CARLO DOES HIS TURN
"Paul, you're a wizard, I do believe!" said Jack, after a bit, as he looked up at his chum.
"Well, I hardly think so. This thing was easy; and ten to one you'd have thought of it sooner or later. For how could Karl have anything to do with the bad business while he was up at your uncle's?" laughed the other, with his customary modesty.
"But if not Karl, then who got my old coins?" persisted Jack, smiling now.
"Well, I'm not quite ready to say. I've got two ideas I'm chasing after now. Give me just a little more time on that, will you, old fellow?" replied the visitor, as he dropped down on a cot, and let his eyes rove along the exhibit of college colors illuminating the walls.
He drew the little box that held the coins toward him. When Jack was not observing, Paul took the contents out, one by one, and seemed to be examining them closely. He even scratched one with his finger nail, and the result appeared to please him, for he chuckled softly. Evidently he had made a discovery which he deemed important.
Jack, having finished some little task with which he had busied himself, came back to his chum.
"See here, Paul," he remarked; "I'm not going to ask you to tell me who it is you suspect; but do I know him?"
"Sure," replied his chum; "and perhaps after we've found out the wonderful secret, you may even find it in your heart to look on it as a joke, and forgive him."
"You don't say? Perhaps, though, I might hardly feel like forgiving a fellow who would be mean enough to sneak up here so often, and take my old coins. Think of the ugly feelings he's made me have toward my own brother. I'll never look Karl in the eye after this without feeling conscience-stricken. I don't know about forgiving him so easy as all that," grumbled Jack.
"Oh! well, don't cross a bridge till you come to it. That's a good motto for you and for me. Perhaps there are times when I feel the need of it. Perhaps there's one right now," and Paul shrugged his shoulders as he spoke, half laughingly.
"There, I knew that something had gone wrong with you lately. I've watched you when you thought I wasn't looking, and I've seen you frown. Suppose you take your old chum into your confidence, Paul? What's happened? Any trouble at home? Are you bothered over the Boy Scout troop we've been organizing? Is it about your school affairs?"
Paul shook his head each time the other brought forward a suggestion.
"You're a most determined fellow, Jack," he said, good naturedly; "and perhaps I hadn't ought to speak of such a thing to anybody; but we've been chums so long, and misery likes company, you know."
"Then you are in trouble; and you mean to confess to me? Thank you, Paul, for what you say. I don't think I ever had any cause for worrying that I didn't come straight to you for comfort. And I always got it, too."
"Even when you and Dorothy had that nasty little spat that began to look serious until I just happened to find the note that made all the trouble, and forced Eli Kosmer to confess he wrote it. You remember that time, Jack?"
"I guess I do. Dorothy often speaks of it to this day; for we're good friends, and always will be. But see here, why do you just happen to mention that business? Oh! I begin to see now," added Jack, as Paul turned red in the face, and laughed in a rather constrained way.
"I shouldn't wonder but what you did. I'm sure I've denied every other cause you could think of," he said, sighing heavily.
"It's Arline then. She's been doing something. Yes, I remember now that I saw her out riding with Ward Kenwood only yesterday. Say, that dude has been saying something that wasn't true about you, Paul, I'd just wager anything. He's gone and poisoned her ears with a yarn. It'd be just like the sneak!"
"Just go slow, Jack. You're saying something that you can't prove. Of course I believe myself that Ward wouldn't stop at anything like that; but without the least proof I can't accuse him of it," Paul said, severely.
"But you could ask Arline?" his friend went on.
"Could I? Well, when a girl chooses to turn me down without a hearing, and even smiles when she drives past me in the company of a fellow she knows I detest, and whom she has often said she disliked, what then? Think I would so far forget myself as to get down on my knees, and beg her to take me back into favor? Bah!"
"Is it so bad as that then? Oh well, there are other girls just as pretty as Arline; and you've always been a great favorite with them, Paul; but hold on, why not let me try to straighten this thing out? You've helped me all right; and tit for tat is fair play."
"H'm! how do you think you could do anything, Jack? I don't suppose you'd care to go straight to her, and ask her point blank what I'd done to make her treat me so cruelly? I shouldn't think of allowing that at all?"
Paul tried to display an air of indifference; but it was poorly assumed; and his chum knew full well that he was much more pained at these strange actions on the part of Arline than he cared to admit.
"Oh! there are ways and ways. For instance, you know that Dorothy is one of the crowd of high school girls Arline goes with. Ward's sister Mazie is another; and that might account for her being at his house so much. Now, suppose you let me tell Dorothy. She'll keep it a dead secret, and in some way manage to get a confession. Say you will, Paul!"
"Have it your own way, old fellow. I'm just about ready to wash my hands of the whole business. Besides, I've really too many irons in the fire to be bothering over the silly notions of girls."
It was bravely put, but did not deceive Jack even a little bit; for he happened to know just how very fond his friend was of the particular girl in question.
"All right, then. Consider that settled, and I won't say any more about it until I can report progress," remarked the latter.
"Let's talk of other things than my poor affairs. You insisted on knowing; and wouldn't take no for an answer. Hello! there's Carlo asking to come in again. Shall I let him past the door, Jack?"
"Why, of course. This is his den as well as mine. I keep sugar on tap, so as to put him through some of his paces. Here Carlo, how's your sweet tooth coming on?" and Jack snapped his fingers in a peculiar way.
Immediately the educated dog squatted on his hind quarters, sat upright with his forepaws drooping appealingly, and waited, cocking his eyes in a humorous way at his young master, who had opened a drawer in his desk.
"Just one piece left. Somebody else likes sugar as well as Carlo, I guess. Well, here you are, now. On trust, boy, on trust!"
So saying he laid the piece of sugar upon the nose of the dog, balancing it so there could be no falling off.
Carlo, knowing what was expected of him, sat there like a drum major, quivering with eagerness, yet not daring to move as long as he failed to hear the command.
"Say, isn't he a sport, all right, Paul? Don't he sit up like a soldier? Look at his eyes fixed on me. Did you ever see such agony?"
Paul was laughing now.
"He's speaking with his eyes, and begging you not to stretch it out too far, Jack. Have a little mercy on the poor beggar. Look at his tongue coming out and reaching up. I think he just wants to taste that sugar. Give it to him now!"
"Well, Carlo knows that he can't expect to have anything on trust; but it's a different thing when it's paid for!"
With the last two words, spoken in a natural tone, Carlo became galvanized into sudden action. He had received the cue for which he was waiting so patiently. Immediately he made an upward spring; the lump of sugar was thrown into the air, and as it came down one quick snap secured it, after which there was a crunching of canine teeth, and a look of bliss appeared on Carlo's dog face.
"There's the supper gong. Come on down to the bathroom and wash up, Paul! And you come, too, old dog. No more sugar here; see, the drawer is empty. Carlo never comes up here without sniffing at that drawer, and looking at me knowingly. Go ahead, Paul, and I'll put out the lamp."
So they went downstairs, and after a while sought the dining room, where Paul met both parents of his chum, as well as a gentleman who was visiting Mr. Stormways.
"Mr. Jared Pender, an old schoolmate of mine, and with whom I made several voyages abroad years ago," said Mr. Stormways. "He is in the employ of the Government now, and has to make visits all over the country, you know."
Paul had once met a gentleman who was a post-office inspector, and somehow took it for granted that Mr. Pender might be engaged in some similar business; at any rate it concerned him not at all he concluded, just what the gentleman's private affairs might be, and he gave the subject little thought.