The Boys of Columbia High on the River/Chapter 5
CHAPTER V
THE STOLEN EIGHT-OARED SHELL
Ting-a-ling!
Frank Allen was just finishing his breakfast at about seven o'clock when the telephone bell rang. He leisurely arose, and stepped into the hall to pick up the receiver, thinking that it might be Lanky, or one of his other chums, Paul Bird or Ralph West.
"Hello! hello!" he called.
"Is this Mr. Allen's house?" came the question.
"Yes, sir, it is," answered Frank, wondering who it could be.
"Is Frank Allen there?" demanded the unknown.
"This is Frank speaking to you. What do you want?" asked the boy, feeling a little thrill of expectancy.
"I understand that you are the coxswain of the Columbia High School Boat Club?"
"Oh! no, only of the eight-oared shell," replied Frank, modestly.
"That's just it. I'm Brierly, the freight agent at the railroad station. I want to ask you something about that boat," came over the wire.
"Yes, what about it, Mr. Brierly?" queried the boy, eagerly, for he had just been about to hurry down to superintend the removal of that precious shell to the river, so that the coach could put the crew through a severe trial that morning in the boat that was take the place of the discarded one.
"Why, it's gone, and I have called you up to ask if some of you boys carried it away in the night; because you see, I'm responsible for that boat, and if anything happened to it I might get in a peck of trouble," came the reply.
Frank shook as he held the receiver closer.
"What do you mean, Mr. Brierly—the boat was there last evening all right, for one of my chums saw it? Do you intend to say that it has been taken away during the night, sir?" he demanded, anxiously.
"That's just what I'm saying. It was gone when I came here just now, and nobody knows a thing about it—crate and all disappeared in a mighty mysterious way. If some of your boys carried it off I'd like to know it right away. They'll have to sign a receipt for it."
"Wait a minute, Mr. Brierly; I'll get the boat-house and ask. Some of them are sure to be down there, even if it is early."
Frank soon had connection with one of the high school lads at the club. When he put the question with regard to the boat he was horrified to hear that the craft was not there, and that no one knew anything about it.
There seemed but one solution of the mystery. Some dark work had been going on while the honest town people slept. The precious new shell had been stolen by some mean schemers, who did not want Columbia High School to win the boat race.
"I'm coming right down, Buster; wait for me," Frank said, as he rang off.
Snatching up his cap he bolted from the house, and ran at top sped over to the railroad station.
"The boat isn't at the clubhouse, Mr. Brierly," he said, as he hastened into the office of the freight agent, and found the latter at the 'phone excitedly trying to get connection once again with the Allen house.
"Then what could have happened to it?" asked the other, looking troubled; for the company would be held responsible for the non-delivery of the shell, and its mysterious vanishing might reflect somewhat on his wisdom in leaving it exposed on the platform over night.
"It's a trick, that's all," declared Frank. "There's a lot of fellows in this town who hate to see the rest of us do anything to win in baseball or other sports; and they've gone and hidden that shell! They wouldn't dare smash it, for that would be a penitentiary offense. But even if it shows up in a day or two that will be too late; for in our old boat we would have no chance to come in ahead of Clifford or Bellport."
"That's it, eh? Well, all I can say is that it's a mighty small-minded boy who will go back on his own school and town. And if I can find out who did this I'll feel like having the scamps arrested. But where do you suppose they could have hidden the boat?" asked the agent.
"That's something to be found out. It wasn't taken out of the crate or else the packing would be lying around here. They carried the whole thing away bodily. That means they had a wagon, or else there were quite a number in the plot," remarked Frank, as he let his eyes wander about.
"Here's where it lay last night," continued Brierly, as he led the way to the platform where freight was usually left out, protected by an open roof; "and there might have been a wagon here, but it didn't back up. How do I know? Because you can see the marks of an automible here; a friend came and took me off last evening in his car, and left that track."
"I see what you mean—there is no wheel mark across it. And that gives me the idea that a gang of boys just boosted the boat, crate and all, up on their shoulders, and walked away with it," remarked Frank, shrewdly.
"They could do it easy enough. Even with the open crate the whole thing wouldn't be so very heavy for half a dozen fellows. What will you do about it, Frank?" continued the agent, anxiously.
"Get it back, if it's any way possible," came the resolute reply, as Frank's eyes flashed with determination.
"I hope you succeed, not only because it interests me, but on account of your need of the shell to-day for practice. It's the lowest trick I ever heard of; and I think it's about time the authorities took hold of this question. Some of that crowd want to be taught a good lesson," grumbled Mr. Brierly.
Frank had not stayed to listen to the conclusion of his remarks. He was off for the boathouse down on the river bank. As he ran he looked to the right and left for any sign of the missing shell; but nothing rewarded his scrutiny.
His arrival was like throwing a bomb into a camp, for the startling news which he brought aroused the utmost indignation.
A dozen fellows had shown up at the club, knowing that this fine day must see more or less practice among the enthusiastic advocates of boating; those who expected to compete in canoes, shells, and even motor-boats being given their last instructions by Coach Willoughby.
"What can we do?" exclaimed Jack Comfort, dismally; for Jack had an interest in the missing boat, seeing that he was one of the crew who expected to pull the new shell to victory in the coming tournament.
"Do! Why every man-jack get out and hunt, high and low! That boat hasn't been taken a great way off, I give you my word; and we've just got to find her right away!" declared Frank, earnestly.
His spirit began to enter into the rest.
"We will find her, as sure as you're born!" exclaimed Charley McGregor, another of the "eight," and known among his fellows as "Chatz."
"Say, wouldn't they be apt to take her down to the river, and launch her?" asked Lanky, who had arrived in time to hear what was wrong, and of course looked as angry as a wet hen.
"A bright idea," echoed Frank. "You go downstream and Buster take up the river. If you find the remains of the crate come back and tell us. The rest scatter through the town. Tell every Columbia High fellow you meet, and get them looking. A big thing like a crated eight-oared shell couldn't be chucked under a doorstep and out of sight. We're bound to find it, boys, make up your minds to that. Now, see who's the first to bring in good news."
"And remember, fellows," called out Lanky as he turned to run off, "the boat itself was wrapped in a sort of green burlap to protect its varnished sides from getting scratched. I guess there were pads of excelsior inside too. Look for something like that, now," and he went off whistling cheerily.
Frank did not mean to remain idle himself. There was too much at stake in the loss of the shell for him to stay there at the clubhouse while the rest rummaged through the entire town.
In half an hour Columbia fairly seethed with excitement. Every boy and girl in town knew that another dastardly trick had been played upon the gallant members of the Columbia High Boat Club.
The girls were just as indignant as their big brothers, and equally earnest in prosecuting the search for the missing shell. Frank met his sister Helen and her chum Minnie Cuthbert while he was puzzling his brains over the solution of the mystery.
Minnie laughed at him for looking so gloomy.
"Why, Frank, you take it dreadfully to heart," she said, "and any one would be apt to think this nasty trick had been played just to get even with you for something."
"That's just what I believe is the truth, for a fact. I happen to have made some bitter enemies in this town, and they never get tired of trying to play some of their miserable tricks on me. I'm the coxswain of the eight-oared shell, you know, and it would make somebody jealous if we happened to win that race."
Minnie turned a bit red as she heard him say this.
"I know who you have in mind. I've had my eyes opened about that young gentleman, Frank, and unless I change my mind he's never going to see much of my society again. Any one who could ruin the chances of his school winning a contest against such bitter rivals as Bellport and Clifford, just to satisfy his own mean grudge is too contemptible for anything—there!" she said, with emphasis.
"I'm glad to hear you say that, Minnie. I suppose that after that horse running away with Lef, when you were riding with him, you'd want to have mighty little to do with him," remarked the boy, smiling.
"And if it hadn't been for you turning the said horse into the river, and then pulling a half-drowned girl out, I might have been seriously hurt in an upset, with that furniture van filling the road just where the ugly rocks lay," said Minnie, with sparkling eyes.
"Please don't bring that thing up; I don't like to remember of it very much," remarked Frank, with a shiver, for he always thought that it was an inspiration on his part that had caused him to act as he had in order to save the girl.
"Well, I do. Anyway, I honestly believe Lef would just glory in doing such a thing as this," continued Minnie; and Helen Allen nodded her head as though she agreed with her chum.
"He does seem to love to play mad pranks on others. Only last night," began Frank, and then stopped short, remembering that he had made Lanky promise not to speak of the upset on the river outside of his family circle.
"Helen was just telling me that you and Lanky had been run into by a motor-boat on the river last night; and some of the boys were talking something about a horse and vehicle you brought to town, that had been stolen. Now, suppose you start in and give us the whole story," commanded the girl.
"Why, Frank, you said nothing about that at home this morning?" interjected Helen.
"Oh! I don't care to be the one to blow my own horn. I'd much rather some other fellow did it for me, if it must be done," Frank objected.
Still, Minnie insisting, he gave a brief outline of the double adventure that had fallen to the share of Lanky and himself. Frank could invest a story with considerable humor, and in this way was able to make it appear that they had done a very little thing after all.
"How strange that you should just happen to come across those wicked men. And I'm glad they ran away without trying to do anything desperate. One of the boys said Chief Hogg had come back early this morning, but without either of the kind gentlemen who turned that buggy over to you so politely, Frank," laughed Minnie.
"I wonder, now. When I get a chance I'd like to run over and see how he missed them. But just now I don't seem to have the heart for anything, I feel so bad over this plagued trick of those schemers," and Frank sighed heavily as he spoke.
"Didn't some one tell me that the boat was wrapped in green stuff?" asked Minnie, suddenly.
"Yes, it was, for I walked down and saw it myself," answered Helen, promptly.
"That's funny," remarked the other girl, and Frank looked at her curiously.
"Why do you say that?" he asked.
"Was it anything like this?" she continued, stooping down and picking some object out of a pile of bricks that stood in front of a tall office building that was being erected, and which was to be Columbia's "sky-scraper" when finished.
And Frank held his breath when he saw that the girl actually held in her hand a torn piece of green burlap similar to that which had been around the missing boat!