“Why? That man isn’t the sheriff, is he?” asked Merriwell, with a laugh.
“No. He’s a whole lot worse. That chap is Colonel Carson, who owns most of Carsonville, and he’ll make the old burg plenty hot for us now, believe me!”
CHAPTER II.
WHY BILLY LEFT SCHOOL.
Chip Merriwell looked curiously at his friend and host.
“Has this Colonel Carson anything to do with your leaving Fardale—or, rather, with your writing that you would not be back?”
“Yes,” Billy said, in a low voice. “Let’s walk along, Chip, and I’ll tell you about it. It might as well come out now as any time, I s’pose.”
It was Merry’s second day in Carsonville. Billy McQuade, or, as he was more generally known, “Billy Mac,” was a plebe at Fardale Academy. During the preceding summer he had shown remarkable ability as backstop on the scrub nine, and it was reported that he was in line to catch for the regular team during the coming season. Billy Mac was also good at first, however, so that Fardale had been in no little doubt.
Shortly before the spring vacation began, Billy had been called home to Carsonville. His father was dead, and his mother had merely written that she needed Billy’s presence to settle up some portions of the estate. Then had come a letter from Billy himself—a heartbroken letter, stating that he would be unable to return to Fardale.
He assigned no definite cause, and the reason remained pretty much a mystery. It was a most disconcerting mystery, also. Owen Clancy, Chip Merriwell’s regular backstop, was somewhere off in the Southwest. It had been pretty generally settled that Billy Mac would don the mask this season, and his sudden withdrawal was a body blow to Fardale hopes.