CHAPTER XIII
IN WHICH SOME SHOES ARE MISSING
"What do you think of it?"
"Who took them?"
"We can't go downstairs in our bare feet."
Such were some of the remarks made, as the lads of dormitories Nos. 11 and 12 looked at each other. The closets had been searched thoroughly but without success.
"See here, if anybody in these rooms hid those shoes, I want to know it!" demanded Sam, gazing around sharply.
"I hardly think a fellow would hide his own shoes, too," answered Luke.
"He might,—just to hide his own guilt."
"I believe this is the work of some outsider," declared Dave. "Most likely Nat Poole and his crowd."
"By Jove, Dave, I believe you are right!" exclaimed Phil. "It would be just like them to do it, if they got the chance."
"Did you say Nat Poole?" queried Shadow, scratching his head thoughtfully.
"I did. Most likely Nat heard of our feast, and it made him extra sore to think we were having a good time and he wasn't invited."
"That is true, and I guess" Shadow stopped short, and a curious look crossed his face.
"What is it, Shadow? Do you know anything of this?" asked Roger.
"Why, I—er—that is, I had a dream last night," stammered the story-teller of the school. "Or, maybe it wasn't a dream after all," he went on, in confusion.
"See here, Shadow, have you been sleep-walking again, and did you make off with our shoes?" demanded Phil. He remembered only too well how poor Shadow was addicted to walking in his sleep, and how he had once walked off with a valuable collection of rare postage stamps belonging to Doctor Clay.
"I—I don't think so," stammered Shadow, and got as red as a beet. "But I had a queer dream. I forgot about it at first, but now it comes back to me. I somehow dreamed that somebody came into this room and bent over me while I was in bed, and then picked up something. I started to stop him—and then I went sound asleep again."
"Who was the person?" questioned Polly Vane.
"I don't know."
"See here, Shadow, I'll wager a new necktie that you walked off with our shoes!" declared Sam. "And if you did, please be kind enough to tell us where you put them."
"Oh, Sam! I really I don't think I did!" stammered the sleep-walker, in much confusion.
"The feast must have been too much for you, and it set you to sleep-walking," said Roger. "Now just see if you can't remember where you went with the shoes."
"The whole bunch must have made quite a load—all one fellow could carry," said Luke.
"Yes, and he'd have to put them in a box or a sheet at that," added Plum.
"Try to think real hard," suggested Roger.
"If he did it, it is funny that he took his own shoes, too," remarked Dave.
Poor Shadow was so confused he did not know what to say or do. He sat on the edge of the bed the picture of despair.
"I—I thought I was all over sleep-walking," he murmured. "The doctor at home was treating me all summer."
"One thing is certain—we can't stay up here all morning," burst out the senator's son. "I'm going to borrow a pair of shoes somewhere."
"So am I," added Dave. "We'll hunt for the missing shoes later on."
"Say!" burst out Shadow, half desperately. "You—you won't tell Doctor Clay about this, will you?"
"Not if you did it without knowing it, Shadow," answered Dave, promptly.
"I won't say a word," answered Plum.
"I—I don't know if I did it or not," went on Shadow, his face as red as ever. "I didn't know I took those postage stamps and those class pins that time. But if I did take 'em,—and we don't find 'em—I'll buy new shoes for all hands, if it takes every dollar I can scrape up."
The boys donned their clothing and then went on a tour of some of the other dormitories. Thus several borrowed shoes, while the others had to be content with slippers and foot coverings usually worn on the athletic field.
"Not very elegant," remarked Phil, as he gazed at the slippers he had borrowed, "but 'any port in a storm,' as the sailors say. I hope we get our shoes back."
"So do I, Phil," returned Dave. "But if Shadow went off with them he may have gone a long distance. Remember, he carried those postage stamps away up the river, and used a rowboat to do it. Maybe he rowed off with our foot coverings."
"He doesn't act as if he was tired—and he would be tired if he went very far with the shoes. Why, we didn't get to sleep until about one o'clock or half-past."
"I know that. It certainly is a mystery."
With several of the boys appearing at breakfast wearing slippers the secret of what had happened could not very well be kept, and it soon was whispered around that Nos. 11 and 12 had been cleaned out of shoes, boots, and slippers during the night, and that Shadow was suspected of having walked again in his sleep. His chums tried to hush the matter up, yet enough was said to make the storyteller of the school thoroughly uncomfortable.
"I'd give ten dollars to locate those shoes!" said Shadow to Dave, later on.
"So would I," answered Dave. "We can make a hunt after school."
Half a dozen of the students joined in the search for the missing foot coverings, and the lads looked high and low, but without success.
"Only one place more that I know of," said Dave. "That is the old granary."
"I don't think they can be there, but we can look," said Shadow.
The old granary was a building located behind some of the carriage sheds. It had once held grain, but was now used for the storage of garden implements. The lads found the door unlocked, and pushing it open they entered and gazed around in the semi-darkness.
"I don't see much that looks like shoes," remarked Roger.
"I'll strike a light," said Dave, and did so. The match flared up, and as it did so, several uttered cries.
"There they are, over in the corner!"
"We have found them at last!"
"Light a lantern and see," said Phil, and a stable lantern was quickly procured and lit. Then the boys worked their way around a mower and a harrow and some other farming implements to where they had seen the shoes.
"Sold!"
"These are a lot of old stuff thrown away long ago!"
It was true—the shoes they had located were worn out and covered with mildew. Shadow kicked them savagely.
"What a sell—and just after I was sure we had found them," he muttered.
Heavy at heart the students left the granary and put away the lantern. They had exhausted their resources, and walked back to the school in a decidedly sober mood.
"Well, all I can offer is this:" said Shadow, at last. "Each of you buy new shoes and slippers, and turn the bills over to me—and I'll pay them as quickly as I can."
"Don't you bother about my shoes, Shadow," said Dave, kindly. "I can get others easily enough."
"So can I," added Roger and Phil.
"But I would like to really know whether you walked off with them in your sleep, or if this is some trick of our rivals," continued Dave.
"You don't want to know any more than I do," declared the sleep-walker.
There seemed no help for it, and the next day all the boys paid a visit to Oakdale and purchased new shoes. They did not bother with slippers or boots, thinking that sooner or later the missing foot coverings would turn up. The shoe dealer was all attention, for never before had he had such a rush of trade.
Dave, Phil, and Roger got fitted first, and with their purchases under their arms, they quitted the shoe shop and strolled up the main street of the town.
"There are some girls we know!" cried the senator's son, presently, and pointed across the way. Coming in their direction were Mary Feversham and Vera Rockwell, two girls who lived in that vicinity, and who had come to the lads' school entertainment the year before. Vera had a brother with whom the senator's son was well acquainted.
"Why, how do you do!" cried Mary, as the boys crossed the street and tipped their caps. "So you are all back at school, eh?"
"I thought you must be back," added Vera, giving all a warm smile.
"Yes, we are back," answered Dave. "How have you been since we saw you last?"
"Very well indeed," answered Vera. "And how did you like it on the ranch? We heard you had turned into regular cowboys."
"Hardly that," said Dave. "But we went in for bronco-busting, and rounding-up, and all that."
"Somebody said you had some trouble with cattle thieves," went on Vera.
"Oh, Vera, don't mention that!" cried Mary, and blushed a little.
"Why shouldn't we?" demanded the other girl. "I don't believe those stories, and I think Mr. Porter and his friends ought to know what is being said."
"What is being said?" repeated Roger.
"Yes."
"Who is talking about us?" demanded Phil.
"Mr. Merwell,—the young man who used to go to Oak Hall. He goes to Rockville Military Academy now."
"And what did he say?" questioned Dave.
"Oh, he said a great many things—not to me but to some girls I know. He said all of you had gotten mixed up with some cattle thieves, and had tried to get out of the trouble by blaming him, but that he and his father had made you stop talking about him."
"Will, if that doesn't take the cake!" exclaimed Phil. "Isn't that Merwell to a T?"
"The shoe was on the other foot," explained Roger. "Merwell was the one who was mixed up in the affair, and he and his father had to pay for a lot of horses that—well, disappeared. We exposed him, and that is what made him mad."
"Did Mr. Merwell steal some horses?" asked Vera, in alarm.
"Not exactly—according to his story," answered Dave. "He says he took them in fun. Then the regular cattle thieves took them from him—and let him have some money. He claimed that he was going to return the horses, but didn't get the chance."
"And he and his father had to pay for the horses in the end?"
"Yes,—they paid Mr. Endicott, the owner of the ranch at which we were stopping."
"Then I guess Link Merwell was guilty," said Mary. "And after this I don't want him to even speak to me—he or that friend of his, Mr. Nick Jasniff."
"You'll do well to steer clear of the pair," warned Roger.
"It is a shame that they are allowed to talk about you as they do," said Vera. "If they keep on, they will give you a very bad name."
"I don't believe folks in Rockville will believe much of what Jasniff says," said Phil. "They'll remember his evil-doings of the past."
"He and Merwell seem to have made themselves popular at the Academy," was Mary's reply. "How they have done it I don't know. But perhaps they have money, or else"
The girl did not finish, for just then an automobile swung around the corner and came to a halt in front of a store near which the young people had halted. The automobile contained Merwell, Jasniff, and two other students of the Academy, all attired in the cadet uniforms of that institution.