“Nobody. That’s the funny part of it. The men at the station shoved it into the car without noticin’, seein’ it there with other trunks, and the baggageman didn’t notice; or, he says he didn’t, until Clancy called it to his attention.
“Clancy and Kess thought they had heard some one groaning in the trunk, and when it went into the car they went in, too; and then when they heard the sound again, in the car, they raised a row, and the trunk was put off here and opened.
“Now, there’s the case,” said Bully, breathing heavily. “Only, the baggageman will get fired; for he was held here and questioned by the officers, and when they drove him into a corner he had to admit that he had received a quarter from me for carryin’ the box I brought down from Dickey’s. I had told that, to save my own bacon, when it seemed they was goin’ to prove that I had given him the money for transportin’ the trunk; and he had to say that it was so, that it was only the box I had paid for.”
“I reckon that baggageman lied about knowin’ no more than he said about the trunk,” Carson observed. “Don’t you think he did, Bully?”
“I don’t know, dad.”
“Well, it’s mixin’. Where’s Merriwell?”
“He’s been sent home; he was all in, hardly able to tell his story. I may git fined yet,” he added uneasily, “for toyin’ with him too rough there at the barracks. But Clancy and Kess are still here and——”
“Keep away from ’em.”
“Dad, I won’t,” Bully declared; “not until I’ve finished with ’em. And there’ll be some good money, as well as satisfaction, in linin’ up ag’inst ’em. It will be Kadir Dhin and the Duke and me and a lot more, inside the barracks and out, that will be havin’ some interesting sessions with Clancy, Merriwell, and company. Dad, you can count on that. And the Duke—well, you know he has got money to burn, and I’ll never refuse to help him burn it. He’s been talkin’ to me since this examination, and he says that this whole thing can be used to put Chip Merriwell on the run, and we can now down him.”
The twinkle came again into the eyes of the elder Carson. He admired pluck, and had been a rough-and-tumble fighter in his youth.