Andy at Yale Part 53

"It sure is, old man."

Someone touched Andy on the shoulder. He looked around to see Ikey holding out a package. One in the other hand was offered to Dunk.

"The socks," spoke the student salesman, simply.

"Say, give us time to get into our clothes!" demanded Andy. "Do you think we carry cash in our uniforms?"

"I didn't want you to forget," said Ikey, with a grin. "There is another fellow taking up my business now, and I've got to hustle if I want the trade. Going to your room?"

"Sure."

"I'll go on ahead and wait for you," said Ikey. "I need the money."

"Say, you're the limit! You're as bad as a sheriff with an attachment,"

complained Dunk. But he could not help laughing at the other's persistence.

Andy and Dunk were a little late getting back to Wright Hill, and when they entered their room they found a note on the table. It was from Ikey, and read:

"I found your door open, and waited a while, but I just heard of a bargain lot of suspenders I can buy, so I went off to see about them. I will be back with the socks in a little while."

"He found our door open!" exclaimed Dunk. "Didn't we lock it?"

"We sure did!" declared Andy. "I wonder----" He paused, and looked at his chum wonderingly. Then they both began a hasty search among their possessions. The same thought had come to each.

"Did you have my amethyst cuff b.u.t.tons?" asked Andy of Dunk, who was rummaging among his effects.

"I did not. Why?"

"They're gone!"

"Another robbery! Say, we've got to report this right away, and let Link's lawyer know!" Dunk cried. "This may clear him!"

They paused, trying to map out a line of procedure, when a messenger came in to say that either Dunk or Andy was wanted on the telephone in a hurry.

"You go," suggested Andy. "As long as either of us will answer I'll stay here and take another look for my b.u.t.tons. But I'm sure I left them in my collar box, and they aren't there now."

Dunk hurried off, while Andy conducted a careful but ineffectual search.

"It was Link's lawyer," Dunk reported when he came back. "His case comes up to-morrow, and he wants to know if we have any evidence that will help to prove Link innocent."

"Not an awful lot," said Andy, ruefully, "unless this latest robbery is.

We'd better go see that lawyer. Did he say anything about the mysterious hundred dollars Link got by mail?"

"He mentioned it. There's no explanation of it yet, and he says it will look queer if it comes out, and if that's the only explanation Link can give."

"Why need it come out?"

"Oh, it seems that Link showed the bills to several helpers around college, and some of them have been subpoenaed to testify. The detective will be sure to bring it out. Then there's that story about the book found in Link's room."

"h.e.l.lo!--" exclaimed Andy, looking around the apartment in order to collect his thoughts. "There's another note someone left for us. It must have been knocked off the table." He picked it up off the floor. It was addressed to him, and proved to be from Charley Taylor. It read:

"DEAR ANDY. I watched you play to-day. You did well. I've got a peach of a mushroom bat that I don't want, for I'm going in for rowing instead of baseball this season. I left the bat in the storeroom on your corridor when I moved out of Wright Hall. You can have it if you like. I gave it to Mortimer Gaffington once, but he said he never could find it. I don't believe he cared much about it, anyhow. Take it and good luck."

"By jinks!" cried Andy, as he read the missive and pa.s.sed it to Dunk.

"Do you remember that time Mortimer was hunting for Charley's bat in the closet?"

"I should say I did! That was the time we were looking for the thief who took Frank Carr's silver cup and his book."

"Sure. Well, I'm just going to have a look for that bat now. Maybe I'll have better luck than Mortimer did."

"Go ahead. I'll stay here in case Ikey comes in with the socks. No use having him bother us. Might as well pay him so he'll quit running in."

"Sure. Well, I'm going to rummage for the bat," and Andy, thinking of many things, went down the corridor to the large closet that was used as a store room by the students.

It was more filled than before with many things, and Andy had some difficulty in locating the bat. Finally he found it away down in a corner, under an old football suit, and drew it out. As he did so something fell to the closet floor with a clang of metal.

"I wonder what that was?" mused Andy. "It sounded like----" He did not finish the thought, but made his way to the far end of the closet. It was dark there, but, groping around, his fingers touched something hard, round, smooth and cold. With trembling hand Andy drew it out, and when the single electric light in the center of the storeroom fell upon it Andy uttered a cry of surprise.

"Frank's silver cup!" he cried. "The thief hid it in there! I wonder if the book's here, too?"

He made a hasty but unsuccessful search and then, with the bat and cup, he hurried to the room where Dunk awaited him.

"What's up?" demanded Dunk, as Andy fairly burst into the room.

"Lots! Look here!"

"Frank Carr's silver cup! Where'd you get it?"

"In the closet where Mortimer Gaffington hid it!"

"Mortimer Gaffington?" gasped Dunk. "You mean----"

"I mean that I'm sure now of what I've suspected for some time--that Mortimer is the quadrangle thief!"

"You don't say so! How do you figure it out?"

"Just think and you'll see it for yourself," went on Andy. "When we had the chase after the thief down this corridor that time, the trail seemed to lead right to this closet, didn't it?"

"Sure," agreed Dunk.

"And who did we find in there?"

"Why, Mort, of course. But he said he was looking for Charley Taylor's bat."

"Well, he may have been, but that was only an excuse. Mortimer didn't want that bat, but he was almost caught and he did want a place to hide the stuff. The book he could slip in his pocket, but he couldn't do that with the cup. So he threw it back in a corner, and it's been there ever since. Probably he was afraid to come for it."

"Andy, I believe you're right!" cried Dunk. "But one thing more--did you find a pair of rubber shoes? You know Frank said the fellow that went out of his room in such a hurry wore rubber shoes."

"I forgot about that. I'll have another look."