work the trick of gettin’ him there.”
“T think I can work that, all right. \Perhaps [ll pre-
oe tend to be miffed, so that I won’t hafe to talk too much.”
Carson walked round the room, feeling of the muscles

  

a lish, pronouncing his words carefully, so, when he was’

So, in reporting to Chip Merriwell, he added the warn-.

at

eee ee ee

 
 

of his right ari, and now and then punching out:at e. at
imaginary face. They were inthe back room, at Ditkey’s. ~~
Both Realf and Carson feared to risk threshing out: their
plans at Winfield’s, after what had happened.

“When I get through with him, his own mother won't
know him!” Carson was boasting. “There'll be a great
round-up of fellers there, who'll love to see me finish © ©
him off.” , \ '

With an unpleasant. smile on his white face, Robert po]
Realf sat looking at“his bruiser friend. Fue

“There’s always an ‘if,’’* he said. “I don’t think I've) 47
ever told you about a little experience I had down in .
Santa Fe. There was a big fellow there, something like
you in shape and size, who. was sure that he could put
Chip Merriwelt to sleep, and not more than half try. Of
course, I know that I can’t go against Chip myself; he’s
too husky’ and strong for me to tackle.: But I was sure ‘Be
this big Santa Fe blowhard could just eat him alive. *So
I slipped some money into the fellow’s hands, and had him ,

 

lay’ for Merriwell. And—Merriwell whipped. him to

death !” en i
Bully whirled round. i e :
“Killed him?” +

   
  
  
 

“No, you mutt. He laid him out; knocked ‘him stiff. Pe
a straight fight, too, mind’ you. The way you're boastiig”
made me think of that. He was a hot: mouth,-too.” ‘

Carson’s face flushed. "

“You seem to like to talk nasty-to me,” he said. “Ig
that yer way with everybody? I know fellers who'd throw
you out uh the room, if you spoke that way to them.” ‘

“I’m just warning you,” said Realf, undisturbed. . “Don
get the fool notion that Chip Merriwell is any easy thingy
for hé isn’t. He’sa fighter.”

“T don’t fear that dub,” said Carson. .-But he was ‘think= 7
ing: “When I hit Chip Merriwell, he won’t know wheré
the blow comes: from.”

“That’s his way; that’s how he fooled me, and fooléd *
that bruiser in Santa Fe. He isn’t\ any hog for fighting >)
doesn’t like to fight, and keeps out when he can. But ~ ©
when he makes up his mind to fight m i -*»

“That suits me all the better,’ Carson boasted; #ive
been afraid he wouldn’t fight. We,.won’t give him any ad-

 

 

 

vantage. He'll be surprised and cornered, and then PU go if
for Him,”

“Tf you do fall down, you'll have friends there to help a
you out. Be sure you have ’em ‘there.” \3

“T’'ll have ’em there—to see me beat him up; but I shan® 9 "

j ‘ a !

need their help. Just you get him there—that’s all” Be

“T think I can manage that.” >

“Get him there as quick as you can; it’s goin’ to’be cold oe
waitin’. I, don’t want to git all stiffened up with the cold bi

before the mill opens; and some of my crowd might go as
away.” ‘3

  

“Tf I don’t have him there in thirty minutes after I start
with him, you.are to come out on the ice and try some-
how to maneuver him into a corner.. Anyway, I’ll want to
see you, if he breaks away from me, for, if this plan” 99
fails, I'll try that other one.” Gat

“Oh, that first one mustn’t fail! I want to git him E
where I-can hammer. him stiff. He’ll need raw beefsteak
on them two eyes o’ his for a week.”

“Don’t boast so much,” said Realf; “remember what T
told you! Merriwell is a scientific fighter; and you've got
to Knock him out quick; or he may get you, even if he is |
smaller and younger than you are. I’m saying this because

A

       
      
     
     
   

I want you to get Site. .Beat him to-a pulp, after you: get
3. Fyre him down!”

ir Color came intd*his face, andshis eyes flashed.
“Trusteme,’ said Carson. “Il be right there with

the
tase

 

“3 goods.” ;
it So they separated. \
h :
iY CHAPTER X.
\ fee! THE ICE MASQUERADE.
é Lily Lake on that glittering winter, night was like a fairy
i. scene. The air was filled with frosty ice crystals that
a flashed as jewels under the ruby glow of the fires on the
it shores. And like ropes and chains of diamonds gleamed
~ |) > the ice dust which lay here and there in miniature ridges,
's ".* thrown up by the cutting edges of swiftly. driven®skates.
e § Over all hung a brilliant moon, that dimmed/the starlight,
ig even as the moon was itself dimmed by the: leaping
n Me fires.
Oo “ “wai ensconced in a warmed and lighted pavilion by

the edge of the lake, an orchestra was discoursing rag-

time, when Chip- Merriwell came down to the lake with

thoda Realf.

“Rhoda was already dressed as a Hungarian maid. Chip

7 Carrying his ghost suit in a bundle under his arm. He

G@isappeared into one of the warmed and. lighted dressing

mooms Close by the orchestra pavilion, and. soon came out

) as the regulation ghost of comic opera:

ag: Rhoda donned her half mask before they went together

- * out on the ice, and joined the skaters already there.

Chip had said nothing to Rhoda about the knowledge

) © Which Clancy had gained at Epstein’s. One reason, and that

Sy seethe principal one, was that he did not care to say any-

=) thing to her disparaging to her. brother.

tottus Not knowing there were to be other Hungarian maids in
_ the ice masquerade, Rhoda was somewhat. surprised when

  
  
  
   
 
   

 

 

q eu she saw one flash by.
oe Chip gave this Hungarian maid a quick and comprehen-
: = sive glance.
“Robert Realf!’ he thought, but kept the thought to
€ himself.
- Rhoda had informed ‘Chip she was aware that Bully
9 "Carson and her brother were planning something against
him.
p “S)“E don’t know just what it is,” she had said; “but, what-
Ye éver it is, you can be on your guard. Robert doesn’t like
° j 3 } ~ you, you know, and sometimes he does things of which no
tae one can approve. Mother overlooks all he does. because,

she says, he isn’t strong. I do, too, for the same rea-
‘son—néarly always. I wish you could be friends. Robert
really has some fine points, but he seems to want to hide
, them.”

~ That had been said early in the afternoon. Since: then
neither had mentioned Rhoda’s brother. But Chip was
trying to be “on his guard,”

“Tm sorry there’s another Hungarian maid here,” she
Yemarked. “You can’t understand that feeling, of course.
Yet even on ordinary occasions a girl likes to be dressed
just a little differently. She wants-to be im the fashion,
but with just a little individual difference. I don’t think
girls like to wear uniforms as well as boys do.
I shouldn’t want to be a Fardale cadet.”

»s ~~ She looked ahead now and then, as they. skated on, side
by side) It was necessary, to prevent collisions with other
skaters. Sometimes the skaters seemed to come in mobs.

vy es.

I. know

_, 22

 

And even though there were bonfires and canbe, they
would shoot suddenly into view as if they came out of a
fog bank, #

On every side sounded light laughter and conversation
and the ringing of skates on the ice. Theré was also a
grind and slither of sleds, pulled by small boys. Som
where a few. of the
something like them; and wore them on ‘their caps:
effect was like that of fireflies darting about.

Chip and the girl with him were skating at @ moderate
pace toward the upper end of the lake. The other Mune
going down the laké
announced soon,

“She skated round, going
No, there’s the other one,
Three, I mean. This

garian maid had passed them,
“There’s still another,’ Chip
“The same one,” said Rhoda.
faster than we are, and
Two Hungarian maids.
me want to go home.”

 

come back!
makes
Chip wondered who the third one wasse
“Three ghosts, too,” Rhoda added.
ing together. -I wonder who they are.
know probably even if I heard their names.
you choose a ghost suit? A day or two ago you,said you
planned to appear as a sailor?” \She looked at him sharply.
“T thought, of your friends, only Kess was to wear a ghost
suit.” \ ce
“There’s a reason,” said Chip lightly.
“T must say that it makes a complete disguise, anyway. *
lf we should be separated, I shouldn’t be able to tell, you”
from either of those other ghosf skaters.
stein hadn’t: furnished so many duplicates.
one of those ghosts is your friend Kess ?”
“No telling. Yet I hardly think so. Neither seems to
be large enough for Villum.  Kess is some. boy, you
know.” /
“Then,
four of you.

if, he is out- here in a ghost. suit, too, there’s
It’s provoking.”

Clancy, as Captain Kidd, passed them more than once,
as they skated up and down the lake; and he certainly
looked fierce enough to frighten even a pirate. The boys
with the sleds scudded out of his way, pretending they
were afraid of him, and jeered at him when he had
gone by.

” said Rhoda; “but perhaps
He was to be
The eyeglass
Still, he may

“T don’t see where Robert is,
he has one of his headaches, and isn’t here.
a cockney Englishman with an eyeglass.
was set into the mask, and was a part of it.
be on the lake somewhere.”

One who needed no-costume and mask to make him out
of the ordinary was Zenas Gale. He put on skates and

came on the ice in his ordinary clothing—a .big-overcoat
heavy cap that turned down over his ears, with’

and
a woolen scarf protecting his throat and fluttering its
ends as he swung along. He carried as a weapon in his
hand a policeman’s club. The surprising thing was that the
queer old codger could skate. He could skate fast enough,
when a boy “booed” him, to overtake the boy and give
him a spanking, in addition to a lecture on the proper
reverence and respect that was due an “off’cer o’ th’
law.”

This little performance, however, did not enlarge the
respect with which the boys regarded him, and he was soon
suffering. the torment of their retaliation, in the way of
petty teasing. There is no doubt the little fellows would
have snewballed him’ had there’ been any snow, for they

boys had secured miners” lanips, of.

The *

“There go two; iciied ey
But I shouldn't
What. made”

: ft a,

I wish Mr, Ep+# :
Do ‘you think:

:

 

 
   
  
  
 
  
   
   
  
   
   
     
   
   
  
    
   
  
   
   
   
 
    
  
   
   
   
  
    
   
   
    
  
  
   
  
   
    
 
   
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
  
   
   
       
  

scraped up ice dust, wadded. it into balls, and now -and then
pelted him in the back when he wasn’t, looking. .

The blare of a bugle at the pavilion conti s6on, icine:
ing the ice dancing, which to many was the enjoyable
feature of the masquerade.

“Cotilligns and Virginny reel,” Gale bellowed, with as

“much expenditure of breath as if he had to make good
his name, “But recklect ever’body—no one who ain’t able
_to handle himself on skates same’s a hockey player ain't
no call to. enter these dances.”
But Fardale was famous for the skill of its skaters.
Winter after winter, ice sports were features enjoyed not
only by the Fardale students, but by the permanent resi-
_ dents of the place.

So that blare of the bugle and Gale’s announcement filled
the ice before the pavilion with merry couples who were
\quite as able to stay on their skates as any hockey player

that ever slid across a rink.

Even Zenas Gale joined in at the call of “all hands
found,” his policeman’s stick swinging at his belt, and
bowed and skipped and circled with the lightest and young-
est, though his old legs had something of the stiffness of

those of a saw horse. i

It was the merriest of dancing and the finest of fun.
There was a fall or a tumble now and then, and, occasion-
ally, some one in falling, acted the part of a catapult and
bowled over a whole line of skaters.

But though they went down like ten pins, they were ane
ways quickly on their feet again, with no one hurt, and,
os nea whirl of laughing comment, the skating, that was
-| also dancing, went on.

The Virginia reel, modified to suit the requirements, was
by all odds the finest and most enjoyable dance of the
evening, a8 Chip Merriwell was sure.

Chip had so delighted in the whole thing, in the music
and the movement, in the laughter, even in the tumbles—
with Rhoda Realf as his dancing partner—that there were
many minutes in which he forgot all about the things that

he had to be “on his guard.”

CHAPTER XI.
THE TRAP,

A group of masked skaters, boring through the crowd as
the dancing ended, separated Chip Merriwell from Rhoda
Realf.

It seemed a matter of small moment. Everybody, was
laughing and in a good humor. The only thing to give
offense was that the masked skaters were a bit rough in
their movements and adopted almost hurdling tactics. But
for this last, Chip would not have been thrown away from

Rhoda. She seemed frightened when she saw some of
the maskers jumping, and turned toward the shore, and
Chip, who would have followed her, was struck heavily,
by a body thrust, that sent him whirling out on the ic
But it was all right a minute later, apparently.
- When he had recovered and moved toward the shore,
Rhoda detached herself from the prone there and skated
» out to meet him.

'

_. “There’s such a furious jam here,” she whispered, put-
"ting her arm through his, “that I think we had better ‘Bet

— out of it a while.” uy

Mt itself this was a pledsant suggestion—to skate away

 

NEW" TIP TOP .WEEKLY.

for some hours had so excited his mind, and forgot that’

tatiod the end of the lake, bnd return at a loiter, with
the prettiest girl in the world, and Chip was ready for it.

Many were speaking ali round him, voices were raised
as people called to each other across the ice ; and there were
the additional sounds of the orchestra, and a continual
grinding of skates. :

So it was not Chip’s fault that in the confusion he did
not take note of the fact that the voice which whis-
pered the words was not Rhoda’s.

As soon as the crowd was left behind, Chip made the
discovery that he was doing all the talking; and then,
when “Rhoda” answered, with voice barely lifted above a
whisper, the further discovery, that this was not Rhoda
Realf, came with the shock of a blow.

A flgsh of indignation and a feeling of anxiety assailed
him. He was on the point of whirling round, and return-
ing to the pavilion, where Rhoda doubtless still awaited
him. What would she think. if he did not appear, and
who was this who had taken her place?

the answer to the
Oo

Chip knew, or thought he knew,
last, ae
Also, he thought he knew now why that wedge had been
driven into the crowd of skaters by that little group’ of |

maskers; it had been done for the sole-purpose of sep- —

arating him from Rhoda and permitting this igor pny
to. be played. Rf
Bully Carson, or some friend of, his, must have bed
leading that group, and, if Chip was not mistaken, the’
“Hungarian maid” now by his side was Robert Realf. -

He thought he had been prepared for something of

this sort, armed as he was with the information. secured .

by Owen Clancy; yet it had comé in a form, and — ae

suddenness, that confused him.
He was skating on with the ‘ ‘Hungarian maid, aS ‘these

thoughts burned through his mind. \
He had. wondered: what: trick would be attempted, ‘atid

he still wondered what the outcome of this would be, / He

and Clancy had thought that Robert would endeavor to

impersonate his sister, and lure Chip into difficulty, and

they had prepared: a counter air which was to come in

at the end. and turn the tables.
It was their idea that the jichemers would try to ‘ik
Chip down to the hole cut in the ice and °duck him. That

idea had come at first, when they were sure Robert Realf eae

had made those marks on the ice and. meant to. have
the ice cut,
been ‘made by an employee of the ice company,

To go on now meant abandoning Rhoda Realf. without
an explanation other than the one which had. been pre- ,

   

sented to her sight, that he had been forced away from ~

her, out upon the ice. If he only could tell her where he —
was now! Yet that would have involved telling Nt beet
was with him.

But—was it Robert Realf? A
Chip began to talk, and ask questions, to gain. ee de
sired information. ae
The “Hungarian maid” kept “her” voice ibn, in  taadaltig
replies to Chip’s questions. It was really puzzling, the voice
was so markedly like Rhoda’s at certain times. Yet it was

not Rhoda’s voice, Chip was sure. oh ;
“Robert Realf!” he still thought, with renewed /convic- .
tion. ,

“It’s about time to turn back,” said Chip,

“unless we are
to go on toward the end of the lake.” Pine ad:

 
 

 

 

Then. Chip had: learned that the marks had® .

      
    

 
       
     
    
 
   
    
      
   

  
  

  
      
   
   
       
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
   
 
   
  
  
  
  
   
 
  
   

 

   

 

       
 

    
 
 

   
   

‘ “here with. you.”
“That’s nice,” said Chip.
Now that he knew this was Robert Realf, Chip wanted
to choke him.
“I saw you dancing—I mean, it was great fun, dancing
with you, wasn’t’ it ?”
“You ought to know,”
be at Realf’s throat.
“Oh, it was delightful! You are such a lovely skate
dancer. I don’t see how you did, it so well, in that ghost
suit.” ¢
y “T think you must have caught cold dancing,” said Chip;
“you whisper, and you’re hoarse as 4 crow.”

“I’m very susceptible to colds.” :

“That so? I hadn’t heard you mention it.”

“Yes, I think I caught cold.”

“She” coughed for emphasis.

“T think we’d better turn back, if that is so.”

“No, I refuse to go back with you. I brought you down

"here just to tell you that I hate you—hate you—and ‘don’t
intend to speak to you again!”

Saying this, the “Hungarian maid” wheeled round and
started away over the ice.

Chip stared, and began to follow.

. “It would be the natural thing, if it was Rhoda who said

Pi that, for me to follow, and try to find out in what way I

se have offended; and, so following, but not overtaking, I

4a would be led -

Chip wondered where he would be led, if he followed.
Into some trap, that was certain. The whole thing was

very clever. He could congratulaté Rhoda that she lad
a brother with brains, anyway.

Determining that, now he was in the thing, he would
see it through, and with the feeling that he might be
able still to shape his plans for turning the tables of
Realf and Carson, Chip darted away in pursuit of the flee-

‘ing Hungarian maid.

Also, he called to “her,” to aid in the deception,

The “maid” led him, at the end of a sharp chase, to
the edge of the ice, on the Fardale side, and darted away
there, walking on “her” skates; the action indicating that
“she” was thus trying to evade his pursuit, and meant

said Chip, his fingers itching to

i ie

 

to rejoin the skaters at the pavilion, farther-away, on that
side.

Chip also took to the bare ground, on his skates, when
! he reached the shore, and Continued his pursuit; and now
went so much faster that he was soon close on “her”
again.

A small house stood here, that of a laborer, which had
recently been vacated.

“Just a moment,” Chip called; “I don’t understand this,

»

- and

“Leave me alone!” the “maid” screamed at him; and
3 turned, as if for shelter, to the door of the house, which
3 stood suspiciously ajar.

The voice now used by the “maid” was far too heavy
to be Rhoda’s, and Chip had no difficulty in recdgnizing
it as Robert’s.

This was the place to halt, he knew, and turn about,
but Chip was “game,” and wanted to see who was in that
house.

“Bully Carson and some of the cheap fellows he draws
round him, and the plan is to trap me there, and beat me to
a pulp. Carson has-it in for me.”

 

|

 

  

. ‘ z t ae
_*I—I don’t want to go back—not yet; I-—want tp be out

   

     

But he wanted to be bers that he was right in ‘this, ‘and
he ran, clumping on his skates, up to the-door, still calling
and begging for an explanation. ;

The Hungarian maid had disappeared iti the house, and
implored him to go away.
“T’m through with you!

    
   
    
  
   
  
    
  
    
    
  
   
    
 
    
   
  
  
  
   
   
 
   
  
   
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
    
   
  
   
   
  
   
  
   
    
 
  

Go away!”
But “she” had left the door Very invitingly open.
Taking a chance, Chip thrvist his head in for a look.
A heavy hand reached out to seize him. » Chi
to evade it, and the hand pulléd his ghost'eap ¥
thus blinding him. re
He felt himself seized. Then he struck heavily, and had™
the satisfaction of hearing some one tumble backward im
the doorway and hit the floor with a thump. a
The next moment Chip had swung round, and Was fun- =

 

 

ning toward the lake. . ae sth
He straightened his cap.as he ran; then turned jigs se,
head to look. — 8. glans

in his Hungarian-maid clothing. One of the last to emerge
was Bully Carson, who. had been knocked flat on the fidor
by Chip’s swinging blow. ee

3ully had pulled out a hamdkerchief, and was dabbing at ui
his nose withfit. - , “4

All of them were clearly to be seen in the bright
moonlight, but, as all were disguised by their cgrntvyal”
clothing, Chip could ‘not positively identify him. 4

“Tt’s.a good thing that they didn’t get me insidé” he 3
thought, as he gained the ice; “a half a dozen on ome! ~
Realf is as much of a coward as Bully Carson. What show
would I have had—hemmed in there?”

He turned toward the lower end of. the lake, as 4f
trying to run away from them. They were coming; up at
a fine pace, running far more rapidly, because they were
not wearing skates. The Hungarian maid, on skates, was 5
falling behind.

Looking back again, Chip saw that the one in the lead
was a Captain Kidd pirate, much resembing Clancy in his
pirate suit and big whiskérs. This was the fellow who
had fairly fallen out at the door, wiping his face with a
handkerchief ;. and- Chip was sure the raséal was Bully
Carson.

eas

Chip could easily have run-away from them now, being
so much speedier on the ice by reason of his skates; but
he began to affect a limp.

This‘ was observed at once by the pursuers.

“Come on, fellers; we’ve got him. Spread out toward
that other side. Don’t let him turn and git back by
ye.

In his excitement, Bully Carson forgot that he was
Captain Kidd, and let his bellowing voice betray him.

The pursuers bégan to spread out across the ice, to cut
Chip off from making a return toward the pavilion.

They had tried to work out a very simple plan, having
been forced to abandon anything elaborate. Robert Realf
had lured Chip to the unoccupied house. There, with the
door closed, they were to have formed a ring, and set
Chip and Bully in its center, to fight. Then, if Chip began
get the better of Carson, the other fellows were to pile
in and “whip him to death.” The idea of doing some-
thing, to; make him look ridiculous had gone by the board,
and this brutal scheme had taken its place.

Though Chip had slipped out of their trap, they were
still resolved to corner him, surround him, and “beat him

to

~
   

20

  

  
 

up.” Bully thirsted to do this, and he was now taking
the lead. Using money he had won from Realf by cheat-
ing play, he had hired these other young reprobates to
assist him, and knew he could depend on them.
Bully was now in a wild rage. He had feared that when
Chip looked into the house he might become alarmed and
_ retreat, so he had reached out, intending to prevent this.
_ He had: failed, and Chip had knocked him down. The
Ms pos. wasflowing down on his breast from his battered
ao his head was rocking, for the blow had been
ir riven Tike the kick of a mule.
“Oh, I'll git ye!” he snarled. “I'll git ye. And then I'll
_ settle with ye! Don’t let him git by ye, fellers!”

 
 

 
 
 
 

CHAPTER XII.
TURNING THE TABLES.

sontinuing his limping, as if one leg had been badly
ap d,* Chip! Merriwell led them on toward the board
a “wall that guarded the open water lane at the lower end
of the lake.
_ As he neared it; with his pursuers hot after him, he
quickened his strides, drawing away from them, yet they
were still close enough to see“him scramble heavily over
the wall, and go straight on, as if in his fright and excite-
ment he had forgotten all about that yawning hole.
_. ‘Then they heard a heavy plunge into the water, a thresh-
_ ing and splashing.
At one moment, in the moonlight, they had seen the
_ white ghost suit; then it disappeared suddenly, and there
was that loud splash, followed by a pas in the
water.
In addition, they now heard an agonized, choked cry:
“H-e-l-p!”.
They came up to the fence, startled and breathless.
- Yet they were still feeling that Chip Merriwell would only
get the ducking they thought he deserved; and they were
contemplating grimly how they would enjoy seeing him
flailing round in the ice-cold water.
Bully Carson was the first over the fence, hurrying so
that he stumbled and fell as he landed, and started his
nose to bleeding again.

  

_ the ice.

When they stood on the margin of the hole, looking
‘into the water, they saw only a ripple, and heard the
agitated waves striking against the edges of the ice. No

ghastly form was struggling there.

“Gone down?” said Carson, with a jump in his voice.

* “Say, he was drowned—went under the ice!” one of them
cried, suddenly frightened. “He tumbled in right here !”
“What's that?” asked Realf, coming up last. iD

He was greeted by speechless silence. The strangely
attired fellows were stooping over, peering anxiously ‘into
i A the water. ;

_  “What—what’s' wrong?” said Realf.

“He—he didn’t come up!” one of them informed him.

“Drowned ?”

“Sure! Gone wie the ice!”

_ The voice was scared.
» Bully Carson stood up, frightened, dabbing at his bleed-
ing nose.

“Say, fellers——” Then his voice’ broke.

“Drowned?” said Realf, as if he could not believe it.
“He must have hurt himself as he fell in, And that

  

 
 

“TOP WEEKLY.

Leaping up, he ran on with the others, to the edge of

what it all meant.

ie

“This. is fierce!”

“Can’t anything be done, to help him—if he has gone
under the ice?”

“Summon somebody! Call for help!”

So the exclamations arose.

They ran along the edge of the hole, stooping and
looking.

“He’s sure drowned!”

Realf drew back as if he wanted to leave the place.

Then Bully Carson spoke up, ‘though his voice was a
croak.

“This is tough, fellers! But we’re not to blame—see?
He stumbled in here himself.
death, and climbed that fence, and stumbled in here. him-
self! Seer”

“But

“That’s all right—that’s all right! Just listen! We don’t
need to say anything about this. We're all masked. Who's

 

to prove we was here, or near here? Nobody! Ali right, °
iy g

then! We'll just go back and mix with the crowd, and
say nothin’.”

“But——”

“Oh, you'd talk, would you? Well, I’ll hammer you to
death if you so much as open yer head about this. We
don’t want to git into trouble—see. Just. keep still; that’s
all you got to do. Let other people talk. We didn’t drown
him, recklect. And we don’t’even know.it was him; wearin’
that ghost suit. Nobody, not even Gale, can get a thing
against us. See?”

They lingered, and they continued to talk; the fascina-
tion and horror of the thing held them like a magnet.

But at last Bully Carson persuaded them to leave.

“He’s gone down, and you can\see he ain’t; goin’ to come
up. But it wasn’t our fault. Now we'll just go back and
we'll keep our mouths shut. Whoever don’t, will git it
from me!”

It was a very scared and shrinking lot of young fellows
who trailed at a hesitating pace back to the pavilion.

Robert Realf. was whiter than ever, under his mask,
and felt breathless. Following Bully Carson’s reasoning,
he was trying to make himself believe hé was not at all to
blame.

Some one at a bonfire which was close by the pavilion
stirred up the fire and threw some inflammable material
on it, as the weak-kneed crowd came alongside; and the
sudden flashing forth of the fire not only revealed the
masked crowd that had come sneaking from the ice hole,
but likewise revealed, lined up there at the edge of the ice,
with their masker’s suits and masks gone—Chip Merriwell,
Billy Mac, Owen Clancy, Villum Kess, and a number of
others who had been let hastily into the secret.

And as Carson and Realf and their crowd stopped and,
stared, a yell. broke from the throats of those on the:
shore—a mocking, derisive yell.

“Chip Merriwell under the ice! Chip Merriwell drowned!
Wow! Whoop! Now; give it to ’em again, fellows!”

So roared Owen Clancy.

“Give ’em the Fardale yell. ‘Ha, ha, ha!
dale! Rigger boom, zigger boo ie

It roared out thunderingly,

Fardale! Far-
aa drew a throng to see

Before it had ‘enidiad, Bully Carson and Robert Realf

and all those who had followed their lead in their nefari-

  

water is cold enough to choke him as soon as he struck

He was scared half to.

 
   

   
     
        
       
      
      
     
      
   
 
  
  
  
   
 
     
     
   
   
 
 
  
   
  
  
  

 

    
     
       
        
        
      
      
    
          
       
       
 
    
    
     
    

 

i *

ous scheming, ‘broke’ from the ice, ‘stunned, bewildered,
humiliated, and as they ran, everybod}, even those who
did fot know what they were howling about, yelled after
them:

“Ha, ha, ha!
Doom——”

Robert Realf took the first train out for Boston. that
night. He could not face it.

Bully Carson sneaked back to Carsonville, to think it
over.

The others endeavored to keep out of sight.

“But how did you manage it?” Chip was asked, after
the story, to a certain extent, had become public prop-
erty.

“Nothing was easier,” was Chip’s way of explaining
it. “That ghost suit shone out so, being white, that I
could be seen easily at a long distance in it. When I
came to the hole in the ice I threw in a stone that had
been placed there for the purpose, and splashed the water
with a piece of board left from the fence building. But
just before I did it I stripped off the ghost suit and wadded
it into a ball. Under it I was wearing smoke-gray cloth-
ing that could not be seen ten yards away on a night
like that, and when I made my sneak away from there I
wasn’t seen. So when they came up to the ice, not having
seen me make my get-away, they thought I had gone down
there.”

“And you had planned that?”

“That was our plan; though once I thought we were not
going to be able to work it.”

Chip and his friends had left Rhoda Realf’s name out of
their story; and Carson and his friends could be safely
trusted never to say anything about it, and would forget
the whole thing as soon as they could.

Fardale! Fardale! Rigger boom, zigger

THE END.

“Frank Merriwell in the Rockies; or, On the Trail of
Bart Hodge,” is the title of the story that you will find
in the next issue of this weekly, No. 128, out January
oth. This story tells, in an absorbing manner, of one of
the most interesting series of adventures that has yet
befallen Frank Merriwell.

 

A FIGHT WITH A LEOPARD.

A striking illustration of courage and dogged persistence
was given by an officer in India, named Apcher, in a fight
with a leopard. He was going round a rock, following
the beast, which he had wounded, when the leopard, meet-
ing the hunter, dashed at him. Apcher jumped on one
side and fired; the shot only staggered the leopard. The

man started to run, but before he could turn round the -

beast was almost upon him.

He struck the animal with the gun as it was in the
act of striking him, and so warded off the blow from
his head. But the beast’s claws from one paw cut his
right cheek, and the other paw knocked the gun out of
the officer’s hands.

With. all his strength the man dashed his right hand
into the animal’s mouth, and ‘with the left grasped him
round the throat. The leopard caught him near the elbow,
and bit through the forearm. Exerting all his strength,
Apcher threw the leopard into the rift between the rocks
and on its back. With his knee on its chest, one hand

NEW TIP TOP WEERDY, ~~

the other grasping its throat, he held the
His native boy came up with a double-

in its mouth,
struggling animal.
barrel gun.
“Put it in the leopard’s mouth and fire,
The boy obeyed, pulled both triggers,’ and killed the
beast, fortunately without hitting the hand. The braye
officer’s left hand and arm were much injured} eyerys®

”?

said Apcher.

finger of the right hand was lacerated ,the hand bitten Fl
through, and the forearm torn in five places.’ Dy.

WILL 0’ THE WISP.

By W. BERT FOSTER.

(This interesting story was commenced in No. 124 of thé NEW TIP |

Top WEEKLY. Back numbers can be obtained from your news
dealer or the publishers, ) is

£

CHAPTER IX.

MID THE CLASH OF ARMS.

Like the eager yap, yap of the hounds when the pack

sights the fox rose the yell from the charging squad of.

British horse as Kemp, sword in hand, whirled into view
through the open window. In some way. they had learned
of the presence, at Perrine House, of the fugitive for
whom the countryside had been beaten during the night,
and at once concluded that this armed man must be he.
Within the house was a great hullabaloo at Kenips an
The shrieks of the women servants could
now the angry voices of

expected move.
have been heard a bowshot away ;
Favor and Squire ‘Perrine added to the din.
charged the open window by which the prey had escaped,
and, retarded by the screen Kemp had overthrown, and
both eager to get through the opening first, the excited
men blockéd each other’s efforts.

This gave the fugitive an instant’s respite. After his

first glance at the coming dragoons, his eyes sought the

unknown friend who had opened the swinging panes; but
the piazza was deserted. He was free for the moment;
the sweets of liberty would quickly turn to ashes in his
mouth, however, did he not find some means of' making it
secure, ,
The pursuit he principally feared was that of the horse-
They could overtake him far quicker than his recerit
antagonist; and, believing that Major Favor’s horse was
still held before the main entrance of the great house,
Kemp fled toward the rear.

The broad piazza, its roof upheld by fluted wooden pil-
lars, was built on two sides, as well as on the front of
the mansion.’ Before the horsemen could send a single
ball in his direction, Kemp was around a corner. In-
stantly he beheld a horse upon the side driveway, out of
sight of the dragoons; it was the one on which he had
ridden from Langdon’s early that morning.

He was convinced the squire had sent this horse to the
stables when he urged its rider to the breakfast table.
Who, then, had ordered it saddled again and brought
around here at this moment of need?

The horse was in charge of a small black boy--Squire
Perrine was one of the several Jersey colonists who owned
a number of slaves—and when Kemp darted into view the
boy’s expectant face wreathed itself in smiles. He beck-
oned eagerly as the young man halted in amazement, and
instantly Kemp understood that the friend who had

e “i Y

They’ hady

  
     
  
   
  
  
   
   
 
  
  
  
    
 
 
   
    
  
  
   
  
  
 
  
   
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
   
  
   
   
  
  
   
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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opened the window for suite had. ited hic as well.
He vaulted the piazza railing, and ran to the horse.

“Yo’ git erway by de orchard paf, Mars’ Roger!”
squealed the little darky, whom Kemp now recognized as
a one-time personal retainer of the squire’s harum-scarum
daughter. “Dat Britisher’s hoss done been took to de
stable, an’ he’s saddle’s off by now!. Git, Mars’ Roger!

Git!”

¢ “Your mistress will have you whipped for this, Ginger!”

cried Kemp, as he vaulted into the saddle.
sah !”

“Yah! yah! don’ yo’ worry ‘bout me, s cackled the

excited darky. “Off widjer.!”

‘He stfuck the horse a resounding slap upon its flank,
and the beast sprang into a gallop before Kemp was
fairly seated.

The escape had evidently been planned before the dra-
goons cafme into view; yet Kemp saw that it would be
best to follow instructions, trusting himself wholly to the
guidance of his unknown friend. It was plain that, al-
though’ Squire Perrine and his daughter were such rank
Tories, there were members of the household who sup-
ported the American cause.

His sudden appearance and bounding into the saddle had
startled what spirit there might be in the sorry nag with
which Hughey Langdon had supplied him, and the beast
needed no urging through the rear premises of Perrine
House: He saw the stablemen watching from the door-
ways of the outbuildings, where they had been engaged in
the early-morning chores; but none strove to thwart his
escape. '

Kemp slapp¢d the horse again with the flat of his sword
shot into the long orchardlane like a bolt from a
crossbow. From the front of the great house rose a con-
fusion of voices; evidently the dragoons had halted to re-
ceive instructions from Major Favor. That retarded them
but a minute; before Kemp reached the foot of the lane
the British horse appeared on his trail.

Behind them came Favor and the old squire, both shout-
ing lustily to the stablemen to bring up the officer’s steed.

Between the pursuing phalanx and the fugitive was the
darky, skimming the ground like a winged Mercury. He
reached the head of the lane in advance of the troop of
horse,

A heavy five-barred gate swung here to shut off the
lane, making of it a paddock for the horses or young cattle
to run in, and with a flying leap the black boy threw him-
self against it. It swung creakingly over on its huge
wrought-iron hinges and slammed. against the latchpost
_ directly in the path of the dragoons.

Their shouts changed instantly to execrations upon the
darky who, worming, himself between the lower bars of
the gate, padded down the lane at top speed, paying but
slight attention to all the threats and oaths which fol-
lowed him.

* He had another duty to perform, and Kemp saw what
it was, and thanked his unknown benefactor fervently.
The troop of horsemen had come so suddenly upon the
closed gate that they were not prepared to jump it, and
must either stop for it to be opened, or wheel back for
a proper start before surmounting the obstruction. At this
lower‘end of the lane was another Rate, and the darky
boy intended closing it, likewise.
As Kemp shot through, entering between the rows of

apple and peach trees, he saw that this was a much taller

,

;

TIP TOP WEEKLY

‘upon smooth ‘ground.

gate, and that probably no how in: he pack of his pur-
suers would be able to leap’ it. The troop would be
retarded at both ends of the ion and every’ moment's
delay counted in his favor.

He knew the country very well;
squire’s hounds and
imitation of the old Kng:ish custom, more than once in the
past years. Free of the lane, and with the yells of pur-
suit growing fainter in his ears, he spurred his steed to
greater effort, making for a pass in the hills which would
bring him out upon another highroad, and one which he
hoped would be free of the British troops.

The sounds of pursuit finally died away. When he
topped a rise in Perrine’s great sheep pasture, he looked
back and saw the .crowd of horsemen at the lower lane
gate. One horse seemed to be down, and the troop was
still delayed.

He drew in his own mount, knowing that the beast was
laboring sorely; and pursued the way more slowly.
the redcoats came in sight again it would be time enough
to urge the creature to another heartbreaking effort; a
cart horse cannot be expected to do the work of a thor-
oughbred. ‘

As* he jogged on, Kemp’s thought fastened upon the
query that had been in his mind since the moment he saw
the windows at Perrine House swing open, affording him
opportunity for escape. This query dealt with the iden-
tity of his unknown friend. Who was there about Perrine
House who felt interest enough to aid him? ;

As far as’ he had seen, the darky boy and the stablemen
were all who had to do with his escape; yet there must
have been a governing mind—somebody in authority at
the head of the plan.

Mistress Sylvia and her father had shown so plainly
their unfriendliness that he wondered much how any per-
son under the Perrine roof dared aid him. Who could
it have been, and who, in sooth, had guided him across the
swamp from Lawe House the night before? Thése two
incidents and the trick of the hand writing in’ fire, seemed
to be’ all of a piece,

The root of the mystery was with Barnaby Lamson;
Kemp felt sure that the old serving man could explain;
but it might be many a day before he dared call at Lawe
House again, Not only had he lost hope of ever finding
the will of Michael Lawe,'but Major John Favor was in
possession of the property, and would hold it by might, if
not by right! The Continental troops were being swept
across Jersey before the advancing redcoats, and the vol-
unteers were mainly dispersed. This part of the country
was completely lost to the Americans, and he must ride as
far as Newark before overtaking the army.

He rode through the narrow pass in the hills and down
to the old road beyond. The day remained overcast and
chill,
earth and through the ice-crusted puddles might be heard
half a mile away. He could be tracked by these sounds,
and, remembering a hidden path which led around the
town and rejoined the highway beyond it, he forced his
mount through the hedge and into the open wood until he
came upon this sheep track.

It proved 4 rough way, and already the horse was badly

winded ; Kemp saw that it could not keep up for long, even
If his enemies appeared now he
would have to surrender; but he hoped that he had, suc-

he had ridden to the ~
taken part in cross-country rides, in |

When .

and the sound of his horse’s hoofs on the frozen

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ceeded in throwing the dragvor§ off his trail.
 mid-forenoon,
town.

hs ES

It was flow
and he was still in the vicinity of Morfis-
The old horse fairly hobbled, and Kemp felt sorhe
compunction in fiding it farther.

» Suddenly he beheld several men running from the shelter
of a clump of saplings some yards in advance. For an
instant he feared he had fallen into a trap; then he saw
that he was not discovered, and drew up his tired horse.
The strangers looked like farmer folk of the vicinity, and
they skulked across the path and descended the hill to-
ward the not far distant highway. Kemp leaped from the
saddle and pushed through a brush clump afoot to watch
them.

They were surely not British men-at-arms, for they wore
no uniform. He knew many of the, American military
companies were not supplied with uniforms; but all were
distinguished by some bit of color, or a cockade, in their
hats.

“Cowboys, or skinners, by my soul!”
tive.

muttered the fugi-

And whichever guess proved true, he was not anxious
to fall into their hands. Although the first named were
supposed to be Tories, and the latter claimed affiliation
with the Americans, both preyed upon the weak and help-
less of either party in the controversy.

He was on rising ground, and could overlook some con-
siderable territory. Below, between the hill and a broad
marsh, was the: Newark road. The direputable-looking
fellows had gained shelter in a thicket, and he dared not
move his horse while they crouched there, for fear pe!
would see him. The steed stood, with drooping head,
feet planted far apart, and breathing sobbingly, as Maat
completely windbroken. Kemp dared call no pursuit now,
even from men. afoot.

The general demeanor of the group below him precluded
their being fugitives themselves. The secrecy they displayed
in taking their places in the thicket spelled peril to some
traveler. Being without weapon save- for his \sword, he
had not the means to assist any weaker party: who might
be the lurkers’ prey; but he held to his own shelter, and
watched with. breathless interest.

He cast a glance behind, over the path by. which he
had come, to see that no enemy crept up in his rear. He
felt himself in momentary danger—and from more than
one direction. .Therefore, ithe sudden sound of rapidly
beating hoofs upon the frost-hardened highway excited
him immediately. That only one horseman was. coming
saved him from instant—and perhaps disastrous—flight.

The pounding hoofs were still at some distance. He
glanced down into the thicket where the men were lurk-
ing, and knew by their eager actions that they meant
injury to the approaching horseman. There were five of
them, each armed with a long-barreled musket or fowl-
ing piecé, and they lay in a position to sweep the road with
a hail of shot.

From the direction of the sound, and in consideration
of the fears Kemp himself had of being overtaken by the
enemy, he believed the approachirfy ridet to be a British
soldier. These men were likely neighboring farmers, or
allies of the patriot army, bent upon harassing the red-
coats. Should he, who had so boldly espoused the Ameri-
can cause that very morning, try to save one of the
enemy ?

Yet. horror filled his soul at thought of the coming rider

  

. rillas.

ale “ee « hs a ;
NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. | 23

being shot from ambush; to his mind even the exigencies
of warfare could not excuse such
tempted to spring
ing to the victim.

Yet he knew he could not be heard by the rider, and,
by showing himself, would only attract the attention 6f
the armed men.
have attemptéd a rescue, for a ball sent into the middle of
the clump of bushes might quickly disperse the guer-
Men who would thus lay in ambush for a vittim
must be cowards at heart, and easily frightened.

He heard the rider coming hotfoot over the frozen
road, saw the guerrillas in the thicket prepare their
weapons, and knew that he could do nothing to stay their
hands—absolutely nothing! Death was hovering ov@® that
lonely spot, and thus far Kemp had been a stranger to
death. It was as though he were a spectator to a Hangs
ing, with the gruesome gibbet before him it readiness
for the victim. ; ‘

There was a flash of color through the wood; the rider
passed. an opening swiftly, but so far away that Kemp
could not tell what manner of man he was or how he Wa
dressed. :

a crime. He was

o — of ana
from concealment and

Another flash of color appeared nearer. the thivkellea

Then Kemp saw the horse and rider, thé formera deep-
chested bay, which carried its master nobly. The man
leaned well forward in “the saddle, urging the norse with
whip and spur. Kemp caught a glimpse of a cocked hat
and buff-and-blue coat—the uniform of a Continental.
The discovery shocked him, for he had believed the en-
dangered rider to be a king’s man.

Would the skulkers below in the thicket let him pass? ;

The question was asked in Kemp’s mind, and ahswered in
a flash—literally in a flash of gunpowder! The horse and
rider reached the thicket; up rose the five guerrillas, 7
their pieces blazed simultaneously.

None of the bullets hit the frightened horse; but the
man flung his hands above his head and rolled from the
saddle, The horse spurned him with its heels as he fell,
then continued its mad gallop along the road, while: the
guerrillas burst from the bushes in an. ineffectual atternpt
to. catch the frightened beast.

The highway curved here about the foot of the hill,
and Kemp, standing horrified above the bloody scene, saw
that the riderless horse must finally circle around toward
his own position. Run as they might, it would be long
ere the murderers could overtake it; but he had a chance
to head it off.

Risking exposure and the chance that one of che five
might still have a load in his gun, Kemp broke cover and
dashed down the hillside. He was instantly observed,
and a wild shout went up from the cowboys; if he did not
reach the roadway in season to capture the horse, his
fate would be that of the Continental. This thought
spurred him.

Plainly, the fallen soldier was dead, for all five of the
guerrillas followed the bay, intent on heading off
Kemp, and without halting to rob their first victim.
Kemp ran sttaight down the hill, soon losing sight of the
scoundrels, while the hoofstrokes of the bay sounded
more faintly in his ears. Then they grew louder; the
riderless horse had rounded the turn, and was coming
down the stretch toward the point at which Kemp hoped
to intercept it.

0 fiat oe es ae :
e4aLr ich a Wwadilim A

Had he possessed a pistol he would.,

 

  
  
  

 
  

 

N ew. 7

CHAPTERE. <5 >
WASHINGTON.

A horse will not run as well under an empty saddle
as when feeling the weight and guidance of a rider, and
the bay’s pace began to flag before Kemp sighted it again.
But it still came on so rapidly that the. yelling cowboys
were well distanced, while Kemp himself was not at all
sure that he could head the beast off.

t

  

He risked his life and limb plunging down the steep
descent into the roadway, and when he reached it the
bay was not many yards away. His appearance startled
the animal, which stopped, throwing up its head and half
wheeling to return by the way it had come.

  
  
    
 
 
 
 
    
     
 
   
  
    
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
 
     
  
 

It was a desperately anxious moment. If the horse
escaped him, not only would it fall into the hands of his
enemies, but those same enemies would surely overtake
him. The fate of the horse’s rider would be his own. He
had now gone beyond the neighborhood familiar to him,
and these five guerrillas were doubtless natives. They
could easily run him down unless he caught the horse and
got away by its aid.

He sprang forward, knowing that to approach the crea-
ture slowly would only give it opportunity to escape. The

strength than himself is because of his ability to. think
quicker. _ °

,

But the bay, frightened by the explosion of the guns
and the fall of its rider from the saddle, was easily panic-
- stricken now. Kemp’s approach was the signal for it to
‘rear upon its haunches, preparatory to taking the back
track. Fortunately for the fugitive, however, at that very
moment the guerrillas appeared in sight, and set up a yell
of satisfaction, believing that Kemp had lost. the horse and
that neither man nor brute could escape them.

In a flash the big bay wheeled again, standing almost
upright. - When its fore hoofs struck the frozen  road-
way, Kemp gripped the bridle. Snorting and _ terrified,
‘the bay tried to pull away; but the excited yelping of
the pursuers frightened it: more than the calm. voice of
Kemp. The latter ran a soothing hand: along the. brute’s
_ back, secured a grip on the pommel, and before the oe
could bolt again, was in the saddle.

_ The horse was off like a shot. There was no stop-
ping it then, had Kemp so desired, and he was only too
glad to distance the scoundrels who had murdered’ the
‘former rider.
“Waris an awful thing at best;
served: in the lonely piece of road was sheer - murder.
So. enraged was he with the bloody cowboys, that, had
the saddle holstefs contained pistols, he would have tried
to turn his mount, spur down upon them before ‘their

for the Continental’s death.

F There were no weapons in the holsters, however; un-
doubtedly the soldier had worn his horse pistols in his
bpots—-a trick not at all uncommon at that time. But
as Kemp fled on the bay, leaning forward in the saddle
and gathering up the reins with caution, his right hand
sought the kolster on that side, and his fingers clutched
‘a packet pushed well down into the pistol pocket. For the

, momeht he was too closely engaged in gaining control
of the frightened horse to go ‘into’ the matter more
deeply; but when the pursuers were distanced and the

TOP WEEKLY

horse had

army.

. . . . .
reason man controls creatures of such greater bulk and ~ going in the right direction.

but this that he had ‘ob-'

-weapons could be reloaded, and take summary vengeance,

settled into anaeasy stride,
packet from the holster. ”

Before unpinning the bit of cloth about it he was sure
that its contents were dispatches. There had been more
than robbery in the shooting of the Continental; his cap-
ture of the horse was perhaps a lucky stroke. The docu-
ments were valuable, for upon the parchment wrapper was
written in a bold hand: “These, To’His Exc’l’ncy, Gen’l
George Washington, by Jn. Cadwallader.”

Kemp was not so ignorant of colonial affairs, and of
Philadelphia in particular, as not to know who John
Cadwallader was. The son of the Philadelphia physician
was high in the best social circles of the City of. Broth-
erly Love, and to Kemp had drifted the news that Cad-
wallader was not only a member of the Committee of
Safety, but was a warm friend of this Virginia colonel
who had been placed in command of the Continental
These dispatches, then, must be of moment.

It smote Kemp at once that no better introduction to
General Washington was néeded than-this fortunate in-
cident. If he could carry the papers himself to the head-
quarters of the American forces, his introduction to the
commander in chief would be Peg

He was on an unfamiliar road, /but he knew he was
It was not long before he
began to pass housés again, for even in those days there
were not many untenanted lands in Jersey. He had to
ride slower, however, for, degpite the pluck of the big
bay, it was plain he had been ridden far by his former
master. Kemp had abandoned the wind-broken old plug
that Hughey had found for him without much compunc-
tion; but this bay was far too fine a creature to ruin

needlessly.

Kemp saw people at their windows. or working about
the cow yards; these were mostly decrepit men, or women
and children. Nobody hailed him, but many gazed ‘after
him eagerly as he pressed on ‘his tired horse. It was
strange that he met no scouting or foraging parties, for if
the British horse’ was’ so ‘near “Morristown, and to the
westward of Newark, the Orange Mountains should have
been overrun. with these. gentry.’

So it was that‘when he did finally sight a group of
mounted men, by the roadside he ‘greatly feared they
were of the enemy, «until he saw’ the cocked hats and
buff-and-blue coats. It was an outpost of General Wash-
ington’s army.

- The troop was patrolling the road, guarding that way
into Newark from a: possible flanking-party of ,the enemy.
When Kemp Came into ‘view some of them prepared to
receive him in anything but’ a“friendly spirit. “The ‘fugi-
tive, however, had already made up his mind’as to how

best to meet ‘such an emergency, and he spurred on’ his

tired horse, waving the packet of papers above/his head.
His pantomime was understood. Although nobody in

the troop knew him, the dispatches spoke for themselves,

and the flagging pace of the big bay told more.

_ One man instantly dismounted and led his horse out

into the oper road for the dispatch bearer’s use. Th
others filed across the way to make sure of Kemp’s cap-
ture, should he not prove) all right.

A glance at the directions on the outside of the packet
reassured them, however.

sergeant in charge of ‘the squad.
and your horse is spent.

“Ve ‘be in haste, sir,
Take this fresher one.”

Kemp drew the

 

 
 

   

   

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‘me to headquarters,” he begged.
’ eral Washington’s hand immediately.”

 

NEW TIP

Kemp was already out of the saddle, and he'ran to the
other horse as soon as'.the packet was returned. “Direct
“This must reach Gen-_

“Where ye may find his excellency I know not,” said
the sergeant,
stanch old Whig as ever was. But'ye’ll meet those far-
ther on who may direct ye more nearly.”

The bay was led to one side; but the man whose steed
Kemp had mounted did not instantly let go of that bridle.
“Are ye bad wounded?” he asked curiously.

“No—'tis only a scratch,’ Kemp assured him as he
gathered up the reins, displaying his wrist where Major
Favor had pinked him.

“Ye’ve bled like a stuck pig, then,”
“See the tails of your coat, sir!”

Surprised, Kemp turned in the saddle, But the horse
under him, feeling him settled. in the stirrups, was eager
for the road. He sprang forward, jerking away from the
restraining hand of the private. At the same moment a
shout rose from the group gathering about Kemp’s former
mount.

“See the blood! The saddle’s full of it.~ Stop that
fellow!” roared the sergeant.

But Kemp was already under. way, and had his hands
full with his new motnt. He had obtained a single
glance at the saddle he had just vacated. and saw that
it was splotched with crimson. . Undoubtedly his own
garments were daubed with blood, too—the blood of the
poor fellow who. had been shot out of the bay’s saddle!

To punctuate the order of the sergeant, a pistol barked,
and Kemp heard the slug sing past his ear. Involuntarily

declared the man.

he leaned forward in his saddle, and the steed he had.

mounted raced away without further urging.’ It was a
reckless act, but blind impulse spurred him to it. To be
halted and examined by this squad regarding the death
of the unfortunate dispatch bearer was no part of Roger
Kemp’s plan. .

‘With the dispatches in his possession, or with proof that
he had delivered them as promptly as possible, he
sure of a welcome at the headquarters of General Wash-
ington. He determined to go on now, and risk investiga-

. tion into the matter afterward. To be brought a prisoner

into the Continental camp, despoiled of the dispatches
which might reach their destination by other hands, was
not at all to his taste.

He risked the bullets, and spurred on. Fortunately, the
sergeant had selected the best horse in his troop for the
service of the dispatch bearer, and that one shot was «all
that sped after the fleeing man. But some of the troop
took up the pursuit, and for half a mile the race was a
close one.

The outlying dwellings of Newark were already in
sight, and through a break in the wood, across a great

-. pasture, the fugitive saw a brigade of Continentals march-

ing along a parallel road. He knew he should: soon be
in the midst of the army which had been billeted upon
the Newark. folk, Whig and Tory alike.

At that day the village was a. bustling place of not
less than a thousand inhabitants, and, like most other
Jersey towns, almost equally divided in  sentimeht.
Neither Whigs nor Tories were passive; when the Ameri-
can troops were in command the patriotically inclined
people forced their Tory neighbors to remain very quiet
indeed ; when the British were near the shoe was on the

“unless it be at Master Hedden’s, who is a .

     

yother foot’ Just now, ‘Kerip was. sure,
‘come across that company of cowboys who had
dispatch bearer, the five of them would have been
‘short, shrift. .

He did net desire to fall into the hands of any
recruits; for with the troop of horse thundering do
road on his trail it would be difficult to urge the trut
his story. Therefore, he was glad when he againe
buff-and-blie uniforms ahead, and pulled up his
the face of a file of infantry which, with levele
kets, were deployed across the highway.

“Dismount, you, sir!” exclaimed the: corporal
mand. “Give an account of yourself.”

“I bear dispatches for General Washington,”
Kemp boldly. “Detain me not, for iT am in haste.
“And somebody comes in haste behind ye,’ remarked» the
corporal dryly. “Whom have we here? Not redcoats, ;
V’ll be bound !” era
“No, no!” exclaimed Kentp. “It is true I am being
chased by a troop of your own horse; but I could not stop
to explain. See, here are my ee Mr. John

Cadwallader to the general himself.”

“Wait a bit! wait a bit!” cried the corporal, seizing the
bridle of the horse as Kemp would have pushed through.
“Unless ye desire the feel of. cold steel, hold in your
beast. We'll hear what these who come in pursuit have
to say. Ha! Some of Wayne’s lighthorse, as I live!”

Around a turn in the road came the sergeant and his
men, and Kemp despairingly gave up all as lost. “Hold
the villain!” yelled the officer, immediately on seeing
Kemp and‘the infantry. “He’s likely a spy. Those dis-.
patches are stolen, or my name’s Ananias! Hold him!”

The. footmen crowded around, and Kemp was like to
be seized and dragged from his saddle. He raised his
bare sword, tempted to sweep it about him and so clear
the path, and the threatening gesture made them stand
back; but there were enough muskets pointed at him for —
their charges to blow his head to bits if he attempted
escape. ‘

Naught but the sword in Kem)’s hand saved him from
being borne at once to the ground... It looked as though
he would enter the American camp a prisoner; when these
horsemen told their story at headquarters he might have
great difficulty in satisfactorily explaining matters.

But fate interfered most unexpectedly, and in Roger
Kemp’s favor. Before anybody could lay hold upon’ him,
the sound of other horsemen drew near. A cavalcade of bes
rather brilliantly uniformed officers was approaching, and
of a sudden both horse and footmen fell back from the
dispatch bearer, and every man’s hand rose in salute.
Kemp was left alone in the center of the road upon his
restive steed.

The cavalcade was evidently in haste; but Kemp barred.
the way, and perforce the officers must pull up. “Out of
the way there, sirrah!” exclaimed one. very pompous
and red-faced gentleman, who rode in advance of the
group. “Who are ye that! blocks his excellency’s pas-
sage?”

Kemp had quickly controlled his horse; but now he
did not give way, his glance swiftly overlooking the ap--
proaching cavalcade. He had never seen Washington in
his: life, nor had he happened to come across a picture of
the great Virginian; but he picked him out unerringly.

it would have been a dull man indeed who’ made a mis-
take in, selecting General Ww ashington in almost any gath-

 
  

 
 
 

   
    
   
 
  
  
 
  
  
    
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
     
      
   
     
       
      
        
    
   
   
     
     

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Ss ; iy ak ralph

   
    

ering. Aristocrat of aristocrats, Washington sat his white
charger with an air of command and a reserve of ap-
pearance that made other men seem small about him. . At
first sight his austere face and haughty aspect repulsed
the beholder; yet mingled with these was so much cour-
tesy, and his eye held so kindly a glance, that after a mo-
ment’s hesitation Kemp made bold to urge his horse
» directly toward the commander in chief.

“Hey, there!’ exclaimed the big man, who likewise wore
the insignia of a general, reaching forth a hand to seize
Kemp’s bridle. “Stand, and give an account of yourself!”

“} have dispatches for his excellency,’ cried Kemp
loudly, to make sure that General Washington should
hear; “dispatches from Master John Cadwallader,”

The horsemen were already riding by, but Kemp’s voice
had reached the ear of the commander. He glanced once
in the young man’s direction, but he spoke to the bulky
person.

“Bring me the papers, and let the gentleman ride with
‘us, sir!’ was Washington’s command.

Ignoring the eager sergeant of horse and the anxious
corporal and their men, the cavaleade moved on, with
Kemp in its midst. The latter had but a moment to feel
relief at escaping a further éxamination, with the soldiers
he had outwitted as witnesses against him.

TO BE CONTINUED.

 

STORMIEST REGION KNOWN.

The waters of Cape Horn have never been unvisited
by storms for more than a week or two at a stretch
within the memory of man. Standing on the outpost: of
the world; Cape Horn is the meeting place of ocean
currents of very different temperatures, from the icy-cold
waters of the antarctic. drift to the warmth of the
Brazilian and Peruvian return currents. The prevailing
winds are from the northwest and west, and these, com-
ing from the warm regions of the Pacific, condense into
fogs, which the sailors call “Cape Horn blankets,” and
which are the sure forerunners of storms. The ex-
tremely low level to which the glaciers of Terra del Fuego
descend, the ‘perpetual congelation of. the. subsoil, the
meeting of conflicting winds at very different tempera-
tures, are all direct or indirect causes combining to make
this the most constantly stormy region in the world.

COULDN’T BE DONE.

A professor of legerdemain was exhibiting in a pro-
vincial theater, and he had a goodly audience. The pro-
fessor was going to perform the wonderful trick of caus-
ing a piece of money to pass, by the simple effort of his
- will, from a sectirely locked box upon the table, or from
a gentleman’s hand, into the pocket of one of the boys
in the audience. Of course, he must call up a boy to
help him, and chanced to fix his eye upon a tow-headed
urchin near the front, who promised, in appearance, to
answer his purpose. He called, and the boy came up.
“Now, my man,” said the professor, in his grandiose
way, at the same time laying his hand upon the boy’s
head, “I am going to cause that piece of money—you
gee it?—it is a solid piece of metal—to pass from that
‘box, in which you shall see me put it, into your pocket.
_ You don’t think I can do it, do you?”

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

 

‘will be an eclipse of the sun.

    

“No, sir; I answered the lad, with decided
emphasis,

“Well, do you stand up here, and we shall see.”

“But, sir,” persisted the boy, “ther’ ain’t no use’r yer
tryin’, cause I know yer can’t do it.” "

“You know I can’t? Don’t he too sure. Wait and see.
Just stand right there. There! Now hold up your head
and look steadily at me, to see that I do not cheat you.”

“Oh, well!’ muttered the persistent urchin, with a
comical grimace, “I'll stand anywhere ye want; only, if
you git any money into my pocket, I reckon ye'll hev to
find the pocket, for I ain’t had such a thing this two
months. I tored ’em out at hooking apples, and han’t
had none put in sence.”

don’t,”

A CHANGE OF SCENE.

A German officer says that there is nothing on earth
more important and self-sufficient in his knowledge than
a sergeant in the German army. They will give exact
and perfect orders to the men, but their modes of ex-
pression are sometimes inimitable. And then he tells the
story:

Not long ago there was .2. total eclipse: of the sun,
and the officer in charge of a certain regiment. wanted
to explain it to his men. He sent for his sergeants, and
said to them: -

“There will be an eclipse of the sun to-morrow. The
regiment will be drawn up on the parade ground, if the
day is fine. If it should be cloudy, the men will meet
me in the drill shed, as usual.”

The sergeants drew up this order:

“To-morrow morning, by order of the colonel, there
‘The regiment will assemble.
on the parade ground, when the.colonel will inspect the
eclipse. If the day is cloudy, the eclipse will také place
in the drill shed.’

HEARING A FLY WALK.

The microphone makes the sounds of a fly’s footsteps
perfectly audible. The apparatus. consists of a box, with
a strong sheet of paper. stretched over it in place of the -
customary lid.. Two carbons, separated by a thin strip
of wood, and connected by two wires charged with elec-
tricity, are fastened to it and connected with a carbon
pencil, which communicates with the paper tympanum.
When everything is in readiness, and the ear is held to
the sounding trumpet, a fly allowed to cross the paper
makes a sound which to the listener.is equal to the noise
made by a horse crossing a. bridge.

 

THAT BOY.

iat time ago a gentleman advertised for an office
hoy, and requested the applicant to write, stating age,
condition, and salary expected. He received many an-.
swers to that advertisement, but none as interesting as
this one:

“[’'m twelve years old. I’m a orfan, I an’t got no
father and I an’t got no mother. I’m a boy. I han’t got
no brother and I han’t got nothin’, I’m all alone and I ~
got to get along. Beats everything how hard times i ‘Hs ab
never see the likes.” bie,’
That boy has got the place and is doing well
Te WARY

 
      

   

 

ne

 

£
A

    
  
  
   
  
   
  
   
   
  
  
    
  
  
 

Think it Grand.

Dear Eprtror: I have been a reader of the Tre Tor for
two years, and thirik it is grand. I like the Merriwells
best.

I would like you to send me a set of your cards
and a catalogue. Yours truly, ALBERT Brown.

1036 Division Street, South Parkersburg, W. Va.

Bullets End Career of Famous Old Horse.

Steamboat, known throughout the country as the cham-
pion’ bucking horse of the world, is,dead. He was shot
at Cheyenne, Wyo., to end his sufferings from blood poison.

Scores of “broncho busters” in all sections of the West
have, during the last ten years, tried to ride the famous
bucker, without success. Dick Stanley, of Portland, Ore.,
who rode him during a world’s championship: contest in
1896, alone is said to have conquered the old outlaw. Even
the glory of this conquest was somewhat dimmed by the
fact that the field was heavy with ‘nud.

Steamboat was seventeen years old, and for several
years had-been a familiar figure at “Wild West” celebra-
tions.

One Best Bet.

Dear Eprror: I have been a reader of Tip Tor for
seventeen years, and up to two years ago we had a Tip
Top club of thirty-four members, which worked for Tip
Top for eleven years. But we had to part..

I think that Tip Top is the grandest weekly printed.

I also would like to hear about the old flock, above all, '
would like to have a set of post

Bart Hodge; also,
cards, for I would value them highly.
I close with three cheers for Burt L. and his one

f best bet, Tre Tor, and wish them both long life. From

a true Tip Topper, Maurice Levin.
-502 Washington Street, Latrobe, Pa.

‘ P. S..1I would like to correspond with some Tip

Toppers. '

Vessel Tossed Over Harbor’s Rocky Bar.

Word of one of the narrowest escapes from death known
among local fishermen wds received at Gloucester, Mass.,
when the Gorton-Pew Fishing Company heard that the
schooner Tattler, Captain Alden Geel, had reached St.
John’s, Newfoundland, and had gone into dry dock after
being swept across one of the most dangerous rocky bars

along the Newfoundland coast.

The Tattler was anchored off Birgin Rock, when a gale
came up that turned the vessel completely about, and then
tore her loose from her anchor, at the same time putting
her rudder out of commission.

Absolutely helpless before the gale, the Tattler sud-
denly was swept by the surf broadside across the rocks
forming the bar, and by chance reached the other side
and deep water, with only minor injuries to her hull. Her
crew of twenty-four men, who had despaired of being
saved,’ were unharmed. é

That part of the rope cable which still floated from
the bow of the Tattler was ‘pulled aboard, and from it an
improvised rudder was spliced. With this in position, the
vessel made a slow and devious course into St. John’s for
repairs.

Likes it as Much as Ever.

Dear Eprror: I have been a constant reader of Tip
Top for over six years, and like it as well now as I did
I first started to read it. I should like to hear
more about Dick, June, Dale, Brad, and Chester.

[ am inclosing ten cents in stamps, for which please
send me Nos. 119 and 121 of New Tip Top.

I should be. very pleased to have a set of Trp ‘Tor
post cards. Thanking you in advance, I am, - ;

CuHesteR W. HAMILTON.

246 Scott Street, San Francisco, Cal.

P. S. I should like to start a correspondence with Trp.
Tor readers, ‘either boys or girls, between the ages of |

thirteen and. fifteen. oe

”

when

Aeroplane Hunter is Fined.

Flying machines cannot be employed in New Jersey to
gun for wild ducks, was the claim made by State Game
Warden Tallman before Magistrate Sontheimer, who up-
held the official, and imposed a fine upon Aviator Jacquith,
of Chicago, son of a banker, w ho indulged in a shooting
expedition, and got a big bag of game.

Jacquith was dining in the Alamo Hotel, in Atlantic
City, when the game warden took him into custody. The
warrant quoted the statute which made it unlawful to
gun for ducks in a motor-propelled craft. The craft em-
ployed was a “flying boat” that Jacquith had been , using
in making seaward flights from the beach. He paid a
fine of. twenty-two dollars and fifty cénts under protest,
and employed lawyers to appeal.

Interesting and Instructive.
Dear Epitor: I have read Tie Top for a long time.
I like it fine, and cannot ‘praise it too highly. .It is both
interesting and instructive. Old Cap Wiley was the best
character I ever read about. Burt L. can’t be beat when
it comes to telling about a football er baseball game,
for you imagine you are really seeing one.

The moral life of Dick or Frank Merriwell would be
2 eer: NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

good for any young man to follow. Burt L.’s lectures
on the harm of cigarettes and drinking are the best
ever. wa

The series covering Dick Merriwell and the Trolley
Leagtie were my favorites. The wit and humor in Tr
Tor is great, and I have laughed till my sides ached at
the pranks of Dick at Fardale. Obediah Tubbs was the
limit, and he did like pie. Ted Smart felt so bad when
» Dick would win.
Tattle his head off. June is Dick’s truest friend.
~The adventures of the Merries will always have a
warm, place in my heart, they being like ites ac-
quaintances to me.

Here’s hoping the success of the publisher ahd author
‘of Trp Tor will be as great in the future as in the
past. Yours very truly, C).-R. B,

Parkersburg, W. Va.

Denies Johnson Dissipates.

It has been the impression among fight fans that Jack
Johnson, the heavyweight champion, has been such a victim
of dissipation that he must soon wear out and become an
easy victim for some strong young fellow.

“There is nothing physically the matter with Johnson,”
said Trainer McKetrick, who recently returned from
abroad. “Stories that he was a dissipated, worn-out sot are
all wrong. I was with him nearly every day for about a
year, and in all that time I never saw him take a drink.
And I don’t believe he smoked over two cigars in that
length of time. Johnson is taking the best care of him-
self, He, of course, is not the fast boxer he used to be,
but he still retains enough cleverness ‘to stall off the at-
tacks of the present set of ‘white hopes.’”

~

Glad O14 Chaeacters Returned.

Dear Epiror: I am glad you returned to the old char-
acters, as I am an old-time reader and enjoy the stories
very much,

Will we hear from Dale Sparkfair soon, as he is a
lad I admire?

Wishing you success, ] remain, a constant reader,

Chicago, Ill, ‘ 'W. M. Munro,

Calls Being Shot “Funny.”

A writer in the London Sketch says:

““T have a cousin at the front who is an inveterate
smoker. In his last letter he says:

“*T had a funny experience yesterday. I was smoking
my pipe in the trench when a bullet knocked it out of
my mouth. Fortunately, there was only a bit knocked off

the edge of the bowl, so I picked it up and went on -

smoking. Five minutes later the same thing happened
again, with a similar result, but later in the day a shrap-
nel exploded near me, and not only blew my pipe to
smithereens, but carried several teeth off at the same time,
and made a hole in my cheek which makes it difficult to
“draw” properly. A funny experience that.’

“Very n,

Likes the Stories as Well as Ever,

- Dear Epitor: I haye been a reader of Tir Tor for
eighteen years. I have read 966 of them; that heats
Mr, A, Shinedling, of Cincinnati, Ohio, doesn’t it? I
like them as well as ever. I like to read’ about Frank
and Dick best. :

Chip Jolliley would have his say or

I would like a set of post cards if you have any
left.
Three cheers for the king of weeklies and Burt’ L.
Hoping they last forever, I remain, yours respectfully,
Tuos. D. LE VASSEN,
627 Brook Street, Pawtucket, R. I.

Get Marine Fossils Inland.

Some of the latest evidence discovered of the one-time
great sea over the area of the Dakotas and other western
States is a bed of marine fossils found recently in the
bluffs along the Heart River west of Mandan, N. D., by
W. T. Stanton, paleontologist with the United States
geological survey.

Stanton has had headquarters in Mandan while search-
ing for fossils throughout that vicinity. He made one
trip up the north line of Stanton and’ several small expe-
ditions to various points around Mandan, but found noth-
ing of particular general interest, although he was much
pleased with his discovery of the marine fossil shells em-
bedded in the Heart River bluffs, which he believes the
latest evidence of marine fauna in all that region.

The data are being gathered for a publication by the
Federal department on the geology of certain Western
States, which section will be completely mapped with ref-
erence to every geological detail, especially to lignite coal
formations,

Splendid Stories.

Dear Eprtror: I have been reading Tie Tor for about
six months, and I think it is the best weekly that I have
ever read. I am interested in the Merriwell stories, as I
have already read the Frank Merriwell books.

I. hope Mr. Standish will continue writing such splen-
did stories, and live in prosperity.

If you have any. more cards, please send me a: set.

Hoping to see this letter in the Compass some time
soon, I remain, yours truly, - CHESTER HALL.

Seattle, Wash,

Ruses of War.

A soldier who was in Belgium states that the ruse em-
ployed by the Scotch to help bring about the defeat of
the English at Bannockburn in 1314 was repeated suc- |
cessfully by the British in the battle of the Yser. He
says:

“About twenty-five yards in front of our trenches deep
pits were dug, These were covered with branches and »
loose turf, as at Bannockburn, and into these the Ger-
mans fell in heaps, calling out pitiably when, too late, they
discovered the stratagem.

“Although the Germans more than filled the pits, others
came on in great numbers, and the pits soon bécame a
scene of appalling horror. The Germians struggled, cried,
and fought one another in their vain attempts to extri- ©
cate themselves. Many were accidentally transfixed by

the bayonets of those who had first fallen, while others —

were shot by comrades. A shell fell into one pit, and —
the huddled mass within was blown out of existence.”
A. dispatch from Petrograd, Russia, reports that near —

Warsaw recently peasants found huge mounds surmounted

by crosses and German helmets which are used to indicate —
graves. Being suspicious, the peasants dug into the —

mounds and found German quick- firers and Gerteortitiog ne

buried there.

 

 
 

’ my children

Austrians are filling trains with abe: own solaiend dressed
in Russian uniforms, thus gaining easy credit for thou-
sands of Russian prisoners on the way for internment or
servitude.”

Has Success With Canaries.

Dear Eprtor: I am taking the liberty to call your atten-
tion to the following: In regard to your notice about
raising canary birds in this country, eight years ago I
started to raise canary birds for my own pleasure. After
three years of careful breeding, I found out that the
demand for good ‘singers. was so large that I could not
supply the demand, so I started to breed them on a larger
scale.

I have now in a large ten-room residence, four large
sunny rooms devoted to the breeding of canary birds.
Last year, during the month of May, I had, during some
weeks, 150 nests with eggs or young ones. Until this
summer I handled this} only as a side line, but now
I quit everything and ‘devote my entire time to the
breeding, raising, and training of canary birds.

As all in our house enjoy reading the Compass in Tip
Tor Weexty, I thought this might be of interest to you
and your many readers. Yours respectfully,

St. Louis, Mo. JouHNn ORLICK,

Wife to be “Eyes” of Blind Lawmaker.
Mrs. Thomas D. Schall, wife of the blind lawyer, elected
congressman from Minnesota, says she will accompany her
husband to Washington, and that he will “see” public

affairs through her eyes.

Read “Tip Top” from the First.

Dear Eprtor:
what I think of Tre Tor. I pride myself that 1 am one
of the old guard. I have read Tie Tor from the first
issue, and also all of the Medal Libraries, and I can say
that I never enjoy myself better than reading your maga-
zine.

I have been married now for two years, and my. wife
reads it, and I hope that Mr. Standish will write to give
a chance. I am not going to criticize you,
as some do, because I think that it “can’t be beat.”

I hear that you are giving away post cards of the Tip
Top characters. If possible, kindly mail me a set.

Thanking you in advance, I am, an ardent admirer of
Tip Tor, J. -MARGOLESE.

49 Buller Street, M. E., Montreal, Canada.

Arkansas Giant Shoves Own Plow.
Jake Becker, a German giant, living on a farm near
Zinc, Ark., has again won the record in corn production
in this section, has saved a neighboring widow her precious

crop of sorghtim, is giving his daughter as good an educa-

tion as the State can provide, and is saving mules and
lumbermen much effort in the near-by sawmills.
_ Jake stands six feet seven inches, without shoes. He

weighs two hundred and ninety pounds, but is not all bone,

sinew, and muscle. Brains,as well as’ strength he uses
in the cultivation of his five acres of land, upon which

he has this year raised fifty bushels of corn to the acre,
- despite one of the worst droughts in this ‘section for years.
He does all his work by hand. A small plow, invented

I think it is time for me to let you know

by bichaalt he Mei es” ‘along ink arms and brea

‘ing and cultivating land as effectively as a horse-dray

or motor-propelied machine. He also has made many
tachable pieces composing all the different plowshz
ae

shapes, which meet the demands of his work adequ
He attribute

He farms intensely, but scientifically.
record crop to shallow cultivation.
Jake’s land is on a hillside at a forty-fiy e-degree angle

It was originally covered with hard flint rock. ,

moved this, and three years ago started to cultivate his
ground, now as smooth as a lawn, and protected. from
washouts by carefully built terraces.. Besides Cc Dy h
raises cane and other forage, vegetables, and fruit. farm-
ers with many times the land Jake owns, who scoffed at
his determination to make the little farm pay, are netting
much less than he from their efforts.

But he does not devote all his time to farming. Among
sawmill men he is counted as the best hand in the State
because of his strength, and his services are always in
demand during winter.

It does not take a full logging crew or an extra mule
team when Jake is “logging.” He handles a sixteen-foot
log with ease, and loads them onto a wagon as other men
do two-by-fours.

A widow on Crooked Creek this year had her crop of
sorghum—her living—ready for the molasses mill, with-_
out animal or motor power for the grinder. Jake learned
of her predicament, loaned himself to the task, and his
enormous shoulders saved the widow her crop.

He has one daughter, whose education is his hobby.
Since his prodigious strength began to bring results, much
of his savings have gone toward buying her tutelage in
the best schools of the State. He declares that if he con-
tinues to be blessed with strong arms, parental love; and
persistent endeavor, he will yet leave his family a substan-
tial patrimony as proof of what can be done with a five-
acre farm. } |

Nothing Against “(Tip{ Top.”

Dear Eprror: I have read’ Tire Top, the king of
weeklies, for five years, but have missed some of them,
Will you please send me a set of cards, for I'd like to
see my old friends all the rest of my life?

I would like’ the person who said the letters. under the
Compass were fakes to know this is a “real one.” He,
nor any one else, has not one thing against Tir Top that
can stand on two legs, and stand alone.

Kindly send me a catalogue, also.

I am fourteen. Would you please tell me my correct
measurements ?

So here’s three cheers for the good old crowd, and
three for good Burt L. . May his shadow never grow
less! Truly yours, - JosePH Kuorz.

Box 656, Millbury, Mass,

Send us your height, Joseph, and we will gladly print
your correct measurements.

Mile in 1:50 is His Prediction,

Harness-race records were smashed by both pacers ith Ay

trotters in. the season that has just ended, and, as a re-
sult, the inventor comes to the front with schemes to still —
further reduce records by improved sulkies. It is an
éxact repetition of what happened just after Maud S., Palo

Alto, Smuggler, and other horses of their day knocked :

 
  

30 NEW TIP TOP .WEEKLY.

all previous track records to pieces while hitched to the
old-fashioned clumsy high-wheeled sulkies.

Horsemen will remember that it was this smashing of
records that brought out the present low-swung, pneu-
matic-tired sulky, which has enabled the harness horses to
make the old high-wheel sulky records look like the
ambling of an ox cart. With the present vehicles a horse
that cannot equal or beat the record of Maud S.—2:0834,
made in 1885—is hardly considered worth bothering with
by the master reinsmen of to-day, except in the period of
development. aX

Now a Western genius has devised a sulky which is
expected to enable the harness horse to lower his records
by as many seconds as has been done with the spider-
weblike rubber-tired sulky of to-day. This new. device
is a third wheel in the rear of the two now used and
placed midway between them, the whole framework being
of the lightest and stiffest of steel wires.

It is said for this new sulky that it gives the horse
greater freedom of action, due to the fact that there is
less swerving of the sulky in rounding thé track turns,
and a steadiness of seat that tends to stop the natural
tendency of the horse to “break” in his stride when a
swerving sulky interferes with his freedom of action.
The machine is being tried out in the Northwest, and
horsemen who have ridden on it havé been able to cut a
couple of seconds from the records of the horses they
have handled in the trial heats in which it has been
used.

The inventor believes that a horse of moderate speed
will be able to reduce his record by three or four sec-
onds, and a horse of extreme speed to clip a couple of
seconds from his record ‘when harnessed to this new
vehicle. He believes a mile in 1:50 a possibility within a
half dozen years, as speed-lines breeding produces the
truer and faster trotter or pacer.

All Athletes Should Read “Tip Top.”

Dear /Eprror: I have been reading Trp Tor for several
years, and enjoy it every way possible. I liked the Clancy
stories, but, nothing can beat Chip Merriwell. I think
every athlete should) read Tip Top.

If. it is not too much trouble, I wish you would send
me your catalogue and a set of your post cards if. there
are any left.

From an old Tip Topper,

Roanoke, Va.

Hopson NEWSOME,

Will Greatly Aid Surgery.

An apparatus which should prove of considerable service
to the surgical profession has been invented by M. Schirn
Friedrickson, of Copenhagen, Denmark. It permits the pho-
tography of the interior of the stomach via the mouth, thus
enabling doctors accurately to locate cancers, ulcers, and
other abnormal affections. ‘The apparatus has been tested,
and is said to have given successful results.

Last Town Crier.

The quaint fishing village of Provincetown, Mags., away
down on the tip end of Cape Cod, is the only place in
New England that still adheres to the old-time custom. of
employing a town crier to herald events. There are two
of them in Provincetown, the last of their profession,
George Washington Ready and Walter Gamaliel. Smith.
The former, now in his eighty-seventh year, has, through

 

bodily infirmities, been obliged to relinquish the greater
part of his business to his younger, though by no means
youthful, fellow townsman.

George Washington Ready is a character. Born in
Provincetown, he was apprenticed, when sixteen years of
age, as cabin boy on one of the then famous clipper ships
that ran between New York and Liverpool. As boy and
man he followed the sea for over fifty years, sailing in
many ships. About thirty years ago he returned to ‘his
native town, since which time he has filled the office of
town crier.

All that is necessary, if you have some news you wish
advertised to the yillage, is to hand the crier a paper
with the notice written on it, and one dollar. You may
be sure that the people of Provincetown will know the
contents of that paper.

Growing Calf With Peg Leg.

Sam Plotner, of Horton, Kan., owns a calf that has a
wooden leg. The calf recently ¢aught its left hind leg in
the crotch of a tree and tore off the portion below the
knee. Plotner rigged up a “stump” for the calf, fasten-
ing it with a boot, top to the leg. The calf gets along
nicely with its peg leg, and is growing as rapidly as other
calves. Sam hopes she won’t grow any faster, as it is
something of a “chore” to fashion Peggy’s “stumps.”

Policeman Shot by Hotse. |
“Shot by a horse.” Sounds incredible, but it is true.
Traffic Policeman John MacDonald was standing at his
regular post on a prominent street corner of Owatonna,
Minn., when a loud report was heard, and MacDonald
felt the sharp sting of a bullet in his leg. And the crim-

inal was “Old Dobbin,* a faithful old delivery horse.
Some one carelessly set a loaded rifle of the old-fash-
ioned type against a curb while the owner ran into a store.
Dobbin backed up a moment later and struck his ‘heels
against the firearm, which fell to the pavement and dis-

\charged a bullet into the policeman’s leg.

MacDonald will recover without serious after effects,
hut he now regards horses as sworn enemies of a “‘traffic

”

cop.

A Fiend for Bear Meat.

Several years ago Grant Peters, of Ford City, Pa.,
tackled, unarmed and single-handed, a huge bear owned
by a traveling showman, and vanquished it. An old bear
and two cubs in McKean County, just over the Elk
County line, evidently had never heard of this, for the

‘ other day they started across the path of this man, and

when the conflict ended there was enough bear meat to
feed Peters all winter.

Minor-league Moguls Meeting.
Minor-league baseball magnates held their annual meet-

ing at Omaha, Neb., and it was no calm and peaceful affair,

either. For downright thrills these conventions far over-

shadow the annual gatherings of the major leaguers, and.

the moguls who are in on the know are agreed that, owing
to the many reversals suffered during 1914 by the minor
Organizations, this season will go down in history as the
most important in the records of the little circuits.

From every league in the National Association fold
has come a squawk. On all sides the cry has gone up

that the majors have been turning down the minors in ~,

~

Os Ce Re ee eT eee ee nee se

    

 

 

  
 
  
  
  
   
   
  
  
   
  
    
  
   
  
  
 

   
 
  

Koldeblooded fashion because of the activities 7 the out-
ne Wederal League, and it is to thrash out ways and

4 meas of padditg the various league coffers for future
: Camrvaten 1S

that the “little fellows” ‘will unite during this
gathering. They are os iteiake to desert the national
body.

Here are some of the smash-ups of the last season:

Western League—Topeka club offered for sale; others
lost money.
| American Association—St. Paul club offered for sale.
Ri ' Thternational League—Baltimore club forced to sell
Seven stars to offset slump at gate.
Ohio State League—Huntington, Ironton, ard Paris

ee
os.

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‘a rélief to learn that this is a misquotation, too.

dropped from circuit and Newport. franchise transferred

t6 Paris, Ky.
Pacific Coast League—Sacramento franchise trans-
Wetred to San Francisco to operate as the Missions.
Hlinois-Missouri League—Lincoln and Kankakee

© dropped from circuit.

Three-I League-—Danville club transferred to Moline and

7 Cireuit reduced to six clubs.
) \Pexas-Oklahoma League—Ardmore and Hugo dropped

from circuit.

Central Association—Ottumwa club transferred to Rock
Island.

Appalachian. League—Disbanded.

California State League—Disbanded.,

Pennsylvania-West Virginia League—Disbanded.

Tristate League—York club transferred to Lancaster.

Southern Michigan -League—Flint club transferred. to
Mount: Clemens.

Atlantic League—Newark club lesubbictad to Long

Branch, N. J.

. No Union Card, no Wedding.
When he goes to Congress, Meyer London, Socialist rep-
résenitative ‘elect, of New York, will try to have a law

* passed by which no ‘workman will be allowed to: marry a

working girl unless she has a union card.
London made this: announcement at a mass meeting of
‘the White Goods Workers’ Union,

What Shades Did Say.

Half of the popular quotations are-misquotations, such
as “A man convinced against his will”. for “He that com-
“Speed. the parting guest” for
“Speed. the going guest,” and “All the world. loves a lover”
for “All mankind loves a lover.”. In view of the con-
Stant and tiresome iteration of the saying, “War is hell,”
and its ascription to General Sherman, it is somewhat of
/ What he
said was, “War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.”

The sentence appears in a reply of Sherman's to the
pretest of the noncombatant population of Atlanta against
his order to them to leave the city. This order aroused
great indignation throughout the South, and General Hood
warmly denounced it in a letter to Sherman. It was not

plies against his” will,”

to Hood, but to the mayor of Atlanta, speaking on be-

half of his people, that Sherman replied, regretting the
Meeessity for the order, and saying:

“You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will,
War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it. You
‘might as well appeal against the thunderstorm as against
terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable.”

. J. Hoffman, who has come forward to correct the

‘NEW Tak TOP” WEEREY.

 

misquotation, §ays he remembers hearing this reply read
in general orders before Atlanta, but has also verified it
from the official records.

article in which occurred the sentence, “As Shértman |
to the women of Atlanta, ‘War is hell’” It was this"
known writer who saddled the phrase on our memories,
and not Sherman, who said nothing at all! to ‘the women
at Atlanta.’ We get most of our quotations at second
hand, and rarely verify them. The result ig that our
favorite sayings do not proceed, as we imagine, from fa-
mous authors, but from casual writers of faulty memory,
whose misquotations of them give them their permanent
form. ‘

“Burnt at Stake,” Boy Dies from Injuties.

After three years of suffering, Orear Eversole, aged
twelve years} of Frankfort, Ky., ‘is dead ds a result of
injuries received at the hands of his playmates, who used ©
him as the victim to be burned at the stake in the repro-

duction of a moving-picture scene which they had wit-/

nessed.
The lad’s companions represented themselves to be Tn-
dians and young Eversole as a pioneer. Hé was tied

around him, and set on fire. The youngsters danced
war dance while the flames crept close to young Ever-
sole, and before he could be rescued he was badly
burned.

His injuries caused blindness, and later he lost his mind.

Aétos, Actos, and Guns Go Down With Men.

Naval headquarters at Petrograd, Russia, reports the
sinking of four Turkish transports. The report says:

“The Russian fleet approaching Sangouldak sent vessels
with torpedoes to destroy buildings and warehouses. This
was successfully accomplished. Our guns also sank la
steamer. -

“One of our scouts saw a Turkish transport full of
soldiers’ standing out to sea. The transport on perceiving us
tried to regain the coast; whereupon a cruiser pursued
and sank it.

“The fleet then stood out to sea. Two transports fly-
ing the Turkish war flag were seen to our left. Torpedo
boats which were sent to destroy them. discovered a
third transport. All were loaded with ammunition, motor
cars, aeroplanes, and guns. All the transports were sunk.

“We rescued and took prisoners two hundred and forty-
eight men. Several of them were German officers.”

Cats Have Three Legs, Extra Claws.

‘"Three-legged kittens are becoming the rule, rather than
the exception, in a freak-cat family at the home of Eugene
Canney, a farmer, living four miles out of Rochester,
Bes RB Rick

“Calico,” the mother, a handsome tortoise-shell cat, pos-
sessed of twenty-two claws, am extra one on each foot,
has given birth on two oecasions the past season to three~
legged kittens—three all told, two of which are living
and robust.

“Limpy,” the oldest, a gray-and-white male, was born
last May at the home of a neighbor, a quarter of a mile
from the Canney home. Calico’s partiality toward the
kitten was shown by her bringing it to the Canney home
one night after the neighbor had begun killing off the

3 5 Arndt

How did the current misquota- | ;
_ tion start on its rounds? ‘According to Hoffman, ‘from. ath a

the stake in the old State House yard, leaves were aly

‘
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litter. Though returned to the neighbor’s house, she
again brought it back. The Canneys were then presented
with what remained of Calico’s family.

Limpy’s right hind leg was missing at birth from: the

“Rilee joint,’except that there was perceptible to the touch
the trace of a rudimentary leg. The half leg never touches
the ground in walking and is perfectly covered with hair.
Handicapped as he is, Limpy can run quite fast, going
with a lope. He has developed into a good hunter, having
already caught many field mice.

In an October litter of Calico’s were two kittens, each
with a hind leg withered from the tarsal joint. In each
instance this joint» shortly afterward dropped off, and
in the casé,of the living kitten the wound has healed.

“Coon,” a. long-haired black brother of Limpy, has
twenty-two claws, like its mother, but with the order re-
versed, twelve being behind.

“Johnny” Poe With the British Army.

It is reported in London that “Johnny” Poe, the famous
former. Princeton football player, has gone to the front
as a scout with the British forces.

John Prentiss Poe, or Johnny Poe, as he was known
to football enthusiasts all over this country in the early
“nineties, is a son of John P. Poe, ex-attorney general of
Maryland. He entered Princeton University with the
class of 1895, and made the varsity football team in his
freshman year, playing with great brilliancy and rivaling
the record of Edgar Allan Poe, his brother, who preceded
him. He failed in his examinations in June, and again
entered college with the class of 1896. His record on the
gridiron was even better than the year before, but he
again failed in his examinations, and did not return to
college. ee

In 1907, Poe was a captain in the Honduran army in
the war between Honduras and Nicaragua. He distin-
guished himself at the siege of Amapal, and was in charge
of a gun in the engagement of Buena Vista Fort. In the
following year he joined General Mendez, of Venezuela,
in a filibustering expedition against General Castro, then
dictator of Venezuela, In the earlier days of the Mexican
war it was several times reported that Poe intended .to
join the Constitutionalists.

Waited Twenty-five Years for Sale.

To wait for twenty-five years before landing a con-
tract is a long time, yet that is the experierice of the
Meneely Bell Company, of Troy, N. Y., the company fur-
nishing the new chimes for St. Joseph’s Cathedral, at Hart-
ford, Conn. The bells, ten in number, are in the city
and will soon be baptized, after which they will be in-
stalled in the west tower. As soon as they'are in-
stalled, the manufacturers will give an afternoon concert
on them. It is hoped to be. able to use the chimes, which
are the gift of the parishioners, on Christmas: Day.

How the bell company came to wait twenty-five years
for its contract is an interesting story. Twenty-five years
ago a representative of the Troy company was in Hart-
ford, and, between trains, he happened to pass the cathe-
‘dral, then only in its beginnings. Always having an eye
to business and thinking that possibly a set of chimes
might be needed, he inquired of thosé in charge of the
erection ‘of the edifice. He was told that the church
did not have money enough at that time, and to “come
around again in twenty-five years.” | In that time those who

laughingly put off the chime maker by telling him to
wait twenty-five years have died or left Hartford, but re-
cently, when the contract was awarded, the man from
Troy’ reealled the circumstance as soon as he knew who
the buyers were, and he told the story of the visit to Hart-
ford twenty-five years ago and of the “deferred order,”
which the Reverend T. S. Duggan, the. rector of the
cathedral, told to his parishioners when making his an-
nouncement as to the chimes.

Danger of a Pestilence. as

A London Daily Mail correspondent in northern France,
describing the battle on the line between Arras and Lille,
Says: :
“There have been bayonet duels on roofs and in cellars.
and where the soldiers have been driven from one house,
they have retired to the next and again to the next. After
sich a terrible succession of duels, it has often been

found necessary by one side or other to destroy the houses, ©

especially the coal miners’ houses, with shell fire, which
has buried the dead with the bricks.

“This combination of actions has absolutely prevented
any full burial or any adequate sanitation. Much of the
populous neighbérhood, north of “Arras, is quite unap-
proachable, and the terror of pestilence is added to the
other terrors of war..

“Sanitary reasons alone make a quick advance impos-
sible. In some districts the regimental doctors forbid
what the officers may desire.”

How to Test Drinking Water,

Every one knows and admits the necessity. for pure
water. When you are away from home, and are not sure
of the character of the water supply, it would not be a bad
idea to make a few simple tests. The results may. prove
that it was decidedly worth while to take the: trouble.
Here are two tests that you can make very easily:

Fill a tumbler with water, drop in a lump of white
sugar, cover. it with a saucer, and let it stand overnight

on the bricks at the side of the range, on the kitchen

mantelpiece, or, in fact, anywhere where the temperature
will not sink below’'sixty degrees.

hand, the liquid is cloudy, some source of contamination
is indisputably proved. .

The second test is to drop a few grains of permanganate —

of potash inté a tumbler of water, cover, and let it stand

 
     
  

  

 

 

If next morning the « a
contents are clear, the water is pure. If, on the other

for an hour. If the water is still of the bright rosy color 3

to which the chemical turned it, it is perfectly safe for
drinking ; if it is of a brownish color, it is impure, although

the impurity may be of the kind that boiling will rob of
its power to harm.

Had ‘‘Queer” Money 1,600 Yeats Ago.

The fact that counterfeiting in coins existed 1,600 years
ago has been brought to light, the University of Penn-
sylvania Museum announcing that among Egyptian relics
recently discovered are counterfeiting outfits. The molds
are of brick. The plan was to make impressions of each
side of a coin in soft clay and, then burn the two
sides. An opening was left at the) top, in which molten
metal was poured. The rogues floutishad in the reigns of

the Roman Emperors Maximus, Licinius, and Constantius,

from 313 to 367 A. D.

 

 
  
   
   

     
 
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39—_Dic k Meeriy ell’s s MG sake 4 1D} nemy.

0—Dick Merriwell’s Motor Car.

1—Dick Merriwell’s Hot Pursuit.

—Dick Merriwell at Forest Lake.
3—Dick Merriwell in Court.
4—Dick Merriwell’s Silence.
Dick Merriwell’s Dog.

46—Dick Merriwell’s Subterfuge.

7—Dick Merriwell’s Enigma.
748—Dick Merriwell Defeated.
749—Dick Merriwell's ‘‘Wing.”’
750—Dick Merriwell’s Sky Chase.
751—Dick Merriwell’s Pick-ups.
752—Dick Merriwell on the Rocking R.
753—Dick Merriwell’s Penetration.
754—Dick Merriwell’s Intuition.
755—Dick Merriwell’s Vantage.
756—Dick Merriwell’s Advice.
757—Dick Merriwell’s Rescue.
758—Dick Merriwell, American.
759—Dick Merriwell’s Understanding.
760—Dick Merriwell, Tutor.
761—Dick Merriwell’s Quandary.
762—Dic k Merriwell on the Boards.
763—Dick Merriwell, Peacemaker.
764 —Frank Merriwell’s Sway.

826—Dick Merriwell’s Star Pupil.
Astuteness.
§28—Dick Merriwell’s Responsibility.
Dick Merriwell’s Plan.
830—Dick Merriwell’s W

827—Dick Merriwell’s

829—

eo
1 la

arning.

85 as Dick Merriwell’s Counsel.

833—Dick Merriwell’s Marksmen.

834—Dick Merriwell’s Enthusiasm.

35—Dick Merriwell’s Solution. )
Dick Merriwell’s Foreign Foe. G4
sattle for the Blue.
39—Dick Merriwell’s Evidence.

Dick Merriwell’s Device. G7
—~Dick Merriwell’s Sixth Sense. :

836-
838—Dick Merriwell’s

840—

65-

GS

—Diek Merriwell’s Strange Clew.

34:

843

$44—Dick Merriwell Comes B

$45—Dick Merriwell’s Heroic Crew.

46—Dick Merriwell Looks Ahead.

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70

ee:

»

IES. 5
oo

in the Box. a

’s, Struggle.

56—Frank

58—F 1
59—F rank

61—

63—Fr

66—F

mate.

‘rank Merriwell, Jr.
—~Frank Merriwell, Jr.,
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-Frank Merriwell, Jr.’

Frank Merriwell, Jr.’
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Box.
rank Merriwell,
Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s,

Black

emy.

rank Merriwell,
Frank Merriwell,

Honors.

cation.

74—Frank Merriwell, Jr.,

Wolves.

Frank Merriwell, Jr.,
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Merriwell, Jr.
—KFrank Merriwell, Jr.,
‘rank Merriwell, Jr.’
Merriwell,

Frank Merriwell,
I’rank Merriwell, Jr.’
‘Frank Merriwell,

’s, Ordeal.

on the Wing.
s, Cross-Fire.”
Jr.'s, Lost Tea m-

x Flight.
ale.

’g, Dari
at Far
Plebe.
s, Quarter-Back.
s ’ Touc hdown.
s, Night Off.

and the Little

Jr.’s, Classmates.
Repentant En-

Jr., and the “Spell.”
STs By Gridiron

on: i Winning Run.
, Jujutsu.
ee 2 Christmas Va-

and the Nine

on the Border.
s, Desert Race.

)
7—Owen Clancy’s Run of Luck.
78—Owen Clancy’s Square Deal.
9—Owen incy’s Hardest Fight.  «
s0—Owen uncy’s Ride for F ortune.

765—Frank Merriwell’s Comprehension.
766—F rank Merriwell’s Young Acrobat.
767—Frank Merriwell’s Tact.
768—Frank Merriwell’s Unknown.

4—I*rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Skill. ‘
»>—Irrank Merriwell, Jr., in Idaho.
6—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Close Shave.

769—FIrank Merriwell’s Acuteness,
770—F rank Merriwell’s Young Canadian.
—Frank Merriwell’s Coward.
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Frank Merriwell’s Intervention.
—~Frank Merriwell’s Daring Deed.
—Frank Merriwell’s Succor.
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Fr: ank Merriwell’s Loyalty.
-Frank Merriwell’s Bold Play.
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—Frank Merriwell’s Guile.
§ Frank Merriwell’s Campaign.
782—I'rank Merriwell in the
Forest.
783—Frank Merriwell’s Tenacity.
784—-Dick Merriwell’s Self-sacrifice.
785—Dick Merriwell’s Close Shave.
786—Dick Merriwell’s Perception.
787—Dick Merriwell’s Mysterious Disap-
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788—Dick Merriwell’s Detective Work.
789 —Dick Merriwell’s Proof.
790— Dick Merriwell’s Brain Work.
791—Dick Merriwell’s Queer Case.
792—Dick Merriwell, Navigator.
793—Dick Merriwell’s Good Fellowship.
794—Dick Merriwell’s Fun.
795—Dick Merriwell’s Commencement.
796—Dick Merriwell,at Montauk Point.
797—Dick Merriwell, Mediator.
798—Dick Merriwell’s Decision.
799—Dick Merriwell on the Great Lakes.
801—Dick Merriwell in the Copper Coun-
try.
802—Dick Merriwell Strapped.
8053—Dick Merriwell’s Coolness.
804—Dick Merriwell’s Reliance.
805—Dick Merriwell’s College Mate.
807—Dick Merriwell’s Prodding.
810—F rank Merriwell’s Young Warriors.
811—F rank Merriwell’s Appraisal.
812—F rank Merriwell’s Forgiveness.
813—Frank Merriwell’s Lads.
814—Frank Merriwell’s Young Aviators.
815—F rank Merriwell’s Hot-head.
816—Dick Merriwell, Diplomat.
817—Dick Merriwell in Panama.
818—Dick Merriwell’s Perseverance.
819—Dick Merriwell Triumphant.
820—Dick Merriwell’s Betrayal.
821—Dick Merriwell, Revolutionist.
822—Dick Merriwell’s Fortitude.
923. —Dick Merriwell’s Undoing.
824—Dick Merriwell, Universal Coach.
825—Dick Merriwell’s Snare.

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ders.

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thon.
10—F rank
Ranch.

ank Merriwell, Jr.
< Merriwell, Jr.’
< Merriwell, Jr.’
< Merriwell, Jr. ‘
r., Misjudged. 91

< Merriwell, J

‘e Merriwell, Jr.’
€ r.’s, Blind Chase,
‘rank Merriwell, Jr.’

< Merriwell, J

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‘rank Merriwell, Jr.,
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q Trank Merriwell, es
r.’s, Xmas Eve.
i rank Merriwell, a
‘rank Merriwell, Jr.,
Frank Merriwell, Jr.’

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27—Frank Merriwell,

Foes.

28—F rank Merriwell, Jr.,
29—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’
30—F rank Merriwell, Jr.
oa ae Merriwell, Jr.’s,
82—P rank Merriwell, Jr.’s,
BE + ‘rank Merriwell, Jr.,
: ‘rank Merriwell. we:

1 rank Merriwell, Jr.’s,

-Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s,

Frank Merriwell, Jr.
Merriwell. Ir

88—F rank |
Race.

89—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’
40—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’
rank Merriwell, Jr.,

41—I"1
42_F

44—F rank Merriwell, Jr
45—
46—F rank Merriwell, ht
47—F rank Merriwell, J
48—F rank Merriwell, Tr
49—Frank Merriwell, Jr.
50—F rank Merriwell, Jr.
ture.
oa rank Merriwell, Jr

ble.

53—Frank Merriwell, Jr.,

Doctor.
54—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’
ank Merriwell, dP.

Merriwell, Jr., at

rank Merriwell, Jr.’s,
43—Frank Merriwell, Jr.

Frank Merriwell, Jr.

8s, Double Header.
—Frank Merriwe sl, sti?

on Waiting Or-

‘ 2

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s, Danger. °
Relay Mura- s4
4 86
: R7
rail, mip
s, Competitor, a
s, Guidance. So
’s, Scrimmage, 90

the Bar

’s, Golden T

s, Star Play. oa
s, Discretion. 4
s, Substitute, 95
Justified. 96
Incog. 97
Meets the Issue. 98
99
100
101
102
103
104

s, Fearless Risk.
on Skis.

s, Ice-boat
x ey

Chase,
Ambushed

and the Totem.
s, Hockey Game.
’s, Clew.
Adversary.
Timely Aid.
in the Desert.

s, Grueling Test.
s, Special Mission
s, Red Bowman.
’s, Task.

s, Cross-Country

105

106
107

’

s, Four Miles.
s, Umpire.
Sidetracked.
Teamwork,
’s, Step-Over.
in Monterey.
s, Athletes.

s, Outfielder.

’

18
8, “Hundred.” 39

s, Hobo Twirler. 20
s, Canceled Game. 21-
Ss, a

3
,
,
’
’
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Weird Adven- -

s, Peck of Trou-

and the Spook 108

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s, Ten-Innings.

Owen
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’s Makeshift. yn”
and the Black Pearls,
and the Sky Pilot,
and the Air P iret
’s Peril.

's Partner. ie
’s Happy Trail.

”’s Double Trouble.

’s Back Fire.

and the “Clique of Go

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‘rank Merriwell, Jr.’
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Frank Merriwell’s re Comm
—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’

-Dick Merriwell and
Dick Merriwell’s
eae Merriwell Tricked.

‘rank Merriwell, Jr.,

Fire.

—Frank Merriwell, Jr., in
Stampede.
Merriwell vs. Merriwell.
Dick Merriwell
Dick Merriwell

Tite f
Turquoige Tus

ee
in the Gulf of
the jdeterc
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and the

Burglar.
Mystified. ~ a

Dick Merriwell’s Hazard, BNa

Frank Merriwell, Jr., at
Carnival.

Frank Merriwell’ s River
Frank Merriwell
Frank Merriwell, Jr.'s,

boy

ale.
—Frank Merriwell, Jr., at

thes Cow-
Problem,
om Odds. Af
Pueblo Pz.

the "Blue

Bonnet Mine.

—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s
—Frank Merriwell,
Merriwell, Jr.’

—F rank

5, New Foe.
or, 8, ae tig.
Indian En-

tanglement.

—Frank Merriwell,
-Frank Merriwell

—Frank Merriwell’s ¢ onquest.
Frank Merriwell’s Unseen

Jr.’s, Riddle?
Again in Colorado.

oes.

—~Dick Merriwell’s Charm.

Dated December 5th,
23—Dick Merriwell’s Polo Play.
‘ember
124—Dick Merriwell’s Anxious H6ur.
‘ember
-Frank Merriwell, Jr.’

Dated December 26th,
26—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’

Dated Dec

Dated Dec

1914. »
12th, 1944.
19th. 1914,

s, Fardale Visit.
1914,

s, Girl Friend.

If you want any back numbers of our weeklies and cannot procure them from

Postage stamps taken the same as money,

Street & Smith, Publishers, 79-89 Seventh Ave., New York City

Se OT TRY ERENT TO
tae igi