CHAPTER XXIV
CLEANING UP
The constable of Bellwood drew back a trifle at the warlike demonstration of Dean Ritchie and his friends. He probably had heard of the treatment of some of his kind who had been mobbed, ducked and sent home inglorlously when they had tried to interfere with the sports of the students at the school.
"Hold on, fellows," said Frank quickly, moving his champions aside. "This man is only doing his duty."
"There's the president!" exclaimed Ned Foreman, and he ran forward to the front of the academy, where Professor Elliott had just been driven up in a carriage.
"I will go with you," said Frank, ranging himself up by the side of the officer. "I would like to speak to Mr. Elliott first, though."
"Certainly," acceded the constable willingly, awed by the crowd and pleased with the gentlemanly manner of his prisoner.
Professor Elliott stood awaiting the approaching crowd, staring in a puzzled way at them through his eye glasses. Frank walked straight up to him.
"Professor Eliott," he said, "I have just been arrested by this officer, on the complaint of Gill Mace, I am led to believe."
The academy president stared in astonishment at Frank, and then at Gill, who had kept up with the coterie.
"Yes, I had him arrested," proclaimed Gill.
"Indeed," spoke Mr. Elliott. "Upon what charge, may I ask?"
"He stole a diamond bracelet from my uncle's jewelry store at Tipton," declared Gill.
"There is the bracelet in question, Professor Elliott," said Frank, promptly placing a little parcel done up in tissue paper in the hands of the professor.
"I told you he had it. Didn't I say so?" crowed and chuckled the triumphant Gill.
"However, I didn't steal it," continued Frank. "There is a story I should like to tell you, Professor Elliott. Its telling now may save some trouble later on."
"Yes—yes," nodded Mr. Elliott in a somewhat disturbed way. "Of course there is a mistake. Officer, please come with me to the library. I wish to look into this affair."
"I would like to have Gill Mace and my friend, Ned Foreman, come with us, sir," suggested Frank.
"Certainly, Jordan. Charged with robbery! Dear me! Officer, this is a pretty serious action on your part."
"I'm only doing my legal duty, sir," insisted the constable.
"You have a warrant for the arrest of our student, then?"
"No, sir, I haven't," acknowledged the officer, "but the sheriff said I had a right to act in the premises."
"How so?" demanded Mr. Elliott.
"This lad, Mace, came to us and declared that he had seen in the possession of the Jordan boy a diamond bracelet stolen from his uncle at Tipton, the town that both of them came from."
"Well?"
"He had telegraphed for his uncle to come on at once. He expects him on the eight o'clock train. The sheriff said that, in a way, the case being under the jurisdiction of another State, we might hold the accused as a fugitive from justice, pending identification."
"Fugitive, nonsense! identification, fiddlesticks!" commented the old professor testily. "Jordan isn't going to run away. As to his identification, he has turned the property in question over to me, and, knowing him as I do, I would stake a good deal that when he comes to explain matters it will clear up the situation so far as he is concerned. You have no legal right to apprehend Jordan, officer, and we certainly will not allow you to disgrace him through an arrest, except by due process of law."
"With every respect to you, sir," said the constable humbly, "what am I to do, then?"
"Go back to town, wait till this man Mace arrives, and bring him here to consult with me."
Frank gave the professor a grateful look. He felt at that moment that Mr. Elliott was indeed what Bob Upton had so enthusiastically declared him to be "a good old man."
"Now, then," continued Professor Elliott, waving the constable away as they entered the library, "we will get at the bottom of this matter. This is the bracelet in question, is it, Jordan?" he inquired, indicating the little parcel Frank had given him.
"I think it is, Mr. Elliott."
"How did you come by it?"
"If you please, Mr. Elliott," said Frank, "I would like to tell you my story in private. It involves another person, and also some facts about his relatives, which he might not be disposed to have made pubhc property."
"Very well," answered the professor, and he led the way to his private office at the end of the library and closed its door.
Frank told his story from beginning to end, and he had an interested and sympathetic listener.
When he had concluded, the professor extended his hand, and Frank was proud to grasp it.
"Jordan," he said, "you are a noble fellow. I liked you from the first; I like you better than ever now. If every boy in the school came to me as you have done he would find in me a true friend. I hope you will tell the boys so."
"I don't have to," declared Frank. "They all know you are a good old—I mean, their friend," stammered Frank, checking his impetuous utterance just in time, "but they are a little shy."
Professor Elliott returned to the library and Frank accompanied him.
"Mace," said the former, "you may have acted on your best convictions, but I am assured that you have made a great mistake."
"I don't see how," muttered Gill stubbornly. "There's the bracelet. He had it, didn't he? So he stole it."
"That does not follow—except in your perverted opinion," observed the professor drily. "We will move no further in this matter until your uncle arrives. Foreman, I wish to have a word with you."
"Yes, sir," bowed Ned politely.
"I will give you a note to my attorney in Bellwood. You will tell him all that Jordan has told you, as to his experiences with the person who visited us in your behalf the other day. My lawyer will ferret out this mystery concerning you, and I feel pretty sanguine you will discover something of decided interest and profit to you."
"Thank you, sir."
"None of you three need report for studies today, as I may desire to see any or all of you later on quick notice."
The boys were dismissed. Gill Mace looked suspicious and mystified, Ned was radiant, Frank felt that his patience and loyalty to his friends were about to score a grand result.
Just then the door opened, and a blustering and excited form burst into the room.
It was Samuel Mace.