"No, he didn"t use any cyanide," said Tom quickly. "Now for some explanations. But first shake hands, and then maybe we"d better stuff our keyhole so the light won"t show. No use being interrupted."
"That"s already been attended to," said Jack. "We always take those precautions," and in turn he and the others shook hands with Ray.
"To begin at the beginning," said Tom, "this is my cousin--a son of my mother"s sister. I haven"t seen him in some years, for he went West, where his parents died. How he managed to come to work as a hired man for Appleby I don"t know, but he did----"
"It was just chance," cut in Ray. "Suppose you let me explain, Tom."
"All right, go ahead. I"m going to rub some liniment on my ankle.
It"s got to be treated, if I"m to play football again."
"I might as well own up to it first as last," went on Ray, "that I haven"t been altogether what I should be. When my mother died--I--I sort of went to the bad." He choked up for a moment and then resumed.
"I got in with a lot of tough characters in the West and I lived a fast life. Then I drifted East, lost what money I had and went to work for Mr. Appleby. I didn"t know Tom was going to school here or I wouldn"t have run the chance of disgracing him."
"If you had only let me know earlier that you were here," said Tom, "everything might have been all right."
"Well, I didn"t," said Ray, with a smile at his cousin. "Things went from bad to worse. Appleby wasn"t the best man in the world to work for. Then Jake Crouse happened along. I had known him out West. He came of a good family, but he went to the bad and became a common tramp, though he had a good education. Crouse isn"t his right name, I guess.
"Appleby treated us very mean--he does that way to all his hired men, I guess, and he used to fine us if we accidentally broke any tools, or made mistakes. In fact about all our money was eaten up in fines, so we had very little coming to us.
"Finally Jake Crouse got mad when he was heavily fined, and he said he was going to get even. He wanted me to go in with him, but I wouldn"t, and I decided to skip out, and look for another place. I had no money, and then, accidentally, I learned that Tom was a student at Elmwood Hall. I heard Appleby mention his name as having gotten ten dollars from him for about a dollar"s worth of trampled-down corn. Then I decided to appeal to Tom to help me get away.
"I sent him a note, and he came to see me. It was in a pool room in town--a place where I used to go for amus.e.m.e.nt, but I"ve dropped all that sort of thing now. There Tom gave me money enough to straighten up and begin life over again."
"Say!" interrupted Jack, "was that where you got so all smelled up with smoke, Tom?"
"I guess it was. I know everybody in the place seemed to be smoking,"
answered our hero.
"That was the night Jake Crouse set fire to the hay stacks," went on Ray Blake. "He fixed it so suspicion wouldn"t fall on him, as he was away from the farm at the time. He used a sort of chemical fuse that would cause the fire several hours after it was set.
"After I met Tom, and got the money, and told him about the prospective hay fire," said Ray, "I sneaked back to the farm to get what few clothes I owned. Jake Crouse was waiting for me, and when he found out I was going to run away, and that I had some money, he threatened to implicate me in the burning of the hay. He had me in his power and I didn"t dare--or at least I thought I didn"t dare--refuse him. So I stayed on, and he got most of my money over cards. He wasn"t suspected of the fire, and I never knew Tom was, or I"d have made a clean breast of everything.
"Well, things went from bad to badness. Appleby got worse toward us instead of better, and Crouse said he"d teach him a lesson. I suspected he would do something desperate so I made up my mind to get away. I laid my plans carefully, and, ashamed as I was, I decided to ask Tom for more money.
"I appealed to him, and he answered. He gave me all he could spare, and more too, I guess and I promised to reform. I made him promise he would never say anything about me, and he didn"t. As much on his mother"s account as mine, I guess, for my mother and his were sisters, and I knew my aunt would be broken-hearted if she knew how much I"d gone to the bad.
"Well, to make a long story short Tom fixed me up--he even gave me his sweater when I sneaked up and called on him in this dormitory, for I was cold and hadn"t many clothes--and I lit out. I guess I must have made some wild threats against Appleby before I left, for he had treated me mean."
"You did make all sorts of wild declarations," put in Tom, "and it was that which made me fear you had poisoned the horses when it was known that they had been given cyanide."
"But I didn"t," said Ray. "I ran off that night, and later, as I pa.s.sed by the barn, carrying Tom"s sweater, I saw Jake Crouse going in with a package and a bottle. I got scared and ran as fast as I could, fearing he would see me and force me to have a hand in the crime. But I got away, though I dropped Tom"s sweater, and didn"t dare go back for it.
"I went to New York, and I"ve been there ever since, until recently. I stayed with a man I had known in the West, but I never knew Tom was in such trouble on my account. What happened here, after I left, I don"t know, except as Tom has told me. But the other day I got a letter from him, asking me to release him from his promise to keep silent about my presence here, and about what a life I had led, and I came on. I couldn"t get here until to-night and I sent word that I"d meet him near the Appleby house and explain everything.
"In his letter Tom told me about how he was suspected of the poisoning, and how he wanted to clear his name. The reason I appointed the lane near the farm house was because I intended to go with him to Mr.
Appleby and explain everything. I never thought it would storm so, but it was too late to get word to Tom, so I kept the appointment."
"And so did I," added Tom. "How Jake Crouse got there is a mystery."
"Not much of one, I guess," said Ray. "I fancy he was mad because he didn"t kill all the horses and he was going to try it again. Then too, foolishly, I wrote him a final letter, saying I was going to see you and I guess he went there to meet me."
"At any rate he was there," said Tom, "and we both had a run-in with him. He"s now safely in jail, having confessed to both crimes. So my name is cleared."
"Yes, by the plucky way you kept after the clews," said Jack.
"And the luck he had of running into Jake," added Bert.
"No, Jake ran into me," explained Ray, with a laugh. "Well, I"ve released Tom from his promise of silence. Perhaps it was foolish to bind him to it, for I should have been willing to take my medicine.
But, for a time, I could not bear the thought of his mother knowing how low I"d fallen--I didn"t want anyone to know how nearly I"d disgraced Tom"s family."
"That"s why I couldn"t say anything about to whom I gave my sweater,"
explained Tom. "And, for a time, I feared Ray was guilty of poisoning the horses. His threats, and the fact that he had some time before experimented with chemicals, with me, made me suspicious. So I had a double motive in keeping silent.
"At last I could stand it no longer, and I began to try and trace my cousin. I had accidentally found the clew of the bottle, and I knew that someone giving the name of Crouse had purchased the poison. But even then I was afraid Ray had given the tramp"s name to shield himself. Though when the drug clerk said a man with a scar had bought the cyanide I had my doubts. Still I was not sure but what Ray had been hurt in a fight."
"I was a pretty wild character," admitted Tom"s cousin, "but I"m done with that sort of life now."
"So I wrote several letters," went on Tom, "asking my cousin to come and explain things. It was some time before one reached him, as I sent to his last known address out West."
"But I finally got one," put in Ray, "and then I came on, as soon as I could. It"s all explained now, and Tom"s name is cleared."
"How do you suppose Sam h.e.l.ler saw you--or thought he saw you--with your gay sweater on--at the barn?" asked Jack.
"Give it up," said Tom. "Maybe we"ll find out that too."
They did--the next morning, when Tom and his cousin, in an interview with Doctor Meredith, told the whole story. But it had leaked out before that, and when Sam h.e.l.ler was sent for he was not to be found.
He had left Elmwood Hall in a hurry.
In order to clear himself of any part in the unjust accusation against Tom, Nick Johnson made a clean breast of the whole affair. To him Sam had confided a plan of throwing suspicion, of some mean act against Mr.
Appleby, on Tom. Sam"s plan was to go to the barns, and damage some farm machinery, at the same time leaving behind some object with Tom"s name on it to implicate him. Nick would have nothing to do with this, and Sam went off by himself.
That was the night the horses were poisoned, and Sam, seeing Crouse and Ray about the barns, became frightened and sneaked off without playing his mean trick. It was Ray he had seen wearing the sweater, leaving the dormitory after Ray had borrowed it, and Sam thought it was Tom, for the cousins were much alike. And it was Ray whom Mr. Appleby had seen, though the empty package of poison was dropped by Crouse, and not by Ray, so in that the farmer was mistaken. And Sam testified against Tom, at the time believing him guilty.
Later, though, in one of the resorts of Elmwood, Sam overheard Crouse boasting to some boon companions of what he had done, but, instead of telling what he knew, and clearing our hero, Sam kept silent, letting the blame rest on Tom. And it was Sam"s school pin the farmer found near the hay.
And it was also Sam and Nick who had bribed the farm boy to send Tom and his chums on the wrong road, thus leading them into the cornfield and causing the quarrel with Mr. Appleby.
"Well, all"s well that ends well," said Tom"s cousin a few days later, when he made ready to go back to the West, where he promised to begin a new life. "I can"t tell you how sorry I am Tom, for the trouble I made you."
"Never mind," answered our hero. "It"s all right."
"Tom"s pluck and luck won for him," said Jack, and Tom was the hero of the school, for Doctor Meredith publicly commended the youth for his action, and Mr. Appleby was fair enough to beg Tom"s pardon before the whole school.
"But we"ve got to have a new quarterback," said the perplexed football captain as the time approached for the last big game--that for the championship.
"Yes," admitted the coach. "Better a new one than that sneak Sam h.e.l.ler. I"m glad he"s gone. Is Tom"s ankle fit for him to play?"