Chapman Allen
Fred Fenton Marathon Runner: The Great Race at Riverport School

CHAPTER XII
LAYING PLANS

"Did you see him yourself, Colon, or did some one tell you?" Fred inquired calmly, although he rubbed his forehead, as though bothered a little by this latest news.

"Well, you know strangers don't come to town in droves these days, and so when I happened to set eyes on a party I didn't recognize, who had just been talking with Hi Jimmerson, the livery stable man, I asked him who it was. Don't know just why that bumped into my head, but I had an errand with Hi, anyhow, you understand."

"And he told you it was Corny Ludson, did he?" asked Fred.

"Yes, that's what he did," came the ready reply. "It seems he used to know the man over in New Brunswick years ago. If you and Bristles had run across Hi when you were trying to find out something about Corny, you'd have struck a gold mine. He told me a lot of queer things about him, and none of 'em that were to his credit, either."

"What did Corny want with the livery man?" asked Fred.

"Oh! tried to strike him for a little loan on account of old times," the other replied. "Said he'd been up against it harder than flint, and had a couple of kids to feed, left to him by his brother. Hi is an easy mark, you know, with a great big heart, and he staked Corny to the extent of a dollar, though he did tell him money was scarce, and that would be the limit."

Fred seemed to be pondering, for he was somewhat slow about speaking again.

"Well, it may be we've been wronging Corny by making up our minds he stole that stuff from old Mr. Periwinkle," he finally went on to say, "though the miser did tell us he would recognize the tin box among a thousand. I hardly know what we ought to do about this thing."

"If you told the Chief all you know, what d'ye reckon he'd do?" inquired

Colon.

"He's such a peppery and ready-to-act little chap," answered Fred, "that I'm of the opinion he'd round Corny up in a rush. That might turn out to be the right thing. And again there's a chance it'd play him a mean trick. What if he were innocent after all? We'd feel that we'd done him a great wrong."

This thought worked upon Colon's mind at once, for he had a very tender heart.

"Yes," he added, reflectively. "And then, how about that boy and girl? Like as not they're in some place out of town, right now, depending on their uncle to fetch home the bacon. They'd have to go hungry a long time if Corny were locked up in the cooler. I'd hate to think of that same happening, from what you and Bristles told me about the poor kids."

"That leaves us up in the air, you see," pursued Fred. "We don't know what our duty is – to tell the Chief, or wait to see what happens."

"Now, by that I reckon you mean wait and see if anything is pulled off again in town, or around here?" suggested Colon; "that is, in the way of a robbery like old Mr. Periwinkle's loss of his money and papers. Whew! I must say it's getting interesting all of a sudden."

"I was wondering," Fred ventured, "if Corny, provided he did rob the old miser, and has spent the small sum of money that was taken, could have heard that Mr. Periwinkle has said he'd pay a certain sum, and no questions asked, for the safe return of his papers!"

At that Colon puckered up his thin lips, and emitted a soft whistle, as if to thus display his surprise.

"Queer I never thought of that idea, Fred," he said, nodding his head in a way to indicate that on the whole he was inclined to agree with what his companion had advanced.

"It's always possible, you know," he was told. "If only the papers could be returned without Corny showing his face! Now, he may have some sort of a plan like that to play, which would account for his coming to town again. I wonder if it'd be the right thing for me to see Mr. Periwinkle, and kind of put him on his guard?"

"Could you do it without telling him all about Corny?" demanded Colon.

"That's the question," admitted Fred. "That's where the hitch seems to come in the scheme. The old miser is apt to jump at conclusions, if he sees a chance to get his papers back, and bag the thief at the same time. Once he suspects that I know who was in that cave where the empty tin cracker box was found, he'll insist on sending for Chief Sutton, and laying some sort of clever trap."

"Well, if Corny is really guilty, he ought to suffer for it; and I wouldn't care a single pin only for that boy and girl. If we knew where they were kept right now, so we could bring 'em into town, and get folks interested in putting both in good families, I'd say go ahead and have Corny caught."

"I wonder what Bristles would say about it," mused Fred.

"Huh! I c'n tell you that," grunted the tall boy, immediately.

"Then suppose you do, Colon."

"Bristles," continued the other, confidently, "would hunch his shoulders this way, as he nearly always does, and then he'd say: whatever you think is the right caper, Fred, count me in. I'm ready to sneeze every time you take snuff!' That's the way Bristles would talk, mark my words."

Fred laughed. He could not help feeling flattered at such an evidence of confidence on the part of these two chums; yet he feigned to disagree with Colon.

"I don't know about that, Colon, Bristles has a mind of his own, and sometimes it takes a lot of argument to convince him. You've got to batter down his walls, and knock all the props out from under him before he'll throw up the white flag. If I get half a chance to run across lots to-night, I'll try to see him. He ought to be put wise to what's going on.

"That's only fair, Fred, because he was there when we struck that cave. And if I remember aright, Bristles was the first to discover about Corny having been the one who used that cooking fire."

"Don't pass the word around, Colon, mind," cautioned Fred.

"You didn't need to say that, my boy," remarked the other, with a vein of reproach in his voice, "because you ought to know I'm not one of the blabbing kind. I c'n keep a secret better'n anybody in our class. They might pump me forever and never learn a thing."

"When was it you saw Corny?" Fred asked, as though desirous of obtaining the fullest information possible.

"Why, just a little while ago," Colon confided. "Fact is, my first thought was to look you up, and tell you. I went to your house first, because your hours are a heap shorter than the regular scholars, at school, and they said you'd gone off an hour before. And then, well, I kind of guessed Flo Temple would be starting for home about this time, and it might be you'd happen along to carry her hooks, as you always used to. And I was right," with a sly glance at the little packet Fred had at that very moment under his left arm.

"Oh that's all right, Colon," he remarked, laughingly; "just from force of habit, you know. Flo kind of expects me to drop around, and seems sort of disappointed when anything keeps me away. That's the way we spoil our girl friends, you see. But let's speak of serious things. I don't see that we're called on to inform about Corny, with only circumstantial evidence against him. If there did happen to be another robbery while we knew he was close by, of course then it would be another thing. We just couldn't keep quiet any longer."

"That's what you've decided on, then, is it, Fred?"

"Yes, to hold off, and wait," he was told in a decisive way.

"All right then, and I want to say that I think you're playing safe in the game. You're holding off on account of that pair of poor kids, I know you are. Corny c'n thank them for being let alone. And Fred, seems to me you're going on the policy of the old saying that tells you to give a rascal rope enough, and he'll hang himself."

"If anything happens, I promise to go straight to Chief Sutton and put him in possession of all the facts I know," affirmed Fred. "And in case I'm not able to get over to Bristles' place to-night, I'll call him up on the wire, and tell him how the case stands."

"You'll have to be careful what you say, then," remarked Colon, with a grin; "if you happen to have any curious old maid on your party wire, as we have."

"Well, it saves the cost of the weekly paper, you know," laughed Fred.

"But you can make sure, Colon, if I do talk with Bristles over the wire,

I'll fix things so no one could tell what it was all about, and yet he'll understand what I mean."

"Say I wanted to tell you, Fred, about that same Corny," Colon observed, taking hold of his chum's sleeve, as he thought he detected an uneasiness about Fred's actions. Flo was looking their way, and frowning, as though she considered that this mysterious consultation had gone on about long enough, even if it did concern important plans for the coming Marathon run.

"I'd be glad to hear it then, Colon," the tall boy was told.

"I didn't like his looks a little bit," Colon continued, seriously.

"By that style of talk I should imagine you thought he'd just as soon steal from a miser as eat a square meal; is that what you mean?" Fred demanded.

"He looks mean as dirt," the other went on to say. "There's a slick way he's got of rubbing his hands together when he's talking, and looking up from the tail of his eye, to see how you're taking his patter. Now, I'm only a boy, and I don't make out to be able to read character any great shakes, but, Fred, I'd be willing to eat my hat if that Corny isn't a bad egg every time."

"Everybody seems to think the same way there," he was told, "and I've yet to hear the first word in his favor. We'll consider that settled, then, Colon. And if you get wind of anything being pulled off around Riverport to-night, or later on, don't let the grass grow under your feet about giving me a tip."

"You just bet I won't, Fred. But I hope there'll be some way of finding out about that pair of kids. Somehow I seem to have cottoned to 'em just from what you'nd our other chum told me, and without ever havin' set eyes on either the boy or the girl that I know about. I'm meaning to sound my ma about how it could be fixed, so they'd have decent homes, in case anything happened."

"That sentiment does you credit, Colon, and I promise that when the time comes, if it ever does, I'll back you up to the limit."

"Shake hands on that, Fred!" exclaimed impulsive Colon, and then and there they exchanged a grip that cemented the bargain.

"I certainly do hope that finishes the wonderful consultation!" called out a clear girlish voice, and Flo Temple came toward them, with a little pout on her pretty red lips. "We've grown tired of standing here, and waiting, while you laid out your great plan of campaign. I should think there was plenty of time for all that between now and the day of the Marathon race. And Fred, you forget you promised to walk out in the woods with me, and see if the first wild flowers hadn't popped up. This is the only chance I've had so far this week, and it'll be late before we get fairly started."

Of course Fred declared that nothing stood in the way of their immediate departure, and as Sid and Cissie had agreed to go along, it may be assumed they had a merry time of it.

CHAPTER XIII
THE MUFFLED VOICE

"Fred, someone wants you on the 'phone!"

"All right, Sis, tell him I'll be right down, and to hold the wire!"

At the time his younger sister, Josie, called him. Fred was sitting in his own room at home. It was around eight o'clock, and he had just been studying, so as to get such matters off his mind until Monday swung around again. The next day being Saturday, he and the other selected contestants for honors in the big race expected to cover the course at a pretty good pace, so as to familiarize themselves with its numerous shortcomings and advantages.

Not wishing to keep anyone waiting, and suspecting that it must be either Colon or Bristles who had some sort of communication to make, Fred hurried down to the lower hail where the 'phone hung.

"Hello!" he called.

Evidently the other party was waiting, for immediately there came an answer.

"That you, Fred?"

"Yes," replied Fred, at the same time wondering who it could be, because there did not seem to be anything familiar about the half muffled tones.

"This is Bristles!" came the voice.

"What's that?" exclaimed Fred, wondering if his friend could be trying to play some trick on him by pretending to change his voice.

"Bristles, don't you know? Wait a minute till I cough," and then followed a series of explosive barks that sounded wonderfully realistic over the wire, after which the muffled voice continued: "Seem to have taken a beastly cold somehow, after school. Sneezing to beat the band, in the bargain. But I want to see you, the worst way, Fred. Can't you come over to my house, for I oughtn't to go out in the night air with this cold?"

"Now, you mean, Bristles?"

"Sure, right away. It's only eight o'clock, and I've got something to tell you that'll make you sit up and take notice. Excuse me while I bark a few times, Fred," which he accordingly did in a way that made the other remove the receiver from close contact with his ear.

"Well, you do seem to have a good dose of it, Bristles," Fred remarked, laughingly, when the bombardment had finally ceased. "I'm almost afraid that cold will be catching over the wire. Hope it won't be anything serious, old fellow."

"Oh! I'm not bothering about that, Fred," he was told, "but I'm just aching to tell you something great. You'll be tickled half to death when you hear what it is. Never mind asking me, either, because I won't whisper a word over the wire."

"All right, then, Bristles."

"You'll sure come, Fred?" anxiously asked his unseen chum.

"Why, of course I will," Fred hastened to assure him. "I meant to run over to your place to-night, anyway, because I've got a little news you ought to hear."

"And Fred, you'll take the short-cut, of course?"

"It's mighty seldom I go any other way, Bristles. Why do you ask?"

"I was only afraid you might have some errand down-town that'd take you the long way around, that's all, Fred. Now, hurry up, because I'll bust if I have to hold this great thing in much longer. So long, Fred!"

As the thick voice ceased to come over the wire Fred put the receiver on the hook, and there was a little frown on his face.

"Now I wonder if he's happened to learn about that Corny Ludson, and means to explode it on me?" Fred was saying, as he picked up his hat. As he did so, his glance happening to fall upon a heavy cane with a crooked handle belonging to his father, he took possession of it.

Perhaps it was the recollection of what pretty Flo Temple had said when jokingly telling him that he would presently be needing a walking stick, if he kept on dieting for the Marathon race, that suddenly tempted Fred to take this cane, for he had certainly never done it on any previous occasion.

Later on he was inclined to believe there might be some truth in that fable of the sea, to the effect that there is a "little cherub aloft, looking after the affairs of poor Jack," and keeping him in times of sudden peril. At any rate the sudden whim of Fred's, when he thought to play a joke on Bristles, and pretend that he needed a crutch or a cane, since he was becoming lame and decrepit, was fated to turn out one of the finest things he ever did.

When Fred stepped out of the front door, he found that it was fairly dark, as the moon happened to be past its full, and consequently had not as yet appeared above the eastern horizon.

When Fred and Bristles wished to exchange visits they were in the habit of taking a short-cut, that saved considerable distance. It wound in and out over the open lots, though there was only one fence to climb. So frequently had the boys made use of this way, in their endeavor to save themselves from needless steps, that they knew every foot of it like a book. Indeed, a plain trail had been worn by these innumerable trips.

Bristles had often declared he could go from his house to that of Fred with his eyes bandaged, and never once get off the track. No doubt it was the same way with the Fenton boy, who had impressed every little peculiarity of that short-cut on his mind.

Swinging the heavy walking-stick around by the crook, Fred hurried along, climbing the fence on the other side of the road. Just at that moment he chanced to notice a figure coming up the street, and while astride the topmost rail of the fence he stopped to see if his suspicions were confirmed, for he thought he ought to know that peculiar gait.

When the other started in at the Fenton gate Fred called softly:

"Hello there, Colon!"

The tall figure turned around at being thus addressed from across the street.

"That you, Fred?" he asked, starting to cross over.

"Nobody else," replied the other, with a chuckle, "and you happened along just in the nick of time, let me tell you. I'd have been gone in three shakes of a lamb's tail."

"Going across lots to Bristles's shack, I reckon?" ventured the tall boy, as he reached the side of his friend.

"Just what I'm meaning to do," he was told. "Bristles called up before I was ready to start across, and wanted me to hurry over. Said he had something to tell me that was simply great."

"You don't say!" exclaimed Colon.

"And I've been wondering whether he could have learned about that man being in town," continued Fred.

"Meaning Corny?" queried Colon.

"Yes," Fred replied, still sitting on the rail of the fence. "If you saw him, there'd be a chance that Bristles might have heard something along those lines. You know he's the greatest fellow going for picking up information about all sorts of things."

"It might be," mused the other, "and we could have some fun with Bristles by springing the racket on him before he got a chance to let the cat out of the bag."

"You'll go over with me, then?" asked Fred.

"That's my present intention," said Colon. "Fact is, I strolled around to see if you expected to drop in on Bristles, and put him wise. Didn't have anything else to do, this being Friday night, you know. And I'm that full of the race I seem to want to talk it over all the time. But what are you carrying that heavy walking-stick for? Hope there wasn't any truth in what Flo Temple said, and that you're getting weak in the knees, Fred?"

"I just happened to remember all that joshing," Fred told him, "when I saw dad's stick. So I picked it up, thinking I'd play a joke on Bristles, and make out to be lame. But looks a little as if we mightn't have Bristles along with us to-morrow."

"How's that?" Colon wanted to know, instantly.

"Why, it seems he's gone and taken a terrible cold all of a sudden," Fred told him. "You'd never have guessed who it was talking over the wire to me. He had to tell me who it was."

"When was this?" asked Colon, "because I called him up after I got home this evening, to sort of say we might be around, and I didn't notice anything out of the way with him then."

"Is that so?" remarked Fred, as though a little puzzled. Then he added, "Oh! these colds in the head come on with a rush, sometimes. He barked like a dog, and I even had to hold the receiver away from my ear. I told him he'd give it to me over the wire. But chances are he'll not be in a fit state for a twenty-five mile run to-morrow, more's the pity. It's queer about that heavy cold taking him so sudden, though, come to think of it."

"He wanted you to come over, you say?" continued Colon, as he threw one of his long legs across the top rail, and prepared to follow Fred, who had already dropped down on the other side of the fence, and was in the field that was to be crossed first of all, in following the short-cut to the Carpenter home.

"Yes, that was why he called me up," replied Fred. "And he kept urging me not to hold off a minute, because he said what he had to tell was so important he'd just burst if he held in much longer. And then he wanted to make sure I'd take this path across lots."

"But why would he say that, Fred?" continued the tall boy, as side by side they started off, with Fred keeping on the path, which could be seen readily enough in the starlight, once his eyes had become accustomed to the night.

"He said, Colon, he was afraid I might try to kill two birds with one stone, and go down-town first, to do some errand, and he just couldn't wait a minute longer than was necessary."

"Huh! that's funny," grunted Colon, as though he failed to understand exactly why the said Bristles should have been so very particular.

They walked along, with Colon clutching the left arm of his chum, for he depended upon Fred to show the way, not being very familiar with the crooked path himself.

They kept on talking as they walked, for there were any amount of things that interested them jointly, from the mystery concerning the actions of Corny Ludson, to the plans they had in mind concerning the winning of the glorious Marathon.

Here and there clumps of bushes caused them to turn aside, but that was the way the trail ran, very much like what Fred called a "cow-path." Indeed, it meandered along in a zigzag fashion, though always heading for the opposite side of the field.

The two boys were just in the act of passing the densest patch of bushes that the cow-pasture boasted, when without the slightest warning three figures suddenly confronted them. They leaped from the covert where they had been lying concealed, and, as though all their plans had been arranged beforehand, two of the figures instantly sprang past, so that from all sides of a triangle Fred and Colon found themselves furiously assailed.