This was enough to make the boys forget the offense of the fellows who had attempted the practical joke on them, and all set about searching for the watch. They took the light and went over the floor carefully. They moved the bed, peered into every corner and into the clothes press, but not one of them found the watch.
“Meers a history—I mean, here’s a mystery,” said Harry Rattleton. “Astonishing disappearance. Watch out.”
Gooch seemed ready to dissolve in tears.
“I wouldn’t care so much if it hadn’t been a present from mother,” he said, huskily.
“A fellow who would steal it must be mighty mean,” said Newton Billings, and somehow it seemed that he looked at Frank Merriwell in a significant manner.
Billings was a freshman who envied Merriwell his popularity. Immediately on coming to college he had attempted to become a leader of his class, after the manner in which Merriwell had led the freshmen in the past. Billings and his clan carried things with such a high hand that it became necessary for somebody to take the conceit out of the fellow, and Merriwell had been selected to do the job, which he accomplished without difficulty.
From the time of his downfall Billings hated Merriwell, although pretending to be one of Frank’s greatest admirers. But he had never attempted to do Merry an injury, and was considered harmless.
“I hardly think there is a person who would deliberately pick a man’s pocket,” said Frank, slowly, looking around. “I don’t wish to think such a thing of anybody in the room.”
“Neither do I,” said Sidney; “and, of course, I can’t be sure I lost it here, although I think I did.”
“Well,” said Billings, “if it is found in the house, you will be sure to get it back. The gang in this house is strictly on the level.”