“It must have dropped out,” was the reply; “what else could have happened?”
“Let’s go back and see,” said Clancy.
The three lads returned to the grand stand and made a thorough search. The money was not in evidence.
“Maybe it fell through between the seats, Chip,” Ballard suggested. “Let’s go into the dressing rooms under the place where you left your coat.”
There were no locks on the dressing-room doors, and the lads made a thorough investigation but without finding any trace of the missing money. A look of suspicion crossed Clancy’s freckled face.
“A matter of thirty dollars,” said he, “can’t get up and walk off all by itself. While the game was on, Chip, somebody sneaked into the grand stand and went through your pockets.”
“Why didn’t the fellow go through mine as well as Chip’s?” queried Ballard. “I didn’t have any money in my pockets, but——”
“That’s the reason,” said Clancy.
“Keep it quiet,” frowned Merriwell. “I don’t want the Ophir fellows to think for a moment that we suspect any one. We’ll know some time, I guess, whether the money was lost or stolen, and just now we’ll think it’s lost, and keep mum. Come on to the gym.”