Just before his first class the next morning Don found Colonel Morrell in his study. The colonel motioned him to a seat.
“What is on your mind this morning, Don?” asked the headmaster.
“I was reading one of the back numbers of the Bombardment last night,” Don replied. “And in it the distressing affair of the Gates Cup was mentioned. Right underneath it was mentioned the fact that a janitor by the name of John Mulford disappeared, or rather left the school for some unknown reason. Wasn’t he suspected?”
“Yes, he was,” returned the colonel, promptly. “In fact, I had him watched, but he didn’t take a thing out with him.”
“I see. Could it have been possible that he came back and got something later on?”
“Possible, but I don’t think so. No, I’m pretty sure that he didn’t have anything to do with it, in spite of his oddly abrupt leaving.”
“My thought is that Mr. Long was never guilty, Colonel Morrell,” Don went on. “I feel that something strange was connected with that whole case, and that your former captain suffered a grave injustice. I wonder if you’d allow me to do something?”
“What do you want to do, Mercer?”
“Do you know where this former janitor went?” Don asked.
“When he left here he went to live in Ashland, a small manufacturing town seventy miles east of here. I had to write to him once to send him some money due him, so I know that much. But whether or not he lives there now I don’t know, of course.”