Chapter 16

AN ANONYMOUS ACCUSATION

When next Jack saw the Colonel the latter had regained his wig, his natural complexion and his dignity, the last being so great that it was a perfect danger signal warning away all levity or even the slightest sign of it on the part of the boys.

"You showed very commendable bravery, Sheldon," said the Colonel, "and I congratulate you for your spirit. Rescuing those in danger is more commendable than conducting an imitation newspaper."

"Thank you, sir," said Jack, saluting and going back to his friends.

"What has Bull got against the _Gazette_?" he asked Arthur and Harry.

"Oh, it poked a little quiet fun at him once and he has never recovered from it," laughed Harry. "The Colonel is a bit of a martinet and imagines that the army lost one of its brightest officers when he was retired."

"But he was a Colonel?"

"Only by courtesy. He would have stayed on till he was a hundred years old if he could, the pay being a consideration, but was retired some twenty years ago and now earns his living by instructing us boys and by occasional articles to the educational magazines."

"It was all I could do to keep from laughing and I can imagine what Billy would get if the Colonel knew how he had been humbugged. He can be a very disagreeable person when he is aroused, I imagine."

The boy had not the slightest apprehension of having any trouble with the drillmaster, always treating him with the respect due his position and giving no cause for any complaint on the other's part.

The term was progressing smoothly, the majority of the Hilltop boys attending sedulously to their duties and trying to make a good record, the exceptions being very few, even some of the disagreeable set like Herring and his cronies working with considerable vigor.

Jack was already high in his classes and it looked as if he might be still higher before the end of the term for he was working with a purpose and meant to finish as near the top as possible.

"If you don't see Jack Sheldon at the head of his class by the end of the term I shall miss my guess," said Harry to Percival and one or two others one afternoon as some of the boys were taking a stroll through the woods near the bottom of the hill.

"I would not mind seeing him there even if he passes me," said Dick. "Jack is a good fellow and if he can win a scholarship it will mean much to him. He deserves it at any rate."

"But he is not in your classes," said Harry.

"No, but he might make a better average and next year he might be up with me and then I should have to look out. I was not thinking of just now alone."

The boys passed on, not knowing that Herring and Merritt were hiding behind some bushes within easy hearing.

"That gives me an idea," muttered Herring when the others had gone. "I can smash Sheldon's chances and I am going to do it."

"How will you manage it?" asked Merritt.

"You leave it to me," with a chuckle. "I may want you to help me a bit but I'll put a spoke in his wheel all right and the doctor won't admire him as much as he does when I get through with him."

"Look out that the thing does not fall through like that matter of cooking the _Gazette_ to suit yourself," sneered the other.

"You were as much in that as I was," snarled Herring, "and if you split on me you will hurt yourself."

"I ain't going to split," whined Merritt, "but I know when a fellow makes a mess of a thing. You came near giving yourself away on that."

"Me? It was you that did it. Some of the fellows suspect you but they can't prove anything."

"Well, never mind that. How are you going to fix Sheldon this time?"

"I'll let you know. I've an idea but I want to get it in shape so that there won't be any slip. He won't come out on top nor anywhere near it when this thing gets to going."

"All right, I'll help you for I don't like Sheldon any better than you and I'd like to spoil his chances."

One morning a day or so after this Dr. Wise received an anonymous letter written and addressed in typewriting and posted at Riverton, which caused him some little uneasiness.

During the morning session when all of the boys were in the great schoolroom, he called for attention and said, evidently with the greatest reluctance:

"It is not my custom to notice unsigned communications but I have one here which I feel must be investigated in common justice to the person accused. I will read it."

The boys looked at each other, wondering what was coming and the doctor read the half sheet of note paper which he held in his hand.

"J. S. has a pony in his desk. You had better search it. This may account for his standing in class."

The boys all understand that by a "pony" was meant a translation of some work in one of the dead languages which they were studying at the time.

"This is a serious accusation," the doctor went on. "What boy has the initials J. S.?"

"I have, sir," spoke up Jack, promptly. "My name is John Sheldon."

"So have I!" cried the other boy. "I am Jasper Sawyer. Maybe it's me he means."

"That's nothing, my name is James Sharpe," said another.

"And I answer to the name of Jesse W. Smith!" piped up one of the smallest boys in the Academy.

There was a titter among the boys and Harry whispered to Arthur:

"Somebody has made a miscalculation here. I wonder who it is?"

"Smith is out of the question," remarked the doctor. "You are not studying Greek or Latin, are you, Smith?"

"No, sir," and the boys laughed again for Jesse W. Smith was not even in the Latin grammar as yet.

"Have any of the rest of you bearing the initials J. S. a translation in your desks?" the doctor asked. "I will take your word for it."

"No, sir," answered Sawyer and Sharpe.

"I have none, sir," said Jack, "but if you wish to search my desk you are at perfect liberty to do so. In fact, I will search it myself."

"That is not necessary, Sheldon," replied the doctor quickly, but Jack was already hunting through his desk, taking out everything at hand in a rapid fashion.

"Of course it is not!" sputtered Harry. "No one accuses him of----"

"Here is a translation, sir," said Jack, suddenly, when he came to the bottom of his desk, "but I need not tell you that it does not belong to me. It is a Caesar."

"Sheldon has been out of Caesar all this term," exclaimed Percival. "It is absurd to think that the pony----"

"Might it have belonged to you at some time, Sheldon?" asked the doctor, not noticing Dick's interruption. "I do not say that it did, you understand."

"No, sir, it might not. I never used a translation in my life and never will!"

Jack was hurriedly examining the book as he spoke and now noticed that the fly leaf was torn out, evidently in haste, the edges being ragged and a bit of writing on one of them.

"This bo----" was on one line and "erty of" on the next.

"I give you my word of honor, Doctor, that this is not my property," said Jack, "but I would like to keep it for the present," and he put the little book in his pocket.

"Very well, Sheldon," said Dr. Wise. "You are clearly exonerated from this charge."

"But Jack has something up his sleeve as well as in his pocket, believe me," whispered Billy Manners to Arthur.