Tom Fairfield's Pluck and Luck Part 26

His chums looked at him, but Tom only shook his head. "No such luck,"

he said in disappointed tones. "Sam may have been corralled by the old farmer, but it's for something else besides the fire and poisoning."

"What makes you think so?" asked Jack. "Why won't you believe Sam h.e.l.ler guilty, Tom."

"Because I know he isn't."

"You do? Then you must know who is."

"No, that doesn't follow."

"Look here!" cried Jack, coming close to his chum, and placing his hands on his shoulders, the while looking him squarely into the eyes.

"I can't understand you. Here you go and say Sam isn't guilty, and you know it. And yet you say you don't know who did the business. You didn't do it yourself, I'm sure, and yet------"

"Say Jack," spoke Tom gently. "Believe me, if I was _sure_ of what I only _suspect_ now I couldn't really tell who poisoned those horses.

There's a mystery about it, and I'm trying to get to the bottom of it.

I want my name cleared more than anything else in the world, but I want it done in the right way. I don't want to cast suspicion on the wrong person. Now, George, tell us all you know about Sam being caught. It may help some."

"Well, I don't know an awful lot," went on George, as he accepted a chair that Jack pushed out for him. "I was coming in from a little trip to town when I saw, coming across the campus, two fellows--at least I thought they were two of our fellows, but when they got under one of the lights I saw it was Sam and the old farmer. And, believe me, Appleby had hold of Sam as if he was a thief and him the constable."

"As if Appleby was the thief?" asked Bert.

"No, as if Sam was. What's the matter with you fellows, anyhow, that you can't understand United States talk?" and George looked around half indignantly.

"The trouble is that you mix up your p.r.o.nouns," said Tom. "Go ahead.

We got as far as that Appleby had hold of Sam as if Sam was a thief."

"Yes, and Sam was demanding to be let go, while the old farmer was saying: 'Now I've got ye! Consarn ye! I'll teach ye t' come sneakin'

around my place! I'll have ye up afore th' doctor'!"

The boys all laughed at George's realistic imitation of the farmer's talk, for it was quite correct.

"And then what happened?" asked Jack.

"That's all, except that I came on here in a hurry, and Sam was fairly dragged into the doctor's office by Appleby."

There was silence in the room of the chums for a moment, and then Bert remarked:

"Well, Tom, what do you make of it?"

"I don't know," was the answer, slowly given. "It looks queer, and yet Sam may have only trespa.s.sed on Appleby's place by chance."

"Don't you believe it!" exclaimed Jack. "He had some object all right."

"And it's up to us to find out what it is," added Bert.

"No, I'll try it," insisted Tom. "This is my game."

"But we're going to help you play it!" exclaimed Jack. "What's the matter with you, anyhow? Don't you want us to help you clear yourself of this suspicion that's hanging over you?"

"Of course I do, but------"

"'But me no buts,' old man. Just you let us help you out in this. Now it wouldn't look well for you to go around sneaking under the doctor's windows, trying to hear what's going on. But it wouldn't hurt either of us," and he indicated, by a sweeping gesture, himself and his two close chums.

"So, Tom, my boy," he went on, "we'll just see what we can learn. The doctor's sure to hold an audience with Appleby and Sam in the big front office, and he always has a window open, for Merry is a fresh air fiend, you know. Some of the talk will leak out and it may give us a clew."

"All right," a.s.sented Tom, after a moment's thought. "Go ahead. I don't believe it will amount to anything, though. Then I can go on with my drug store end of it," and he briefly explained to George where he had been headed for when the interruption came.

"Shall we all go?" asked Bert. "Won't it look sort of queer for three of us to be hanging around the doctor's house?"

"It will," a.s.sented Jack, "and, therefore, we won't all hang out in the same place. I'll get under the big office window; Bert, you can take the window on the other side, and George will guard the front door."

"Guard the front door? For what?"

"Well, just sort of drape yourself around it," suggested Jack, who had a.s.sumed the direction of matters. "Maybe you can overhear something as Sam and Appleby come out. I don't just like this sort of thing," he added, "but the end justifies the means, I think."

Tom nodded gravely. The stain against his name had affected him more than he cared to admit. The three lads went out and Tom sat down in moody silence to await their return. They were not long away, and came back together, rather silent.

"Well?" asked Tom questioningly, as his chums entered.

"Nothing much," answered Jack in despondent tones. "We were almost too late, but I did manage to overhear something. Sam and Appleby came out a short time after we got there. It seems that the farmer caught Sam sneaking around his barn, and as he's been suspicious, and on the watch ever since the poisoning of his horses, he rushed out in a hurry and collared him."

"What explanation did Sam make?" asked Tom.

"All I could hear was that it was a mistake, and that he wandered off the road in the darkness."

"The same as we did when we got in the corn," said Tom. "So that's all there was to it?"

"Except that Appleby was ripping mad, and threatened to have the next school lad arrested whom he found on his property. We'll have to make a new course for cross-country runs after this I guess, for we used to run across his big meadow."

"Yes," a.s.sented Tom. "Well, I didn't think it would amount to anything. I'm much obliged, though."

"You wait!" insisted Jack. "This isn't the bottom of it yet, not by a long shot."

"What do you mean?" asked Tom curiously.

"I mean that Sam isn't such a loon as to get off the road on to Appleby's land just by mistake, or because it was dark."

"You mean he went there purposely?"

"I sure do."

"What for?" and Tom gazed curiously at his chum.

"That's what I've got to find out. He had some object, and I shouldn't be surprised but what it was you, Tom."

"Me?"

"Yes. He hasn't succeeded in driving you out of the Hall as he hoped, and now he's up to some more mean tricks."