"No, sir," answered the cricket captain, whose face was as long as a fiddle. "I locked the cup in the case, and gave it to Buckle; and I only just remembered that the key was still in my pocket."
"Well, this is most extraordinary!" said Mr. Conway blankly. "It sounds like one of those tricks shown by Maskelyne and Cook. You must be mistaken, Herbert. This must be inquired into at once."
A few minutes later an excited crowd surged out of the dining-hall.
Every one was talking at once, the result being a perfect babel of sound. The c.o.c.k-house Cup was missing; by some extraordinary means it had been spirited away from its rightful owners. In the whole history of Hadbury College such a thing had never been heard of before.
Each boy had a different opinion to offer: one thought that Herbert or Buckle must have left it behind on the ground; another believed a burglary had been committed; while a third made the somewhat rash a.s.sertion that the Morganites might have collared it out of spite, though how this could have been done he was not prepared to explain.
A few of the seniors did not doubt that the cup would be found somewhere in the house-master"s study, but a careful search afforded no further clue towards a solution of the mystery; in fact, the theory of a robbery seemed untenable, since not a single article in the room had been disturbed or removed from its accustomed place.
The startling fact at length forced itself upon the minds of all concerned. The c.o.c.k-house Cup, Hadbury"s most cherished and honoured trophy, had, in some mysterious manner, disappeared; added to which was the unpleasant reflection that Conway"s would be held responsible for its loss.
Ill news travels fast, and before morning school the tidings had spread far and wide. Westcott, arriving in the big quadrangle ten minutes before the bell rang, was told it by his chum Lawrence.
"I say, Westcott," cried the latter; "what d"you think? The c.o.c.k-house Cup"s gone!"
For a moment the day boy seemed overcome with the shock of this announcement. He gulped in his throat, and then blankly said, "Oh!"
"Yes, it"s gone, right enough," continued the other excitedly. "Lost, or stolen, or something. Awful rum business. I"ve just heard all about it from young Redfern, who"s at Conway"s."
And the speaker launched out into a vivid account of what had happened, not forgetting to embellish the story with a little addition, prompted by his own imagination.
"If they can"t find where it"s gone, they"ll have a detective down from London."
Westcott opened his mouth as though to reply, but he only gave forth a kind of inarticulate gasp.
The excitement grew as the morning progressed. That a big silver cup could have totally disappeared, and in such an extraordinary manner, when the case which contained it was locked, was almost inconceivable; and added to this was the fact which has already been stated, that the challenge vase was the most valued trophy competed for by Hadbury boys.
"My eye!" exclaimed one member of the Sixth to another. "Brise will be in a pretty way when he comes back. He"ll pitch into those Conway beggars for not being more careful, I know."
As the foregoing remark seemed to imply, the winners of the cup were held in a way responsible for its loss, and the Conwayites were destined to come in for a good deal of blame and reproach. Nowhere did the feeling rise higher than in the Middle Fourth, of which form Westcott was a member.
Mr. Blake, the master, happened to be a little late in appearing in his cla.s.sroom, and his pupils availed themselves of the opportunity of airing their views on the topic of the moment.
"Yah, you miserable Conwayites!" cried Steward, who hailed from Morgan"s. "You can"t keep that cup for a day, which shows you only won it by a fluke."
"We didn"t," shouted a youngster named Cay, firing up at once. "We won it fairly enough, and you know that, Steward!"
"Then why can"t you take proper care of it? You don"t deserve to be trusted with anything better than a pewter mug."
Like an a.s.sembly of foxhound puppies, several other youngsters now gave tongue. Cay called Steward a liar, who promptly fired a book across the room; and in another moment something in the form of a general action might have taken place, if the appearance of Mr. Blake had not quelled the disturbance.
At eleven o"clock the usual "break" took place in the morning"s work, and towards the end of the half-hour Herbert was crossing the road, when Cay and another young Conwayite rushed up to him in a state of the greatest excitement.
"I say, Herbert! Look what we"ve got! Sam says he found it in our yard this morning."
The thing in question was a black flannel cap with red stripes.
"Well, what of it?" said the cricket captain. "It belongs to one of Morgan"s chaps."
"Yes, that"s just it," cried Cay. "One of them must have been in our yard last night. Sam found this before he blacked the boots this morning. I say, Herbert, perhaps this was the fellow who carried off the cup!"
"Oh, rubbish!" answered the senior. "How could he? And besides, what object could there be in doing such a thing? You don"t suppose we"ve got any burglars in the school?"
"No, but they might have done it out of spite," persisted Cay. "It may have been a sort of practical joke."
"Not it!" answered the senior. "No chap would be such a fool as to run such risks for the sake of a joke. That isn"t good enough!"
Though Herbert pooh-poohed the suggestion, he took possession of the cap, and carried it away in his pocket. After dinner Mr. Conway called the senior members of the house together for a consultation as to what steps should be taken towards recovering the lost trophy. The first thing seemed to be to ascertain in what manner it had disappeared; and though several theories were advanced, not one of them seemed to offer a satisfactory explanation of the mystery.
At length Herbert produced the black and red cap from his pocket, and repeated the remarks which had been made by young Cay.
"I can"t think that has anything to do with it," said the house-master.
"One of Mr. Morgan"s boys may possibly have been in our yard last night, and dropped his cap when climbing over the wall, but I can"t bring myself to believe that he stole the cup. Besides, how could he? The thing"s impossible!"
The events of the morning had left a feeling of soreness in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of most of the Conwayites, and no one offered a word in defence of Morgan"s.
"I"ll tell you what I"ll do," said Mr. Conway. "I"ll give this cap to Mr. Morgan, and report the matter to him. But, as I said before, I don"t believe for a moment that it has any bearing on the disappearance of the cup. Well, unless we find out something between now and tea-time, I really see no course open to us but to report the matter to the police."
Now, certainly, the plot began to thicken. On the following day, after morning school, Mr. Conway once more summoned the senior boys of the house for a consultation in his study. There was a peculiar look on his face, which showed that the announcement he had to make was rather unexpected.
"Mr. Morgan has just been over to see me with reference to that cap which was found in our yard. He says that, from a mark inside it, it has been identified as belonging to Southby. Now Southby admits that he was in our yard on the evening in question, between suppertime and prayers, but, beyond denying altogether that his visit had anything to do with the disappearance of the cup, he refuses to give any explanation of his conduct."
"Then I should say he"s telling a lie, sir," blurted out Vincent. "If he wasn"t up to mischief, then why doesn"t he say what he was doing on our premises?"
"Well, that"s just what Mr. Morgan has been trying to find out. He has promised to bring Southby over here. We shall both question him; and, if he still refuses to give an explanation, he must go before the headmaster. Of course the matter will be thoroughly sifted; but I must say I don"t believe that Southby, or indeed any other boy, took the cup from my study."
There was a moment"s silence. To a man, the bystanders were inclined to believe that the Morganites were answerable for what had happened.
"Look here, Buckle," said Mr. Conway suddenly. "Are you _sure_ that the cup was in the case when you brought it away from the field? You see,"
continued the speaker, lifting the oak box from the floor at his side, "the case itself is heavy, so, even if it had been empty, you might not have noticed the difference in the weight."
"But I saw Herbert put the cup in myself, sir," was the answer. "Then he locked the box and gave it straight into my hands. Besides, if the cup had been left lying about anywhere, some one would have seen it, and we should have heard about it before now."
This reply seemed reasonable enough, and so the conference ended, Mr.
Conway promising to renew it after he had had another interview with Mr.
Morgan.
As might have been expected, a report of the conversation which had taken place in the house-master"s study soon spread like wildfire, the story receiving numerous sensational additions as it pa.s.sed from mouth to mouth, until, especially among the junior boys, it was openly declared that Morgan"s had organized a raid upon the rival house, and carried off the cup. It was not likely that any community would allow itself to be publicly charged with theft without some show of resentment, and the unfriendly feeling with which Morgan"s already regarded the rival house now found vent in a blaze of indignation.
"Dirty sneaks!" cried one young gentleman. "They swindle us out of the cup; and now, when they"ve got it and lost it, they want to make out that we"re nothing better than a gang of robbers. Wait till we play "em at football next term, and we"ll show "em the stuff we"re made off!"
So high did feeling run that it was dangerous for wearers of the black and red and the green and orange caps to approach within striking distance of one another; indeed, if it had not been for the prompt intervention of a stalwart prefect, two hot-headed youngsters would have done battle just before dinner on one of the fives courts.
It was a lovely, hot, summer afternoon, and practice at the various house nets was in progress.