Dave Porter and His Classmates

Arriving at the school, they learned that Link Merwell had taken a walk with Nat Poole. Chip Macklin pointed out the direction, and Dave and Phil went after the pair. They were not surprised to catch the cronies smoking on some rocks behind a growth of underbrush near the highway beyond the campus. As Dave and his chum came up Poole and Merwell threw their cigarettes away.

"Merwell, what did you do with my express package?" demanded Dave, coming at once to the point.

The words made the bully start, but he quickly recovered and arose slowly to his feet.

"Want to see me?" he drawled.

"I want my express package."

"Don't know what you are talking about."

"Yes, you do. Where is the package? I want it at once."

"You took it out of the express office, and we can prove it," added Phil.

"Humph!" growled Link Merwell.

"Are you going to give up the package or not?" demanded Dave.

"Who says I – er – took, any package of yours?" blustered the bully, trying to put on a bold front.

"I say so," declared Dave. "And you not only took it but you signed for it. Merwell, do you know that signing another person's name without permission is forgery?" he went on, pointedly.

At these plain words Link Merwell grew pale.

"I – er – I didn't sign your name."

"You pretended to sign it, and that's the same thing. You got the package from the office by fraud."

"No, I didn't. I said I'd take it to the school, and I did."

"Then where is it?"

"In your dormitory."

"Where?"

"On the top shelf of the closet – been there since yesterday," and now Link Merwell leered over the joke he had played.

"Ha! ha! ha!" came from Nat Poole. "That's one on you, Dave Porter."

"It was a mean trick to play," was Phil's comment.

"Did you open that package?" demanded Dave.

"No, I didn't touch it, excepting to bring it from the express office."

"Very well then, Merwell. If I find anything wrong I'll hold you responsible."

"Say, you needn't try to scare me!"

"I am not trying to scare you – I am merely giving you warning. I won't put up with any of your underhand work, and I want you to know it," answered Dave, and turning on his heel he walked back to the school, followed by Phil.

"He's mad all right," whispered Nat Poole.

"Maybe he has heard from that Crumville girl in a way he didn't like," returned Link Merwell, and closed one eye suggestively.

"Well, if he did, I hope she didn't say anything about the letter," answered Nat Poole, somewhat uneasily. "That was awfully strong."

"Pooh! Don't get scared Nat; nobody will ever find out who wrote that letter, if we keep our mouths shut."

Going up to the dormitory, Dave found the package on the shelf of the closet, as Merwell had said. It was tucked behind some other things, well out of sight.

"It was certainly a well-planned trick," said the shipowner's son, while Dave was opening the package. "He did this so, if he was found out, he could say he gave the package to you and could bring the doctor here to prove it. Perhaps he had in mind to add that you had hidden the package yourself, just to get him into trouble."

"Maybe you're right, Phil; I believe Merwell equal to almost anything."

Fortunately the contents of the package had not been disturbed. Having ascertained that much, Dave went off to find Gus Plum, so that they might have a final rehearsal of the little play they were to enact. In the lower hall he ran into Job Haskers.

"Porter, I want to see you!" cried the assistant teacher, harshly. "You were absent at dinner time. You know that is contrary to the rules. What have you to say for yourself?"

"I met my father in Oakdale, sir – he is coming to the entertainment to-night. He asked Phil Lawrence and myself to dine with him. I have a note for the doctor from him explaining the matter."

"Hum! Very well," answered Job Haskers, and hurried off without another word. Dave smiled grimly to himself, and lost no time in taking the note to the doctor, who excused him and Phil readily.

Dave learned from Shadow that Gus Plum had been in the school but had gone off in the direction of the old boathouse. Feeling that it was growing late Dave hurried after the missing student. Just as he neared the old boathouse, which stood partly on some rocks and partly over the river, he heard a strange crash of glass.

"Hello, what's that?" he asked himself, and ran forward to see.

"There! you'll never tempt me again!" he heard, in Gus Plum's voice.

Then he turned the corner of the old boathouse and saw the former bully of Oak Hall standing near some rocks. At his feet lay the remains of a big bottle. Plum looked pale and as if he had been fighting.

"Oh, Gus!" cried Dave, and then stopped short and looked at the broken bottle and at the stuff flowing over the rocks.

"Dave!" returned the big youth. And then he added, simply: "It was a bottle of wine, and rather than keep it to be tempted, I smashed it."

CHAPTER XXI

IN WHICH THE BOYS GIVE AN ENTERTAINMENT

"Gus, that was the bravest thing you ever did!"

And so speaking, Dave caught the other youth by the hand and shoulder and held him for a moment.

"Oh, I don't know about that," was the hesitating reply. "I – I should have smashed it when I received it."

"Where did you get the wine, if I may ask?"

"It was sent to me by Link Merwell."

"What!" Dave's manner showed his great astonishment. "Do you mean to say he sent you that, knowing that you were trying to give up the habit?"

"Yes. He says I am a fool to listen to you – said I was tied to your coat-tail – that I ought to be independent. He says a little drinking won't hurt anybody."

"Gus, he is trying to – to – " Dave could not finish the sentence, for he did not want to hurt Plum's feelings.

"Yes, I know. He'd like to see me down and out, as the saying goes. He hates me because I won't chum with him any longer."

"The less you have to do with him the better, Gus."

"I know that, and just before I came out here to break that bottle I sent him a note telling him that if he sent me any more such stuff I'd break the next bottle over his head!" And Plum's face glowed with some of his old-time assertiveness.

"Well, I shouldn't blame you for that, Gus. I rather think your threat will keep him in the background for a while."

Dave could realize something of the struggle which the former bully had had, to throw the bottle of wine away. But he did not know all – how for three hours the poor lad had wavered between drinking and abstaining – and that it was only the thoughts of Dave, and of his mother and home, that had kept him in the right path.

Leading the way to the new boathouse, Dave found a spot where they would not be interrupted, and here he and Plum went to work on their dialogue, making such final changes as seemed best.

"I've had my troubles with Merwell, too," said Dave, and told about the express package. "He seems bound to bring us to grief."

"He's a bad egg – the worst in the school," was Gus Plum's comment.

It must be confessed that all the boys were a little nervous as the time approached for the entertainment. It was to take place in the large assembly room of Oak Hall, and the platform had been transformed into something of a stage, with side curtains and a drop, and a back scene hired from a distant theater and representing a garden. The room itself was decorated with flags and bunting, and looked cozy and inviting.

Promptly on time the visitors began to arrive, some from Oakdale and others from a distance. The boys to take part in the show were behind the scenes, while others showed the visitors to seats, so that Dave did not see any of his friends or relatives until later.

The programme had been divided into two parts, of five numbers each, including an opening song by all the players, and a closing farce written merely to bring in all the characters.

"Now, fellows, do your best," said Luke Watson, as the school orchestra played the overture. "Make it as near like a professional show as possible."

"Say, that puts me in mind of a story," came from Shadow. "Once some young ladies – But, pshaw! I'll save that for the stage," he added, and broke off suddenly.

The opening number went very well, and then came a playlet by four of the boys representing four sailors ashore after an ocean trip of five years. The sailors did not apparently know how to act in a big city and did so many ridiculous things that the applause was long and loud.

A musical number followed, introducing banjo playing by Luke, a guitar solo by Henshaw, a cornet solo by a lad named Dixon, and then a trio by the three. Then came fancy dumbbell exercises and club-swinging by three members of the gymnasium club, and this too went very well, the exercisers keeping time to a march played by the orchestra.

The next number was Shadow's monologue, and when that youth came out everybody had to laugh before he said a word. He was dressed as an extreme dude, with big checked coat and trousers, fancy colored vest, a tremendous watch-chain, and paste diamond stud, very pointed patent leather shoes, a high standing collar, and a highly-polished silk hat.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys, girls, and fellow-weepers," he commenced with a profound bow and a flourish of his silk hat, "I have been asked an important question, namely, What is the difference between a cat and a shotgun? Well, I don't know, excepting that both can go off, but it's only the feline that comes back. Now, that puts me in mind of a story I once heard while traveling in Egypt with Noah, looking for a typewriter which was lost overboard from the ark. A little boy went to a hardware store for his dad and hung around waiting to be waited on. At last a clerk asked, 'Well, little boy, what do you want?' 'Oh,' says the little boy, 'I want a fire engine, an' a hobby horse, an' a automobile, an' a lot o' things, but papa he wants a bottle of glue, an' he says if it don't stick he'll stick you for it!' Now, that's the same boy who went to the courthouse to get courtplaster for his mother and then went down to the henhouse to look for egg plants."

There was considerable applause over this opening, and Shadow continued:

"That hand-clapping puts me in mind of another story. A would-be actor had joined a barn-storming company, and the company opened in a little place on Staten Island where the mosquitoes are manufactured by the ton, gross, or hogshead, just as you want 'em. Well, as soon as the play commenced, the would-be actor thought he heard a lot of applause. Says he to the scene-shifter: 'We've got 'em a-going, haven't we?' 'I don't know if you have or not,' answered the scene-shifter. 'I know the mosquitoes have some of 'em a-going, by the way they're slapping at 'em!' Well, that company busted up and the would-be actor had to come home on a trolley-car because he couldn't afford the train. He had only a nickel, and that he put into his mouth, and all at once it went down. 'What's the matter?' asked the conductor. 'I – I swallowed my nickel – the only one I had!' gasped the would-be actor. 'Never mind, I'll ring it up,' said the conductor, and he did. And then the actor didn't know if he was a nickel in or a nickel out."

This brought forth more applause, and Shadow continued to tell one story or joke after another, in rapid succession, until the entire audience was roaring. When he made his bow and disappeared behind a side curtain his monologue was voted by all one of the hits of the evening.

"It was all right," said Dave. "I only hope our playlet goes as well."

The playlet came in the middle of Part Two, and the stage was set with a table, two chairs, and several other things. The table was a small one stored in a side room, and the chairs were common kitchen chairs. They were brought out by Chip Macklin and Frank Bond, who had been chosen to do all kinds of errands.

"I just met Link Merwell in the side room," said Chip, when he came out with the table. "He looks as sour as can be. I guess he wishes the show would be a failure – because he wasn't asked to take part."

"Yes, he'd like to make it a failure," answered Dave; and then, for the time being, turned his whole attention to the play and gave his enemy no further thought.

Dave and Plum had gotten themselves up with great care, as a German immigrant and a darky, and when one shuffled on the stage after the other there was a good deal of laughing. The playlet revolved around the question of getting situations as a butler and a footman in a fashionable residence, and the lines were humorous in the extreme, and both Dave and Gus got about all the fun possible from them.

"Oh, how very, very funny!" cried Laura, and could hardly control her laughter.

"It certainly is funny," answered Jessie, and then she glanced over to where Vera Rockwell was sitting with some friends. She saw Vera applauding vigorously and it piqued her just a little. She clapped her hands, too, but her heart was not as light as it might have been had Vera not been there.

In the course of the playlet, Dave had to stand on one of the chairs and then mount to the table, to show how he would play the part of a footman. As he got up on a chair there was an unexpected crack, and down went the back part, letting him fall most unexpectedly.

It takes a quick-witted person to do just the right thing in a case of emergency. Dave had not looked for this fall, and the play did not call for it. Like a flash he felt that this was some trick of Link Merwell. But just as quickly as the accident came he resolved to make the best of it. In a very comical way he rolled over twice, stood partly on his head and then sat up with a dazed expression.

"Oxcuse me!" he said, in a German tone of voice. "I tidn't know dot chair vos so tired owid he tidn't vont to hold me alretty." Then he picked up the broken chair. "Vell, of you ton't vont to sthand up, chust lay down," and he flung the broken article behind him.

This brought forth an extra round of applause and in the midst of this Dave began to climb up the second chair. That too he felt to be "doctored," and he went up with care and thus managed to stand on top without breaking off the legs which had been nearly cracked through. Then from the chair he went to the table. He knew what to expect now and began to prepare for it.

"Dis coach vos got von palky horse," he said. "Chust you hold der animile alretty, yah!"

"Dat wot I will, brudder Carl," answered Plum, in negro dialect, and wondering what was to come next, for those lines were not in the playlet.

"Now, dot is der vay I goes me riding py der Park," went on Dave, beginning to wabble on the shaky table. "Whoa mit dot hoss! Tidn't I told you he vos balky?" For the table was growing weaker and weaker.

"Say, dun yo' know dat hoss has got de dumb ager?" demanded Plum. "Wot yo' want to give him is a dose of Plaster of Paris Pills fo' Peevish People. If dat hoss should – "

"He's running avay! Call der fire engines and der hoss-pistol vagons!" bawled Dave, and made a movement as if on a runaway coach. Then, as the table settled with a final crash, he whispered to Plum: "Make believe stop the horse and quarrel over it." Then he leaped forward, caught an imaginary horse by the tail and struggled to hold back. Gus was equally quick-witted and leaped to the head of the same imaginary horse and stretched up and down, as if he had hold of the bridle. Then the two boys backed and "shied" all over the stage, overturning the second chair, at which Dave yelled, "Dere goes dot peanut stand alretty!" Then of a sudden the two young actors faced each other.

"Wot's de mattah wid you? Da ain't no hoss heah!"

"Yah, dot's so – he runt avay alretty!"

"Yo' is a fine footman, getting scared at a hoss wot ain't no hoss."

"Vell, of he vosn't no hoss vy you cotch him py der headt, hey?"

"Dat's because yo' was a fool an' I had to follow yo' – I mean at yo' – "

"I know vot you mean. You mean you vos der fool und der hoss – "

"Look heah now, Mr. Dutchy, I wants yo' to understand dat I ain't no fool."

"Vell, Mr. Vight, I dake your vord for dot, hey? Now, vot you do ven you vos a putler, hey?"

And from that point the playlet went on as originally intended; the two finally winding up when a postman's whistle was heard and each got a letter from the same man, stating the one to arrive first at a certain house could have a job. Both started at the same time and each tripped the other up. Then both left the stage on hands and knees, each trying to keep the other back. It was a truly comical wind-up, and when the curtain went down there was a thunder of applause.

"Dave, it was great!" cried Roger. "You acted the Dutchman to perfection, and Plum was the darky to a T!"

"That's true," added Phil. "But say, didn't you change that coach scene some?"

"Well, rather," put in Gus. "We had to do it on account of – "

"Link Merwell," finished Dave. "That's another black mark I am going to put down to his account."

CHAPTER XXII

FORMING THE BASEBALL CLUB

After it was at an end the entertainment was voted the best yet given at Oak Hall. Of course there had been a few small hitches, such as a wig falling off of one actor and another breaking a guitar string just when he was playing, but those did not count.

"It was splendid!" said Jessie to Dave, when they met.

"I am glad you liked it," he answered. "I know all the fellows did their best."

"That table scene made me nearly die laughing," said Laura.

"That came in rather unexpectedly, Laura. It wasn't on the programme. I think Link Merwell is responsible for it." And then her brother told of what had been discovered – the legs of the table and chairs nearly split in two.

"He must be a thoroughly bad fellow," was Jessie's comment.

"He is, and he would do almost anything to get me and some of the other students into trouble," returned Dave.

Vera and Mary were waiting to speak to some of the boys, and Vera laughed heartily when she saw Dave.

"Oh, but you make a fine German!" she said. "I think you ought to go on the stage." And then she complimented Phil, Roger, and some of the others whom she knew.

Mr. Porter had arranged to remain at the hotel over night with his party. They left for Oakdale shortly after the entertainment, and Vera, Mary, and some others went with them, in carriages of their own. Dave noticed that Jessie was not herself, and when they were alone in a hallway for a moment asked the reason.

"Oh, it's nothing, Dave," she answered, but without looking him squarely in the eyes.

"But I know there is something, Jessie," he said, and his voice showed his anxiety. "Have I offended you in any way?"

"No, not in the least."

"But you are angry with me."

"No, I am not angry." She kept her eyes hidden from his gaze.

"Well, there is something, and I wish you would tell me what it is."

"No, I'll not say a word. If you don't know what it is, it doesn't matter," said the girl, and then rejoined Laura and Mr. Porter. When they went away Dave noticed that her hand was icy cold, and his heart was deeply troubled. Something was certainly wrong and, though he felt sorry, he also felt nettled to think Jessie would not tell him what it was. It was the first break of confidence that had occurred between them.

Although Dave was morally certain Link Merwell had "doctored" the chairs and the table, he could not prove it, and so he said little concerning the episode, although he and Plum talked it over thoroughly. Gus was greatly angered, for the trick had come close to spoiling the playlet, and if Dave had urged it he would have gone and fought Merwell before retiring for the night. Even as it was, he told Merwell that he had been found out and warned him in the future to keep his distance.

"Dave Porter and I are going to watch you," said Gus. "And if we find you trying anything more on, why, we'll jump on you like a ton of bricks, so beware!" And for once Link Merwell was so scared that he walked off without making any reply.

The entertainment the students had given brought the spring holidays to an end, and once more the lads of Oak Hall turned their attention to their studies. But with the coming of warm weather some of the boys got out their kites, balls, and other things, while others took to rowing on the river.

"Have you heard the news about Nat Poole?" asked Buster of Dave and Roger one day.

"I've heard nothing," answered the senator's son. "Has he got a new necktie?" For Nat loved neckties and had a new one on an average every week.

"He is going to get a motor boat – told Messmer all about it. He said his father bought it in New York and it cost four hundred dollars."

"Well, I never supposed Aaron Poole would spend that amount on a boat," was Dave's comment. "He is known as one of the most close-fisted men in the district where I come from."

"Nat says the boat will beat anything on the river," continued Buster. "Wish I had one."

The news that Nat Poole was going to get a motor boat proved true. The boat came early in April, and was certainly very nice-looking and speedy. Nat took out some of the boys, and the ownership of such a beautiful craft made him a new lot of friends, so he was "quite a toad in a puddle," as Ben Basswood declared. Once Nat asked Ben to go out with him, but the latter declined, and then Nat took Link Merwell.

"I don't care if he has got a new motor boat," said Ben to Dave. "I don't want to be in his company. If any of the other fellows want to toady to him they can do it." Merwell was often seen with Poole, and the pair became quite expert in running the motor and steering. Once they had a race with a motor boat belonging to a Military Academy student and came in ahead, and of this victory Nat Poole never got through boasting.

As was to be expected, warm weather brought on talk of baseball. Dave had pitched in more than one game for Oak Hall, with Roger behind the bat, and he was asked if he would again consent to occupy the box for the school, should any outside party send in a challenge.

"We'll most likely get a challenge from Rockville Military Academy," said Phil. "They are aching to make up for old scores."

"I'll pitch if the fellows want me to," answered Dave. "But if they want anybody else – "

"We want you," interrupted Sam Day. "You're the best pitcher Oak Hall ever had."

From that time on all of the boys put in part of their off-time playing baseball, forming scrub nines for that purpose. Link Merwell loved the game and liked to cover first base.

"Why don't you play?" asked Dave of Gus Plum, one afternoon.

"Oh, I – I don't want to push myself in," stammered Plum. He was now as retiring as he had formerly been aggressive.

"Come on out," went on Dave, and literally dragged him forth. Then he asked Gus to play first base, which the latter did in a manner that surprised many of the others.

"He's quicker than he used to be," was Phil's comment. "I rather think he'll make a good one if he keeps on practicing."

One Saturday afternoon a regular match was arranged, with Phil as captain on one side and a student named Grassman as captain on the other. Now, Grassman loved to go out in Nat's motor boat and so he put both Nat and Merwell on his nine – the former to cover third base and the latter first. He himself pitched, while Dave filled the box for Phil.

It was certainly a snappy game from the start and at the end of the fourth inning the score stood three to three. Then Grassman's nine "took a brace" and brought in two more runs, and thus the score remained five to three until the end of the seventh inning.

"Come, we must do something this trip!" cried Roger, who was on Phil's side, and he knocked a three-bagger. He was followed by Shadow with a single that brought in one run, and then came Buster with a hit that took him to second and brought in another run. The next man to bat knocked a liner to shortstop. The ball was sent over to Merwell on first, but he allowed it to slip through his fingers, and another run came in. Then Merwell muffed a pop fly, and after that the Grassman nine got rattled, so that when Phil's nine retired they had ten runs to their credit. To this they added three more runs in the ninth. In that inning Dave struck out two men and sent a third out on a foul; and thus the game ended with a score of thirteen to five in favor of Phil's aggregation of players.