For the Honor of Randall Part 43

"I mustn't overtrain," he thought. "I can't afford to go stale."

He did not know what time it was when he awoke, but it must have been quite late, for Sid and Frank had been in some time. The unpleasant feeling in Tom's stomach had increased, and he did not know whether it was hunger or indigestion.

"Guess I worked a little bit too hard to-day," he reflected. "I'll be all right in the morning."

But he could not get to sleep again. He tossed restlessly on his pillow, first trying one side of the bed, and then the other.

"Hang it all, what's the matter with me?" he asked himself. "Guess I'll get up and take a drink of water."

He moved quietly, so as not to disturb any of his chums, but Sid, who was a light sleeper, heard him.

"Who's that? What's the matter?" demanded Tom's team-mate.

"Oh, I just woke up--can't seem to get to sleep again. I don't feel very good," answered Tom.

"Take some of that medicine the girls sent," advised Sid. "It's a harmless enough tonic, and it may do you good--send you to sleep. You don't want to get knocked out of your rest."

"Guess I will," agreed Tom. There was light enough coming in through the transom over the door to the hall, to enable him to see the bottle of medicine on the shelf. He drew the cork, poured out a dose and swallowed it with a little water. The taste was not very pleasant, but he did not mind that.

"Count sheep jumping over a stone fence, and you'll drop off in no time," advised Sid, as Tom went back to bed. Sid was soon slumbering again.

But, somehow or other, neither the counting of sheep nor any of the other time-honored methods of wooing Morpheus availed Tom. His restlessness increased, and he was aware of a growing distress in his stomach.

Suddenly a sharp pain wrenched him, and, in spite of himself, he cried out.

"What's the matter?" asked Phil.

"I--I don't know," faltered Tom. "I'm sick, I guess. Oh, say, this is fierce!" he cried, as another spasm racked him.

Phil was out of bed at once, and switched on the light. One look at Tom was enough for him.

"Boy, you're sick!" he declared. "I'm going to call the doctor. You need looking after!"

"Oh, I guess I'll be all right in a little while. I took some of that new medicine, and----"

Another spasm of pain prevented Tom from continuing, and hastened Phil's decision. He slipped on some garments, awakened Sid and Frank, and was soon communicating with Proctor Zane, who at once summoned Dr. Marshall, the physician connected with Randall.

The medical man came in at once, stopping only to slip on a bathrobe.

"What have you been eating--or taking?" he demanded of Tom, as he felt of the youth's pulse, and examined him.

"Nothing but some of that Smith, Brown & Robinson's Tonic," groaned Tom, motioning toward the medicine bottle. Sid quickly explained about it, handing the phial to the physician. The latter smelled of the mixture, tasted it gingerly and then exclaimed:

"No wonder you're sick, if you took that stuff!"

"Why, I've often taken it," a.s.serted Sid. "It did me good."

"Not 'doped' as this is," declared Dr. Marshall. "I know this preparation. It is very good, but this has been tampered with. There's enough 'dope' in there to make a score of you boys sick. Throw the stuff away, or, no, hold on, let me have it. I'll look into this. There's been underhand work somewhere. You say some girl friends sent it to you?"

"We thought so," spoke Sid, "but if it's been meddled with, of course, they didn't. I begin to suspect something now."

"Well, talk about it later," advised the doctor crisply. "I've got a sick lad to look after now. Some of you get me a lot of hot water. I've got to use a stomach pump," and he mixed Tom some medicine, while Sid hurried to rouse the housekeeper.

CHAPTER x.x.x

JUST A CHANCE

"Who you suppose could have sent that stuff?"

"We'll have to look into it."

"Yes, we ought to tell Dr. Churchill, and have him help us."

Phil, Sid and Frank thus expressed themselves in whispers, as they sat in their room. Tom had been moved to the infirmary, and Dr. Marshall was working over him with the a.s.sistance of Professor Langley, who, as physics instructor, knew something of medicine.

The three chums had just received word that Tom was practically out of danger, and would be all right in a day or so, but that he was still quite ill, and suffered much discomfort.

"Well, I don't know how you fellows feel about it," spoke Sid, "but I've got my own opinion as to how that stuff came to be fixed, so as to make Tom ill."

"How?" demanded Frank.

"You mean----" began Phil.

"I mean Shambler, and I don't care who knows it," went on Sid, raising his voice. "He's a cad--and he'll never be anything else. He and Tom were on the outs from the first, partly over Miss Tyler, and for other reasons.

"Then came the charge against Shambler, and, though Tom had nothing to do with that, Shambler has probably heard that Tom has taken his place for the mile run. He hates Randall, and he wants to see her lose after what happened to him, and, he wants to make Tom, by slumping, bring it about. That's why he tried to 'dope' him. Oh, if I had Shambler here!"

and Sid clenched his fists with fierce energy.

"Do you really think Shambler did it?" asked Frank.

"I'm sure of it!" declared Sid. "He is the only one who would have an object."

"What about Exter--or some of our enemies from Boxer Hall--or even Fairview?" asked Phil. "You know the bottle came from Fairview."

"It might have come from there, but no one from Fairview Inst.i.tute sent it," declared Sid confidently. "I'm going to look into this."

"But we ought to keep it quiet," suggested Frank. "I don't see that any good can come of raising a row about it."

"Me either," agreed Phil. "Let's work it out ourselves, with Dr.

Marshall to help us."

Sid finally agreed with this view. The night wore on, and Tom, by energetic measures, was soon brought out of danger. In fact he never really was in what could be called "danger," the only effect of the stuff that had been put in the tonic, Dr. Marshall said, being to make him ill and weak. This, in all likelihood, was the object of the person who had fixed the dose. He hoped that Tom would be incapacitated for a week or more.

For it developed that the original bottle, of what was a standard remedy, had been opened, and a certain chemical oil added, that would neutralize the good effects, and make the stuff positively harmful.