Troubled beyond words, he made his way slowly to his room. Frank was not there, and Bill sat down and wrote a letter to his mother, which he later sent special delivery. It was rather a rambling and purposeless affair, but the best he could do under the circumstances. The note which he enclosed for Lee was quite different in tone, and was intended to make the prisoner believe that it was only a question of a few days before the real culprit would be led to justice.
The trouble with Bill was that he could remember nothing at all of the events of the fateful morning of the robbery except that he was busy packing and yelling good-byes to everyone who passed the back door of the quarters, Bill's locker being on the back porch, past which long lines of student officers on their way out to make road maps continually marched two by two, followed by the usual company of little and big mongrel dogs that are always found on army Posts. Bill could see the men and the dogs and he remembered the greetings, but who passed by or what occurred on the front porch he did not know. His mind remained a blank.
Frank came in whistling. He grinned in an unfriendly fashion when he saw his roommate slumped in the camp chair by the window.
"Heard the news?" he demanded.
"No; what's up?" asked Bill without interest.
"Well, the school was just put under strict quarantine," said Frank. "The town and all the country is so full of that new disease, what-you-call-it, that we are going to be shut up here for goodness knows how long. And they say there are seven fellows down with it in the hospital now. What do you suppose they will do if it gets to be an epidemic in the school? I saw old Nealum just now, and he was mum as an oyster: looked bad, because he always loves to give out information, you know. We are to go to chapel in half an hour for instructions and new rules. Wish they would send us home! I don't like school."
"I would like to go home too," said Bill.
"Why, I thought you were dippy over your 'dear school' and your 'sweet teachers,'" sneered Frank.
"It's all right," said Bill, "but I got a letter from home just now. Lee is under arrest for stealing that money."
Bill was looking out of the window. He did not see the look of triumph that swept over Frank's face.