“Well, I hope it will do him good, though I don’t see why he——” Here I was interrupted by Tony, who came out quickly and thrust my valise into my hand.
“Come on,” he said. “We must hurry.”
As I turned to shake hands with Slade, I saw the fellow who had attracted our attention standing in the doorway still gazing fixedly at me, but the moment my eyes met his he turned and walked away.
“And now,” began Ray, when we were seated in the train, “we must make up our nine without delay. It will be an embarrassment of riches and no easy task to choose, I think, for we have some mighty fine players on the class nines. Suppose you come to my room to-night just after dinner, and we will make a start. Of course there are some men who stand no chance, and would only be in the way, so the best plan, I think, is to select from the class nines twenty of the likely men, and invite them to compete for the ’Varsity. We can post this list on the bulletin board Monday morning, and get down to practice without delay.”
This seemed an excellent idea, and so, when we arrived at Belmont, we separated at the station with the understanding that we three were to meet at Ray’s room early that evening.
Immediately after dinner I went to the post office to obtain any letters that might have arrived during the day. Nothing but a newspaper from home was in my box, so, on receiving this, I was about to walk away when I heard a familiar voice, and, turning around, I saw Ray Wendell in conversation with the postmaster.
As I came up and took hold of his arm, the postmaster was saying,
“I really don’t see how I can help you, Mr. Wendell. If your letter arrived—and I have no doubt it did—it was properly looked after. We make no mistakes. I do not, of course, remember every letter, but I have quite a firm recollection of such a letter as you describe—in a pink envelope—and it was given to Ridley to deliver.”
Ridley was the young colored boy who carried the mail for the occupants of Warburton Hall.
“Well,” answered Ray, “then I’ll have to question Ridley.”