“Of all things!” burst out May. “And do you suppose it was that trick Tommy Flanders was talking about to Stowell?”
“Sure as shooting, May,” answered Fred. “Don’t you see how it all fits together? You heard Tommy tell Stowell to use a pillowcase or a flour bag. That was to conceal his face. Then he said it would make us look like Negroes, and it certainly did. Then along comes Codfish pleading to Flanders to pay him the five dollars he had promised him for doing something. And then Sands suggesting that Codfish should call it square because he got more fun out of it than they did!”
“It certainly is a clear case,” broke in Jack. “Flanders and maybe Sands and Halliday got Codfish to play that joke on us, and they promised him five dollars for doing it.”
“Let’s go after Codfish right now!” exclaimed the young captain, his eyes blazing.
“Oh, dear, don’t get into a fight!” burst out May, catching him by the arm.
“No use of starting a row here, Fred,” put in Jack quickly. “We can catch Codfish to-night and Tommy Flanders some other time. We don’t want to disgrace Colby Hall while this celebration is going on. Those Longley fellows would like nothing better than to publish the fact that we had started a rumpus on the day of the races.”
“What an awful boy Tommy Flanders must be,” murmured Ruth, “to hire another to play such a trick as that! And then just think of how he tried to spoil that last race!”
The cadets could not, however, resist the temptation to look around for Flanders, Halliday, Sands and Codfish. They saw the four having some ice cream, but then Flanders, Halliday and Sands went off by themselves and Codfish disappeared.
After that Jack and Fred and the girls continued their walk. Jack learned from Ruth that her father was steadily improving in health, but that he was as much worried as ever over the loss of the book of formulas.
“And old Uncle Barney is worried too over the loss of his money,” went on the girl. “I’m afraid this loss may revive the old hard feeling there was between my father and my uncle.”