[CHAPTER XX]
DAN IS KIDNAPPED
They were still cheering in front of Oxford that afternoon when Dan left the gymnasium with Mr. Payson and set off up the hill. It was already twilight and the windows of the dormitories were becoming quadrangles of pale yellow. Both Mr. Payson and Dan were very silent on the way up the path, and it was not until the former paused in front of Merle Hall, where a footpath began that led him across the fields toward the village, that the silence was broken.
“Still think you’d rather not take that vacation I spoke of?” Mr. Payson asked then.
“I’d much rather not,” Dan answered.
“All right. Good night.”
“Good night, sir. I guess I won’t be down this evening.”
“No, I’ll see you to-morrow.”
Mr. Payson ran down the footpath and Dan continued around by The Prospect. He felt a little bit uncomfortable. Perhaps Payson was right and he ought to get away from the school for a day. Although he insisted to the coach that he was feeling all right, he fully realized that he was in a rather disordered condition. He hadn’t had a full night’s sleep for nearly a week, he had almost forgotten what it was like to be hungry and if someone had come up behind him and said “Boo!” he would have jumped a foot in the air. He dreaded Saturday more than he had ever dreaded anything in his life, and yet he would have given anything he possessed or hoped to possess if he could have had Saturday come to-morrow. The Broadwood game had taken on the aspect of a dozen visits to the dentist all rolled into one nightmarish lump! For the life of him he couldn’t see how it was possible for his team to win that game. Not one fellow played as he should, the plays Payson had given them were weak, and certain defeat stared them in the face. Dan wished he had never accepted the captaincy!
When he reached the head of the stairs he saw that the door of Number 28 was wide open. A flood of yellow light filled the end of the hall. Probably Gerald had callers, he thought irritably, and he didn’t want to have to talk with anyone this evening. Luckily, however, it would soon be supper time. But when he entered the room he found Gerald, a thick ulster on and a cap in his hand, quite alone. Dan’s coonskin coat lay over the back of a chair.