At the sound of the cheering Dick wheeled quickly and waved his hand to the victors in the barge, then turned again to his charge. Bosworth did not raise his eyes from the ground.
Tompkins gave Phil a questioning look, and Phil answered with a smile and a nod. He guessed now why his friends had failed him at the field.
The Main Street of Seaton.
CHAPTER XXVII
CONCLUSION
Dick sat with his sullen prisoner in the Principal’s outer office, while Varrell and Eddy were closeted with Mr. Graham in the smaller room adjoining. The door between was left ajar, and both prisoner and guard strained their ears for some inkling of the course of events in the inner room. Although delighted that the end of the long chase had been reached, Dick was not altogether satisfied with his own position at the finish. He had submissively stood watch while Varrell had made the search in Bosworth’s room; he had obeyed as submissively when Varrell had reappeared and ordered him on with Bosworth to the Principal’s house. That he must still be kept on guard just out of hearing of the interesting details which he had a right to know, was exasperating even if unavoidable. With the feeling that he was doing his duty, Dick steeled himself to wait in patience.
Through the crack of the door came the murmur of Varrell’s voice, as in low, steady tones he told his story, occasionally interrupted by short, distinct questions from the Principal that Dick could all but understand. Presently Eddy’s testimony was invoked. With tremulous lips he sobbed out answers to the senior’s questions, like a bashful witness affirming his attorney’s suggestions. When Mr. Graham took a part in the questioning, the boy’s voice grew yet more nervous and shrill. Words and expressions penetrated to the eager ears in the outer room. Bosworth threw off his pretence of indifference, and sat bolt upright, listening with all his might.
But he was destined to hear little. Eddy’s whining voice suddenly shot to a high key, broke, and dwindled abruptly to a gasp and a gurgle. A chair slipped on the smooth floor, and an inert body struck the hard surface with a dull thud. In his nervous state Dick could restrain himself no longer. Throwing police duties to the winds, he rushed into the inner room, where Mr. Graham and Varrell were bending over Eddy’s collapsed form, Varrell still holding the boy’s head as he had caught it close to the floor, and the Principal staring in horror at the twitching face.
“It’s a fit,” Varrell was saying. “I’ve seen a case like it before; comes from indigestion. You want to loosen his clothes and keep him from biting his tongue.”