CHAPTER VIII

TOEING THE MARK

“So it was that cur, just as I expected!”

Frank felt a glow of indignation pass over him at the conviction that he had by this simple but positive means of identification discovered the thief who had not only stolen the examination paper, but tried to rob him of his good name.

He and Lef had always been at war. Bitter rivals in all things, they had on many occasions faced each other on opposite sides. And because Frank usually managed to win in these contests Lef hated him bitterly.

Frank was puzzled as to what he should do. His first thought was to hasten to the principal’s office and show him the proof of the charge he could make. Then he shook his head. Somehow that seemed to be too severe, for it would possibly result in the expulsion of the other student of Columbia High. And Frank hardly fancied having such a responsibility thrust upon his shoulders.

“I’ll charge him with it, and if he says he’s sorry, let the matter go. Anyhow, the mischief’s done. Those papers will have to go back, and others be sent on. The little experiment has afforded me more or less amusement, and that counts for something. If I can only get Lef over here alone.”

A bright thought struck Frank even while he was puzzling over this matter.

“That’s the idea--I can slip into the lunch room, and coax him there.”

First of all he carried the tray of moulding clay through the convenient door. Mrs. Louden, who had charge of the lunch counter, was still busily engaged. She made it a rule to linger when a bunch of the boys were working in the adjacent gymnasium, since that sort of thing developed enormous appetites, and many an extra dollar found its way into her till through this afternoon source.

After doing this Frank passed outside again.

“How?” remarked Lanky, as he sidled up alongside his friend.

But this was not intended to be an Indian salutation. Lanky was deeply interested, and wanted to know.

“I was right,” said Frank.

There was no exultant strain to his voice such as one might expect. Truth to tell, he felt only indignation and disgust because of the fact that any fellow who had the home training Lef Seller enjoyed should descend so low as to endeavor to ruin a companion’s reputation.

“Then soak him, pard! Show the measly skunk no mercy! He ought to be kicked out of Columbia, and that’s the truth!” gritted the other.

Lanky knew his chum’s tenderness of heart, and was afraid that Frank might be too easy with the culprit.

“Don’t forget what you promised me when I let you in on this!”

“Oh! yes, you tied my hands good and hard, so that I couldn’t let out even one measly little squawk. But my word is as good as my bond. Have it your own way, but I certainly hope you’ll finish that fellow’s loping so that he’ll never try any more of his funny business on you again,” grumbled Lanky.

“That would be almost too good,” laughed Frank; “and now, while I go in the lunch room will you manage to tell Lef that some one wants to see him there?”

“Sure I will,” grinned the other.

“And try to keep the boys out for a little while, will you, Lanky?”

“If it’s possible, but you know as long as any fellow has a nickel in his jeans, and the spirit moves, he can’t be kept away from Mother Louden’s grub corner with a derrick. But I’ve just thought of a funny story I’ll tell ’em after Lef has gone to the block.”

Lanky hurried away, while Frank passed through into the other room.

Two minutes later Lef hurried into the place and looked around. He seemed disappointed, and frowned. Possibly the conceited fellow may even have imagined from the air of mystery that Lanky assumed when telling him some one wanted to see him, that one of the girls, even Minnie herself, was there with a message.

Frank beckoned to him, earnestly. He saw Lef’s face turn red at once, but since no one could ever accuse the fellow of a lack of nerve, it was not strange that he started toward the corner where Frank was standing hiding something behind him.

When Lef reached the other he was sneering as he said:

“Was it _you_ sent for me? If I’d known it, I wouldn’t have taken the trouble to come, and you understand that, or you wouldn’t have had Lanky make me believe it might be Minnie.”

Frank flushed a trifle at the mention of that name, for he and Lef had long been competitors for the favor of the prettiest girl in Columbia.

“That would have been too bad, for you, Lef,” he said, quietly.

“Oh! say you so. Perhaps you’ll take the trouble to tell me why?” observed the other, apparently as bold as ever, though Frank could detect a little uneasiness about his manner that told of newly awakened fears.

“Because if you hadn’t come I’d have taken the matter up with Professor Parke,” and Frank looked him straight in the eye as he spoke.

“Matter--what matter?” demanded Lef, shivering at the same time.

Frank stepped aside, and in so doing exposed upon the table one of the little trays used by Mr. Oswald when instructing his pupils in the art of the mapmaker.

“That’s your tray, Lef; it has your own signature on the tag to make certain.”

“Oh! I don’t deny it. But what under the sun are you driving at, Frank Allen? I’m beginning to believe that all the praise that’s been showered on the mighty factor in saving that punk game last Saturday has gone to his head, and that you’re getting ratty.”

“Wait and see. There’s the imprint of your left hand as plain as day. You heard me say that no two fingers in the world would make the same impression, or thumbs either for that matter. Well I’m going to show you that the _same thumb_ can and always will make a similar impression; and many a rascal has gone to jail just because of it.”

With a quick motion Frank flirted a paper before the astonished eyes of the boy who stood there. Lef turned as white as a ghost, and had to grit his teeth to keep from having them chatter with his sudden fright.

Had the ground opened and threatened to swallow him just then he could hardly have been more astonished and dismayed. It is the feeling of the rogue whenever his own handiwork arises unexpectedly to confront and confound him.

“I guess you know that paper, Lef, all right,” said Frank, meaningly.

Lef pretended to lean forward to read it, but in reality he was trying to shield his face until he could screw up a little of his ordinary courage and brazen assurance.

“Rats!” he exclaimed at length, though his voice trembled almost piteously, and instead of the customary fire in his eyes they seemed to be filled with a dumb entreaty; “I see that you’ve got the paper the professor said came to him. What of it? I ain’t got anything to do with that, and nothing you can say will make anybody believe it, Frank Allen!”

“But you signed it yourself, Lef, as plain as day!” declared Frank.

“What’s that? Think I’m a fool, do you? Sign nothing! The fellow who wrote that scribble was wise enough to make only his mark,” sneered Lef.

“Well, in this case his mark is as good as his name,” went on Frank.

Lef began to tremble. He realized that there was something terrible back of these words, so calmly spoken by the boy he had come to fear more than any one he had ever known.

“Tell me how?” he demanded, with one more futile attempt at bluster.

Frank pointed to the blur on the edge of the sheet, where a thumbmark was plainly visible in ink.

“That’s your signature, Lef! You never thought when by accident your thumb made that blur that you were signing your name here, but that’s just what you did. The proof lies in that little drawer where you made the impression of your left hand. Alike as two peas they are, Lef. That would convict you in any court. It stamps you as the low, mean cur that you are, who would try to ruin a companion’s reputation just to gratify his love of revenge!”

Lef stared at the small tray of moulding clay in which the plain impression of his hands could be seen.

“You--did--that as a trap!” he gasped.

“Well, just as you will. If it was a trap you fell into it neatly enough, and you’re caught now. The evidence is there, and if I showed it to Professor Parke I guess we wouldn’t be bothered with you at Columbia High much longer,” went on Frank, sternly.

“Say, you wouldn’t be mean enough to do that, Allen, I hope? I acknowledge the corn about this thing. I did do it, but more to get you knocked off the baseball team than anything else,” said Lef, in pretended humility.

All the while he was edging toward the table; but if Frank suspected his design he took no measures to stop the other.

“What good would that do you?” demanded the one Lef had injured.

“I used to pitch for Columbia, yes, and won many games for them up to the time you knocked me out. I’ve never got over being sore for that. Lots of times I’ve tried to get even. You know how. Sometimes I succeeded in giving you a jolt; but more times the shoe was on the other foot. This seems to be one of that sort. I never thought the old man had you with him all the time he was out of his den.”

“But you haven’t answered my question--how would it profit you even if I was dropped from the team?” continued Frank, persistently.

“Why, I had some hope that when the team was left without a pitcher enough influence might be brought to bear on the Head to let me take my old place in the box again. That’s all I did it for; Frank; I give you my word.”

“I suppose you look at such things differently from the way others do; and perhaps you even now believe it wasn’t such a dirty trick after all. I’m just wondering whether I’d better accept an apology from you and let it go at that, or take the matter before Professor Parke.”

Lef made a sudden movement of his hand, and the little tray was dumped from off the table, depositing its contents in a mass upon the floor.

“What did you do that for?” demanded Frank.

“Destroying the evidence, that’s all. I guess you’ll have some difficulty now about proving the ridiculous assertion you just made. Of course I never dreamed of playing such a mean trick as stealing that paper, and hiding it on you! And, Mr. Smarty, my word ought to be as good as yours, any day!”

He thrust his face out as he spoke, in his usual disagreeable way, thinking he had played a clever trick on the other.

“You’re wrong there. Although you’ve destroyed that little print you so kindly made me you can’t very well get rid of the original so easily,” said Frank, pointing down at the left hand of the other.

And Lef fell back in sheer dismay. He had forgotten that it was the mark of his thumb to which Frank referred.

“The professor could easily insist upon you convicting yourself by stamping another thumb-print alongside this one. He asked me if I wanted to have every fellow in Columbia make his mark, so that the right one could be found; and I told him I preferred going about it in my own way.”

“Then--he knows?” asked Lef, in new alarm.

“About the imprint on the paper, yes. He admitted that it was a possible way for identifying the one who had taken it out of his desk,” was Frank’s answer.

“And you’ve got to tell him then?” with a groan, and a sinking of his head on his chest.

“No, he said he’d leave that to me entirely; but that, if I succeeded, and gave him the proof he’d do the rest!”

Like all cowards caught in their own toils, Lef was not beneath playing upon his emotions in order to secure immunity. To the surprise of Frank the other suddenly grasped his hand and there seemed to be a look of sincere agony on the face that was thrust close to his.

“Then I hope you’ll be above giving me away, Frank. I’ve been a cur. I admit it, and don’t deserve to be let down easy; but I’d hate to be expelled from school, because, you know, my mother has set her heart on my graduating, and going to college. It would break her all up. I haven’t been what I ought to be, but this is going to be a lesson to me, sure it is!”

Frank deep down in his heart believed the fellow was a hypocrite; but under the circumstances what could he do, now that Lef had brought his mother into the affair? Frank knew her well, and believed she was an estimable lady who certainly deserved to have a better son than fortune had given her.

“I don’t know whether to believe you or not, Lef; but at any rate I guess I’ll keep my own counsel, for a while at least,” he said.

And as Lef moved away, he was secretly laughing in his heart at the easy way he had tricked his rival.