For the Honor of Randall Part 41

"Hark!" exclaimed Dan. "What's that noise?"

CHAPTER XXVIII

A BOTTLE OF MEDICINE

They all listened intently, looking the while curiously at Kindlings. He seemed to be hearing something inaudible to the others.

"I don't 'hark' to anything," remarked Tom, "unless you mean a sort of pattering noise, and----"

"That's it!" interrupted Dan with a glad cry. "It's the pattering noise I mean. Fellows, there's a way out after all. It's raining, and if it keeps up long enough the games will have to be called off. Now, if any of you have any sort of pull with the weather man have him make it rain like the old scratch, and keep it up. It's our only salvation. A postponement means a week, and in that time Tom and Sid will be fit as fiddles. Come on, oh you rain drops!"

For a moment or two the students all stared at Dan as though they thought he had taken leave of his senses. Then, as the patter on the window ledge outside became more p.r.o.nounced, and as the gentle shower became a veritable downpour, all understood Dan's elation.

Postponement--delay--was the thing they needed most of all, and it seemed likely to be their luck.

"Oh, if it only lasts!" half-whispered Tom. "If it isn't just a little shower, that will only lay the dust!"

Dan jumped up, and made his way to the window, shoving Phil to one side so forcibly that he toppled into one of the armchairs, with impact enough to almost wreck it.

"Hey! Look out what you're doing!" cried Phil. "What are you up to, anyhow?"

"I'm going to stick my head out, and get soaked, then maybe the rain-G.o.d will take that as a sort of votive offering, and keep the faucets turned on all night," replied Dan.

As he spoke there came a downpour harder than ever, and as he thrust forth his head he was drenched in an instant.

"I guess it'll keep up all night," he remarked. "It seems a mean thing to wish, perhaps, for it will spoil a lot of people's fun, and the other colleges won't like the postponement, but it's Randall's only hope. Rain on! Rain on!"

And rain it did, with increasing violence.

"How's the wind?" asked Tom, with a memory of the days spent on the farm, when the weather was a fruitful source of talk, and when much depended on reading the signs.

"I can't see it," replied Dan. "Besides, what difference does that make?"

"Lots," replied Tom shortly. "Let me take a look. If we've got a good east wind it means a long rain."

He thrust his head out of the open window, into the darkness and storm, while his chums awaited his verdict.

"It's all right," he announced after a moment. "It's in the east.

There'll be no games to-morrow."

"You've got good eyes, to see wind in the dark," remarked Sid.

"I didn't see it--I felt it, you amiable cow," answered Tom.

For a time they listened to the patter of the drops that meant so much to Randall, and then the gathering broke up, the visitors going to their rooms, leaving the inseparables to themselves.

It rained all night, and was still at it when morning broke. Several times during the night Tom, or some of his chums, got up to see if the storm was still doing its duty, and when they found that it was, they returned to rest with sighs of satisfaction.

Of course there was nothing to do but call the games off. Boxer Hall and Fairview, to whom Holly telephoned early in the day, agreed to this.

Exter held off, her manager saying he thought it might clear. Perhaps he realized what the delay meant to his rivals. But even he had to give in finally, and formal announcement of the postponement was made, it being stated that all tickets would be good the following Sat.u.r.day.

"And now, Tom and Sid, you've got to train your heads off and be fit to the minute," declared Holly. "Into the gym until it clears, and you won't have any rest as soon as it's dry enough to get on the track."

"We'll sacrifice ourselves on the altar of duty," replied Tom, mockly-heroic.

"And you ought to be glad of the chance," retorted Phil. "I wish I was in your place."

"I can't tell you how sorry I am that this trouble occurred," said Frank to his two friends and some of the others as they were gathered in the room of the inseparables the afternoon of the day when the games were to have been held, and while it was still pouring. "I feel as if I ought to have spoken of the chance of the professional charge being brought against me, and then I could have kept out. But I never dreamed of it.

There never would have been any question of Randall's honor then."

"And there isn't now," declared Kindlings st.u.r.dily. "It's all right for those fellows to take the stand they did, but I don't believe they were right in your case, Frank, and I don't propose to let the matter rest there."

"What are you going to do?" asked Phil, as he shook the alarm clock to cure it of a spasm of stopping that had developed that day. "Are you going to raise a row over it?"

"Not a row, but I'm going to write to the heads of the A. A. U. and state the case. Then I'm going to ask if Frank can be regarded as a professional. This can't stop here. We need Frank for something else besides these games. We may have a rowing crew this year, or next; besides, there's football and baseball to consider. I'm going to the bottom of this thing."

"And I'm glad of it," declared the Big Californian. "I don't want this charge hanging over me, and if you hadn't asked for a ruling I would.

But it's better to come from you, I guess."

"And to think that now, if something hadn't happened, we might be sitting here, trying to figure out how we lost, if the games had been held," remarked Sid, as he listened to the rain.

It rained all the next day--Sunday--which had the effect of keeping the lads indoors, making them fret, for they were all lovers of fresh air, and were seldom in their rooms except to study or sleep. In the afternoon Tom and the other three, in their raincoats, braved the downpour, which had suddenly increased, and paid a visit to the girls at Fairview.

"I believe you boys did this on purpose," challenged Madge, as they talked about the rain and the postponement.

"Don't tell anybody--but we did," whispered Tom with a smile. "The rain spells success for Randall."

The girls denied it, of course, but in spite of the jokes of our heroes there was more or less of a feeling that Tom was right. The Fairview boys fretted over the delay, but were good-natured about it.

Toward evening the rain slacked up a little, and the girls granted the entreaties of the boys to come out for a walk, Miss Philock according the necessary permission rather grudgingly.

It was too wet on Monday for out-door work, and Tom, Sid, and the others kept to the gymnasium. There was a grim spirit about the work now, for the boys felt that chance had played into their hands and if they did not take advantage of it that there would be no more hope for them.

"Luck doesn't strike twice in the same place, even if lightning does, the proverb to the contrary," said Holly Cross.

Tom had a letter from his father that day, announcing that the final hearing in the lawsuit might come off any day now.

"And I wish I could know how it's coming out," Mr. Parsons wrote to his son. "It has me bothered and worried more than a little. I don't want to take you out of college, Tom, my boy, but I'll have to if I lose all this money. I may need you to testify in the case, but if I do I suppose I can reach you by telegram. If you do get a wire, don't delay."

"Wow!" mused Tom, as he read that. "I hope dad doesn't send for me before the games. Not that I'm such a muchness, but it would sort of break up the combination if I had to leave suddenly. Well, there's no help for it. If I have to go, I'll have to go. If I don't, in case dad should telegraph for me, he might lose the case, and I'd have to leave Randall.

"And yet if I left we might lose this contest. I wonder what is better to do? Delay, in case dad sends for me, and help Randall win, which may mean that I'm down and out afterward, or take a chance on Randall losing, so I can come back? Pshaw! Of course I've got to help win, no matter if I can't come back. And yet for dad to lose all that money----"

"Hang it all! I don't know what to do!" burst out Tom. "I'm not going to think any more about it. I'll wait until the time comes, and if dad does telegraph, I'll tell the boys about it, and see what they say."

Then Tom resolutely put the affair as much out of his thoughts as he could, for he found it interfering with his practice and training, and he knew that he must bend every energy to win the mile run.