CHAPTER X

_“Peeg” Excitement_

The success of Larry Kirkland and his friends in “stirring up” Cascade was beyond their wildest imaginings. Before noon of the following day the school was in a turmoil. The “Herr Professor’s” pig had disappeared and theft was charged.

It was little Butler who came running to whisper the announcement of this new development in the prank. It was known that when Bartelme reached his room the pig was gone. It had disappeared sometime between the moment the plotters had tucked it under the covers and forty-five minutes later, when Bartelme returned and made complaint that some students had invaded his room, mussed his bed clothing and stolen his nightgown. No one seemed to know what had become of the animal, nor did anyone connect the theft of the pig with Bartelme’s loss. It was inconceivable that the pig, tied and trussed as it was, could have escaped from the bed, opened the door, fled down three flights of stairs and reached freedom and surcease from operations by the professor. Besides, the boys remembered they had closed the bedroom door and also the door leading to the stairway.

The new phase of the situation made the prank appear more serious; but it was the attitude of the dignified “Herr Professor” that caused most uneasiness. He was inconsolable and, as Winans remarked, “his Dutch was up above the boiling point.” He had discovered his loss early in the morning, and had stormed into the offices of the president demanding vengeance. Unconsciously he added to the uproar by declaring loudly that “Dere vud be peeg excitement” when he caught the culprits.

The “peeg excitement” grew and increased, especially after chapel exercises, in which President Jamieson spoke seriously of the offense, detailed the earnest, unselfish work of Professor Schermer in the interests of science, of long hours of study in his bacteriological laboratory; how, by the use of the humble pig, he believed himself near the solution of the cause and prevention of a disease that was one of the worst scourges under which the farmers struggle.

The seriousness of the joke became more and more evident, and the “fun” rapidly was oozing from it. After chapel exercises the guilty quartette strolled across the campus talking.

“The thing that worries me,” said Winans, “is that the pig is gone. Of course, we thought it would be returned and we’d have the laugh on that serious old fossil Bartelme. I wonder who took that pig and what they did with it?”

“I’ve talked to several of the fellows who live in that end of the dorm,” admitted Butler. “Some of them heard us go up with the pig and come down again, but didn’t pay any attention. Rumsey said he was going for water later and, while passing down the hall, he heard two or three fellows carrying something down the back stairs, but before he reached the head of the staircase they closed the back door.”

“How many of them?” inquired Trumbull seriously.

“He couldn’t tell. He didn’t see them, and was judging from the noise only.”

“Well, one thing is certain,” remarked Larry. “Two or more fellows in this school know we took the pig and put it in the bed. Why did they want to spoil our joke? If they wanted to return the pig, why didn’t they put it back in the ‘Herr Professor’s’ pen?”

“And why don’t they tell on us now?” queried Butler anxiously.

“It wasn’t anyone connected with the faculty,” concluded Winans. “If it had been, we’d have been on the carpet in chapel and probably been fired or suspended. What the dickens I can’t understand is that they would keep quiet.”

“Maybe they took the pig to put in someone else’s bed, and it will show up all right when they see how serious this thing is.”

But the pig did not return. The guilty ones waited anxiously for two days, worried and expectant, hoping that the missing “peeg” would be returned and the situation relieved.

If was rumored that city detectives were engaged on the case and that a spy had been placed in the dormitories to discover the identity of the culprits. The faculty was extremely busy with its investigation, and was threatening dire punishment. To make it worse, the newspapers had scented the facts and were blazoning the story of the “peeg excitement” at Cascade in lurid yarns, which held the “Herr Professor” up to ridicule and passed lightly over the loss to science. The burlesque on the missing germs became a joke for paragraphers and “funny men,” and each jest was a blow to the sensitive nature of the brusque, rotund, little scientist who had devoted the best years of his life to the study of cholera in hogs.

It was the fourth day after the theft of the “Herr Professor’s” inoculated pig that Larry Kirkland determined upon action. It had appeared as if the affair of the pig was being forgotten, but to Larry, as he studied and analyzed the situation, it became more and more serious.

As usual the chums had gathered in Larry’s quarters in the boarding house to study or romp when he raised the question.

“Fellows,” he remarked seriously, “I’ve made up my mind to go to Professor Schermer in the morning and confess that I stole his pig.”

“What for?” demanded Trumbull. “They are busy forgetting that infernal shoat, and in another week it will pass into the unwritten history of Cascade. Future generations of Freshmen will adore us and perhaps imitate us as heroes who stole the pig. Our names will go down with those of the heroes who got away with something and were not caught. Only the boob is caught; the hero is the one who gets away with it.”

“I know,” replied Larry; “but this is different. My conscious hurts me every time I think of it. If we only could get the pig back”——

“Let’s chip in and buy that old grouch a new pig,” urged Trumbull. “He’s made as much fuss over that pig as if it was a gold mine we stole.”

“Why didn’t you get up in chapel and declare we stole the pig, Larry?” taunted Winans. “If your conscience hurts you so much, why not tell them about who put the sauer kraut in Professor Ehmke’s ink well?”

“You fellows don’t understand,” protested Larry. “I won’t give any of you away. I think we ought to go and tell Professor Schermer we stole the pig and ask him if there is anything we can do to repay.”

“You’ll get us all fired from college,” protested Butler. “What’s the use? They’ll never find out who did it.”

“I’ve waited for them to find out,” said Larry. “I wasn’t going to confess while they might think it through fear of being caught.”

“Fellows,” said Trumbull, “I’ve been thinking that way myself. Let’s go over and have it out with the ‘Herr Professor.’”

“Oh, I say,” protested Larry; “I didn’t want to drag you into it. I’ll own up and see what can be done.”

“Nothing like that,” announced Winans. “We’re all in the same boat. What do you think, Butler?”

“Me? Why I’d just a lieve confess as to do it over again,” laughed the little fellow ruefully. “My conscience is clear. I didn’t carry the pig, and I’m so small the ‘Herr Professor’ probably will attack you big ones first.”

Rather dismally the small party set out across the campus and hesitatingly approached the residence of Professor Schermer. Winans, summoning all his courage, advanced and rang the bell, and the hesitating and confused culprits were ushered into the presence of the grave, courteous student, who regarded them over the tops of his glasses.

“Young shentlemans, to vot do I owe der honor off your presences?” he inquired gravely.

They shuffled, waited, each for the other, and glanced back and forth between each other for moral support.

“It’s this way, professor,” said Larry, screwing up his courage. “We swiped your pig and”——

“Vass? You stole mine pig?” he exclaimed, frowning. “For vy?”

He bristled with indignant anger and glared at them.

Quickly, now that the first plunge was taken, Larry related the circumstances, described the theft of the pig, of placing it in the bed and leaving it. Slowly a smile broke upon the face of the professor and, growing, it expanded into a laugh, and he sat rocking back and forth.

“You iss fery pad poys,” he said, removing his glasses to wipe the tears from his eyes. “Pad poys, but you iss honest. Where iss mine pig?”

Again Larry explained desperately, the professor nodding gravely.

“We wanted to tell you, professor,” he said, “how sorry we are. We’d do anything to help get the pig back, but we don’t know who took it or where it is.”

“Berhaps it vill return,” said the professor calmly. “You are ferry pad poys, but you are goot pad boys to tell me. Aber I shall not speak of it again, and you, I know, vill help me find mine pig.”

They shook hands with him seriously and backed from the study.

“Isn’t he an old trump?” said Winans enthusiastically. “He won’t even report it. I for one will break my neck to help him recover his fool pig.”