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"If that's the way you want me to go," smiled Amos Garwood darkly, "then I believe I'll go in the opposite direction. And, young men, it won't be wise for you to attempt to follow me!" With that hint he started. Dick and Dave waited until they could see only the top of his head. Then they started on his trail. For an instant Amos Garwood was out of sight.
Hilltop School closed its fall term with just ninety-five students; it opened again two weeks later, on the third of January, with ninety-six; and thereby hangs this tale. Kenneth Garwood had been booked for Hilltop in the autumn, but circumstances had interfered with the family's plans.
It's my business to travel and take orders." "But we didn't give you any orders," gasped Dave. "Some one did," laughed Mr. Brown. "Who did?" blurted Tom Reade. "Did you, Mr. Jones?" cried Dick. "Not I," laughed the principal. "But I'll tell you, boys, who did. Prescott, you remember Mr. Winthrop, who is acting for Colonel Garwood in trying to find the latter's son?
"Say, kid, you're' a wonder!" sneered Grafton as he got up to go. "I never saw anything so freshly green in my life! You're going to have a real nice time here at Hilltop; I can see that. Well, see you later, Joe. Come up to-night; I want to show you some new snowshoes I brought back. Farewell, Garwood. By the way, what's your first name?" "Kenneth." "Hey?" "Kenneth; K, e, n, n, e "
Mr. Garwood went on to New York, where the National Men's League for Woman Suffrage was organized with James Lees Laidlaw of New York City as president and Mr. Garwood as secretary.
Dick's brain was busy with plans for holding Amos Garwood until the latter's father and friends could take charge of him. "You're all the meanest lot!" protested Martin, tears of anger standing in his eyes. "And you're the funniest fellow," mocked Tom.
Then a voice sounded in his ears. "It's no use, Garwood," cried Grafton. "We can't get up there." "We'll try," was the answer. Bending low, his sleeve over his mouth, Kenneth rushed the next flight. Grafton was at his heels. At the top Kenneth crouched against the last step and squinted painfully down the corridor in the direction of Mr. Whipple's room and the flames.
Through the evening, and the long night that followed, Chief Coy had two of his policemen out searching the woods where Garwood had last been seen. Mr. Winthrop added three detectives to the chase. When morning came the "queer" inventor was still at large. He had not even been seen since Dick and Dave had lost sight of him.
In the meantime four Grammar School boys had stationed themselves around Garwood, who stood under a tree chewing a blade of grass. Hi, either from modesty or humiliation, had retired into a clump of bushes. "They've gone to find that boy who took the clothes, I suppose," remarked Amos Garwood, looking towards Dave Darrin. "That was a strange boy, a very nervous boy," continued Garwood aloud.
Its windows frowned dark and inhospitable and no light shone from the hall as they entered. Mr. Whipple paused and searched unsuccessfully for a match. "I fear I have left my match box in my study," he said at length. "Just a moment, please, Garwood, and I will " "Here's a match, sir," interrupted Kenneth. "Ah!" Mr. Whipple accepted the match and rubbed it carefully under the banister rail.
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