CVT. 
 
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THE PRIZE CUP 
 
THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 BY- 
 
 J. T. TROWBRIDGE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE CENTURY CO. 
 1896 
 
Copyright, 1895, 1896, 
 By THE CENTURY Co. 
 
 Copyright, 1896, by 
 J. T. TROWBRIDGE 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 THE DEVINNE PRESS, NEW YORK. 
 
Clcnilia 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I GID KETTERELL'S CHARGE 1 
 
 II GIDEON AT HOME 7 
 
 III THE BOY WITH THE LAWN-SPRINKLER 12 
 
 IV MIDGET AND HIS CHAMPION 17 
 V AT THE PARSONAGE 24 
 
 VI "!T 's DEAD AGAINST THE RULES" 29 
 
 VII "Snow ME THAT CUP!" 34 
 
 VIII THE PHCEBE'S NEST 42 
 
 IX THE Two BICYCLE-RIDERS 50 
 
 X " STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN IN THIS HOUSE ! " 57 
 
 XI "WHERE 's THAT CUP?" 65 
 
 XII GID'S ENTANGLEMENT 71 
 
 XIII GID LOSES HIS SITUATION 77 
 
 XIV MIDGET AND HIS FRIENDS 84 
 XV TRACY TRIUMPHANT 93 
 
 XVI TRACY GETS A " CLUE " 98 
 
 XVII GIDEON MEETS HIS FOE 106 
 
 XVIII OSK ORDWAY'S LITTLE FINGER 114 
 
 vii 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XIX TRACY LISLE AND DORD OLIVER 120 
 
 XX FOLLOWING UP THE "CLUE" 131 
 
 XXI TRACY'S TELEGRAM 141 
 
 XXII GRAN'SIR PUDGWICK 147 
 
 XXIII THE OLD PAINT SHOP 157 
 
 XXIV OSK OFFERS TO ASSIST IN THE SEARCH 163 
 XXV How OSK ASSISTED 170 
 
 XXVI TEACHING THE DUMB TO SPEAK 179 
 
 XXVII AN AMAZING DISCOVERY 187 
 
 XXVIII A FAMILY COUNCIL 192 
 
 XXIX A MERRY PORCH PARTY 198 
 
 XXX GID KETTERELL CONFESSES 204 
 
 XXXI OSK IN COURT 214 
 
 XXXII "His 'BETTERMOST' COAT" 222 
 
 XXXIII WHO KEPT THE CUP 231 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FRED MELVERTON LEAVES GID KETTERELL > 
 
 > Frontispiece 
 IN POSSESSION ) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " i THE CUP is GONE ! '" 63 
 
 "GiD MOVED SULLENLY AWAY" 81 
 
 " FRED CROSSED THE BROOK AND CAUGHT HIM UP IN 
 
 HIS ARMS" 87 
 
 " t WHY, WHAT is IT, TRACE "? ' ASKED IDA LISLE " 99 
 
 " ' THEY 'RE TALKING ABOUT ME,' HE MUTTERED " 111 
 
 " ' COME, DORD,' SAID TRACY. i SPEAK RIGHT OUT ' " 125 
 
 " HE LIFTED HIS TATTERED STRAW HAT " 149 
 
 OSK ASSISTS IN THE SEARCH 173 
 
 MIDGET REVEALS A SECRET 189 
 
 "'THE THING IN THE POCKET WAS THIS'" 228 
 
 ix 
 
THE PRIZE CUP 
 
THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 CHAPTER I J, a ,A\;,,H' Ur 
 
 GID KETTERELL'S CHARGE 
 
 N the outskirts of the village a little 
 brook came gurgling down from the 
 hills, gossiping among boulders and 
 loitering in pools, light-stepping and 
 blithe as a school-girl. It lingered 
 a long while under a cool bridge, where its sandy 
 channel was crossed by the village street, then 
 went tripping and singing onward to the river, 
 less than a quarter of a mile away. 
 
 Just above the bridge and a little back from the 
 street, with only the brook and its shady banks 
 between them, were two as pleasant rural homes 
 as you will find anywhere in a day's drive among 
 New England suburbs. The one on the left (as you 
 looked over at them from the bridge) was the old 
 parsonage : a plain, three-gabled white house, with 
 
2 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 a broad porch, a pretty garden of shrubbery and 
 fruit-trees, a grassy front yard, and a background 
 of wooded hillsides. This had been the home of 
 the best beloved minister the parish had ever had, 
 until his death two or three years before; it was 
 still ,d&$J2jb|efl by his widow, Mrs. Lisle, and their 
 t t ,cthreie children,, and the present minister, a young 
 '' btiarded with her. 
 
 The residence on the right (you are still looking 
 from the bridge) was more modern and much more 
 pretentious. It was painted in soft contrasting 
 buff and brown colors; it had imposing piazzas, 
 bay windows and turrets, and large plate-glass 
 panes, through which, when the Melvertons were 
 at home and the house was open, you had charm- 
 ing glimpses of rich draperies. 
 
 But it was often closed in summer. Why any- 
 body should wish to leave so lovely a country- 
 home in the loveliest season of the year was a 
 mystery to many people. But Mrs. Melverton (she 
 also was a widow) thought a change desirable for 
 her children and especially for herself ; and punc- 
 tually on the fifth day of July of every year (the 
 boys stayed for the boat-races on the Fourth) the 
 house was shut up, and the family went off to 
 spend a few weeks at the seaside. 
 
GID KETTERELL'S CHARGE 3 
 
 Again this year, on the forenoon of the fifth, a 
 wagon-load of family trunks was sent off. early to 
 be forwarded by rail, accompanied by the second 
 son and two servants, who were to open the sea- 
 side cottage. Mrs. Melverton departed soon after, 
 in her own carriage, with the younger children, 
 while Fred, the oldest son, was left to lock up the 
 house and follow on his bicycle. 
 
 Fred had gone through the upper chambers, and 
 at last stood before the sideboard in the dining- 
 room, looking intently at a gold-lined silver goblet 
 held in his hand: a beautiful prize which he had 
 won in a race on the river the day before. It bore 
 an engraved inscription commemorating the event, 
 with a blank left for the winner's name. 
 
 " I ought to have had this sent to the engraver's, 
 after bringing it home to show to the family," he 
 said to himself ; " or I should have packed it for 
 the beach. I don't like to take it on my safety 
 for an eighteen-mile run." 
 
 Perceiving a movement behind him, he turned 
 and saw a boy, about sixteen years old, standing 
 in the open door that led into the back entry. 
 This was Gideon Ketterell (commonly called Gid), 
 who was to be left in charge of the house, and to 
 whom the young master had been giving instruc- 
 
4 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 tions as to the care of it. Fred had not intended 
 to exhibit the cup, and he was about to slip it 
 quietly out of sight, when, reflecting that Gideon 
 had probably noticed it in his hand, he concluded 
 it would be better to take the boy a little into his 
 confidence. 
 
 "Have you seen this, Grid?" he asked, holding 
 it up in the light that came through the lace dra- 
 peries of a window the blinds of which were 
 still open. 
 
 "I saw it when it was presented on the boat- 
 house float yesterday," the boy replied, approach- 
 ing, as it was extended for his inspection. " The 
 fellows all envied you then, I tell you ! " he ex- 
 claimed, with a grin of bashful admiration. " Splen- 
 did, ain't it ? " 
 
 "It will do," said young Melverton, with quiet 
 satisfaction. " You can go now. I '11 meet you 
 outside." 
 
 He did n't care to be seen locking the cup in the 
 sideboard drawer. Yet the boy might have ob- 
 served what was done with it if he had had the 
 curiosity to turn in the dim entry, and look back 
 through the half-open door. That Gid Ketterell 
 was not altogether lacking in that very human 
 trait will be shown in the course of our story. 
 
GID KETTERELL'S CHARGE 5 
 
 The young master presently went out by the 
 front door, taking the key with him, while Gid 
 made his exit by a rear door, walked around the 
 house, and met him at the foot of the piazza steps. 
 
 "Well, Gideon," Fred Melverton said, standing 
 beside his shining wheel, a fine athletic figure, in 
 his dark-gray bicycle cap and suit, "you have 
 your key, and I have mine, and now I am off. 
 You think you understand everything I have told 
 you? " 
 
 " I guess so," Gideon replied earnestly. 
 
 In a few minutes he would be left in a position 
 of responsibility and advantage to which he had 
 looked forward with anxious joy and pride; and 
 now, at the last moment, he felt his heart beat 
 with repressed excitement. 
 
 He had a good-natured face, a short nose with 
 uptilted nostrils, which invited you provokingly to 
 look into them, a weak nether lip, and slouching 
 manners, all in singular contrast with the clear- 
 cut features and resolute mien of the trim young 
 prize-winner who stood before him. 
 
 " If I don't forget," the boy added, feeling the 
 other's keen blue eyes upon him. 
 
 "You must n't forget. One thing particularly. 
 You 're a good boy, Gideon, as your mother says, 
 
6 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 if you only keep free from bad influences. There 's 
 a certain class of boys that must n't come about 
 this place while you are here. I don't mean such 
 boys as Tracy Lisle; the more you see of young 
 fellows like him the better." 
 
 "But he does n't care to see much of me," said 
 Gideon, with a sheepish hanging of the head. 
 
 "I 'm afraid that 's more your fault than his," 
 Fred Melverton replied. " It is because you see too 
 much of the other class of boys. I mean those 
 that take Oscar Ordway for a leader. Oscar, es- 
 pecially, you are to steer clear of. Have nothing 
 whatever to say to him if he comes about the 
 place. I suppose it is hardly necessary I should 
 charge you to let nobody into the house unless he 
 brings an order from my mother or me." 
 
 "Of course I should know enough for that," Grid- 
 eon replied, with a foggy sort of smile playing 
 about his irresolute mouth. 
 
 "Of course!" the young proprietor repeated. 
 "Good-by!" 
 
 And, with a farewell wave of the hand, he re- 
 mounted his wheel, and sped swiftly away. The 
 boy's face brightened. 
 
 "I 'm master now," he said aloud; "and I 've 
 got a soft snap ! " 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 GIDEON AT HOME 
 
 |E said that to himself two or three 
 times on his way home to dinner, 
 he said it to boys he met in the 
 village, and he said it to his mother, 
 whom he found hanging clothes on 
 a line in the back yard. 
 
 His father also overheard the remark as he sat 
 on a bench by the shed door, smoking his pipe, 
 with his feet on a box ; but it was n't meant for 
 him. " Old man Ketterell " did n't count for much 
 in his own household. 
 
 The mother was a woman-of-all-work who was 
 very favorably regarded in the village for her ex- 
 cellent washing and ironing and scrubbing, for her 
 stout frame and her equally stout integrity, and 
 for her tireless energy in supporting her family of 
 four children, as well as the husband and father, 
 who (as she herself declared, from bitter knowledge 
 of the fact) was "too shifless to breathe." She was 
 
8 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 of Irish parentage; and it was thought that Ket- 
 terell, who came of a good American family, sunk 
 pretty low in the social scale when he married her. 
 But now people wondered how low he would have 
 sunk if she had n't (so to speak) kept his nose 
 above water. 
 
 He got the nickname of " old man " Ketterell 
 before he was forty, by which time he had content- 
 edly settled down into a state of shameless depen- 
 dence upon her industry. He was always "waiting 
 for a job w ; while jobs were always waiting for her 
 sometimes weeks ahead. She had red arms, 
 greenish eyes, and tawny hair combed straight 
 back over her head and down her neck. 
 
 The greenish eyes gave Gideon a contemptuous 
 flash as he came bragging into the yard. 
 
 "A snap, is it?" she cried, stooping for a clothes- 
 pin. " That 's your notion of exerting yourself to 
 gain an honest living, as it has been your father's 
 notion before you ! " 
 
 Old man Ketterell took his pipe from his mouth 
 with a scowling grimace, as if minded to answer 
 the taunt, but merely changed the position of his 
 legs on the box, sighed resignedly, and put his 
 pipe back again. Mrs. Ketterell usually governed 
 her domestic realm with exemplary patience and 
 
GIDEON AT HOME 9 
 
 benevolence; but when there were signs of these 
 fine qualities becoming overstrained, it was the 
 part of wisdom (as the easy-going old man used 
 to say) "to stand from under." 
 
 "A mighty poor notion it is ! " she went on, pin- 
 ning a wet garment to the sagging line, " the 
 worst possible way to take advantage of a chance 
 that has come to you as this one has. Hold up 
 that pail of clo'es-pins for me, will you ? Don't be 
 so tender of your own precious back, when you see 
 me tugging and straining as I am now." 
 
 Gideon obeyed meekly. 
 
 " You are to have five dollars a week, without an 
 employer's eyes to keep ye straight," she continued. 
 " You can do much, or you can do little, according 
 to your conscience : make an honest job of it, earn 
 your wages, and be gaining a good character into 
 the bargain ; or you can make a snap of it, slight 
 your work, and begin investing your youth in the 
 rotten bank your father has been putting his capi- 
 tal into all his life, with the results you know." 
 
 Gideon cast a glance over the pan of clothes- 
 pins in the direction of his easy-going parent, who, 
 I regret to say, gave him an indulgent wink. 
 
 " But let me tell you one thing most emphatic- 
 ally!" she added, standing with a wet and wrinkled 
 
10 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 skirt half unfolded on her hands. " If you misbe- 
 have in the matters the Melvertons have intrusted 
 you with, out of the pure kindness of their hearts, 
 and their respect for your hard-working parent, 
 everybody knows which parent that is! if you 
 fool away your chance, or come out of it with a 
 bad name, I promise you such a whaling as you 
 have n't enjoyed the blessing of for many a day ! " 
 
 Gideon looked hard at the clothes-pins, and 
 waited for the squall to blow over. She resumed : 
 
 " I 'm minded to administer it to you now, at the 
 outset, to make sure of your excellent conduct. 
 There 's nothing under the broad canopy so whole- 
 some and improving to you as a smart walloping. 
 It corrects your bad tendencies, and just fills you 
 up with goodness for a month or two. It 's a sort 
 of discipline that would work well, too, in another 
 case I might mention; for I can see him nodding 
 and winking at you now, through his everlasting 
 pipe smoke ! " 
 
 Old man Ketterell stopped signaling instantly, 
 and looked discreetly serious ; there being perhaps 
 some grounds for the popular belief that the strong- 
 armed washerwoman could handle her husband as 
 a cat tosses a mouse, and that she had been known 
 to do it at times of extreme provocation. 
 
GIDEON AT HOME 11 
 
 "What do you say for yourself you son of 
 your father, every inch of you 1 " she demanded, 
 poising the last of the clothes-pins. 
 
 " Of course I 'm going to do my best," said Gid- 
 eon, as if he meant it ; and no doubt he did mean 
 it sincerely at the moment, with the green fire of 
 his mother's menacing eyes flashing down upon 
 him. 
 
 Her manner changed in an instant; the stern 
 features softened. 
 
 " That 's what I 've been waiting for you to say ; 
 and now if you '11 pledge yourself to keep that 
 good resolution, you may come in to dinner; for 
 I see Lucy has got the potatoes on the table. The 
 deserving and the undeserving will sit down to- 
 gether," she added, with a grim look at her husband. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE BOY WITH THE LAWN-SPRINKLEK 
 
 HE Melverton house had been closed 
 three days, or opened only to let in 
 air and sunshine in fine weather, 
 according to the instructions Mr. 
 Fred had given the boy who was 
 left in charge. It was fine weather on the eighth, 
 almost too fine, for the early part of July that 
 year was dry. The place that morning presented 
 a pleasing picture; the brook plashed in the little 
 ravine, under the rhododendrons that bordered it 
 on the Melverton side ; the jets of a fountain on 
 the edge of the lawn glittered in the sun; birds 
 flitted about among the firs and larches and fruit- 
 trees ; and a single human figure added life to the 
 scene. 
 
 This was a coatless boy, in a broad-brimmed 
 straw hat, with a pair of dark suspenders forming 
 a large letter X on the back of his shirt a homely 
 boy with a short nose, uptilted at an angle of about 
 
THE BOY WITH THE LAWN-SPBINKLEK 13 
 
 forty-five degrees, and a loose under lip in short, 
 the boy we know. Not so handsome as some boys 
 you may have seen ; yet it must be owned that he 
 gave a very pretty effect to the landscape, stand- 
 ing there on the edge of the lawn, before the banks 
 of flower-beds in front of the house, holding the 
 end of a hose which stretched its wavy length 
 away across the green grass and graveled walk 
 like a preposterously long and slim black snake. 
 
 The head of the snake in the boy's hand was a 
 lawn-sprinkler, which gave it a prodigious crest 
 of silver spray, out-glittering the fountain itself, 
 forming, indeed, a sort of movable fountain, that 
 danced about on the lawn, and among the flowers 
 and shrubs, at the boy's own sweet will. 
 
 He seemed to find pleasure in his task, if ever a 
 boy did. He sent the showers wherever his fancy 
 led, now on the flower-beds, and now on the lawn, 
 even occasionally on the fountain itself, to watch 
 the curiously mingling jets ; watering a good deal 
 in the most convenient places, and neglecting too 
 much some that could n't be reached without more 
 effort than he cared to put forth. Sometimes he 
 amused himself by making rainbow flashes in the 
 spray, tossing it in the sunshine, regardless where 
 it fell, even when it came down upon his own 
 
14 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 head. And all the while he indulged his boyish 
 dreams. 
 
 He dreamed, for one thing, that the hose was 
 long enough so that he could carry his sprinkler 
 to the river, and make a mimic rain that might 
 delude the fish into biting, as they are thought to 
 do on wet days better than in fine weather. 
 
 He also dreamed that he was no longer the son 
 of old man Ketterell and the village washerwoman, 
 but one of the Melverton boys, and that this fine 
 estate was his rightful home. 
 
 He would have liked very well to be Fred or 
 Frank Melverton for a little while, but perhaps not 
 all the time. He would have liked their guns and 
 their bicycles, and some of their money to spend 
 (or rather a good deal of it), and, instead of having 
 them "boss" him, he would have much preferred 
 to boss them. But as to the rest the hard study- 
 ing (Fred was in the Institute of Technology, and 
 Frank was preparing for Harvard), the cultivated 
 manners, and the kind of company they kept he 
 was n't at all sure but that he might just as well 
 remain Grid Ketterell, with his own boy life un- 
 bothered by books, and with his own free-and-easy 
 companions. 
 
 Steady occupation, or restraint of any sort, did 
 
THE BOY WITH THE LAWN-SPRINKLER 15 
 
 not suit his constitution. But lie now had a job 
 about as much to his mind as anything in the way 
 of employment could well be. He had been at it 
 three days, and had n't got sick of it yet. Besides 
 having a general care of the house, and watering 
 the garden, he was to feed the cat and the chick- 
 ens, run the lawn-mower, and keep the flower-beds 
 free from weeds, with other light duties usually 
 performed by the coachman, now absent with the 
 family. Gid had not yet got so far as hoeing and 
 pulling weeds, which, being the most disagreeable 
 of his tasks, he naturally postponed as long as 
 possible. 
 
 Having sprinkled some things that needed water, 
 and several others that did n't, he was not the kind 
 of boy to miss a chance of giving the cat a shower- 
 bath. Puss darted away, shaking herself, to his 
 immense delight. 
 
 "It did n't take her long to get her money's 
 worth ! " was his comment on this pleasant in- 
 cident. 
 
 He bethought him next to look into the trees for 
 a bird's nest, which could n't escape so easily. A 
 nest of young birds with a pair of distressed old 
 ones hovering and chirping about to defend them, 
 would have been especially inviting. He found 
 
16 THE PBIZE CUP 
 
 only a purple finch's nest, from which the young 
 finches had fortunately flown; he was showering 
 that, and imagining what sport it would be if the 
 little half -fledged bodies were still there to receive 
 the drenching (though Gid was not an exception- 
 ally bad-hearted boy), when a chance for livelier 
 mischief presented itself. 
 
 " There 's Midget ! " he said to himself, turning 
 his back, and pretending not to notice a child 
 straying up through the shrubbery from the brook- 
 side. " I '11 give him Hail Columby ! " 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 MIDGET AND HIS CHAMPION 
 
 3 was a little fellow, not more than 
 five or six years old, and small for 
 his years. He wore a short frock 
 like a girl's, that showed beneath 
 it his bare brown legs and feet ; he 
 was bareheaded, and he had fine flaxen hair, the 
 light locks of which strayed over his tanned fore- 
 head as the bushes brushed it, or the wind blew. 
 It was as bright and happy a face at that mo- 
 ment as the morning sun shone upon. Yet there 
 was something strange about it, you could hardly 
 have told what : there was something strange in all 
 the looks and movements of this wandering elf. If 
 he had been the only being in the world, he could n't 
 have seemed more lonely or more deeply absorbed 
 in his own little life. He drew down the drooping 
 rhododendron branches as if he loved them, and 
 held the glossy leaves to his cheeks and lips. And 
 when he came to the flower-beds, he clasped his 
 
 17 
 
18 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 tiny hands as he bent over the blooms in mute 
 rapture, touching and smelling. 
 
 He did not hear Grideon Ketterell, who came up 
 behind him ; he did not even hear the pattering of 
 the hose-shower on the borders and walks. Alas ! 
 for more than three years those little ears had 
 never heard a sound, neither the songs of birds 
 nor the falling of the summer rain, nor the voice 
 of any other child, of brother or sister, nor the 
 words of endearment his mother bestowed upon 
 him all the more passionately for his sad bereave- 
 ment. He had forgotten to prattle, or even to call 
 her by the dearest of all names. 
 
 His mother was the Widow Lisle, whose home 
 was across the brook. This was her youngest 
 child, Laurence, pet-named Laurie, but oftenest 
 called Midget on account of his odd ways, small 
 size, and restless and sometimes mischievous ac- 
 tivity. He was an object of love and wonder and 
 pity to almost everybody, only a few of the rudest 
 boys making fun of his infirmity. Grid, I regret to 
 record, was one of these. 
 
 Midget had plucked a sprig of heliotrope, and 
 was holding it to his face in an ecstasy of pleasure, 
 when Grid, who had been watching for a favorable 
 moment, turned the hose full upon him. In a mo- 
 
MIDGET AND HIS CHAMPION 19 
 
 ment the child was completely drenched. But the 
 result was n't just what Gideon had anticipated. 
 Midget did not run away as the cat did; he did 
 not scream the helpless child had long since lost 
 the power to scream. He turned, and with the 
 water dripping from his hair and face and arms, 
 gave Grid a look of such astonishment and distress, 
 that it must have touched even that careless nature, 
 for Gid immediately pointed the sprinkler away. 
 
 "You should n't be picking the flowers. I am 
 here to take care of 'em," Grid said, by way of 
 excusing himself to himself, rather than to the 
 child, who could n't hear. 
 
 Having winked the water from his eyes, the 
 child kept them fixed on Gid with an intense 
 frowning gaze, full of unutterable grief and re- 
 proach, marvelous in one so young, at the same 
 time backing slowly away as from an object of 
 dread. So he reached the rhododendrons, into 
 which he darted and disappeared. 
 
 " What did the little imp look at me that way 
 for?" Gid muttered, with an uncomfortable feel- 
 ing, as he began to reflect seriously on what he 
 had done. u The wetting won't do him any harm, 
 though his mother may n't see it in that light. 
 Anyhow, he won't come in here again very soon." 
 
20 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 Grid was mistaken, however, about that. He was 
 watering the flower-beds profusely, and trying to 
 forget the unpleasant incident, when a rustling of 
 the rhododendrons and a sound of footsteps at- 
 tracted his attention; and there, emerging from 
 the bushes, was Midget, dragging forward by the 
 coat-skirt a boy of about Grid's own age and size. 
 
 It was Tracy Lisle, the little deaf-mute's elder 
 brother. 
 
 " Hello, Trace ! " said Gideon carelessly, as he 
 proceeded with his sprinkling. 
 
 Master Lisle advanced with stern looks and de- 
 termined steps to the graveled walk where Grid 
 stood. He wore a somewhat soiled suit of gray, 
 and a soft felt hat with the rim turned up in front, 
 giving him a somewhat aggressive aspect, and he 
 walked straight up to Master Ketterell. His blue 
 eyes sparkled, and his naturally ruddy face had a 
 flush of excitement in it, as he demanded: 
 
 "Gid Ketterell, what did you wet my little 
 brother for!" 
 
 " Oh, him 1 " Grid replied, with a laugh. " I was 
 watering when he came in the way of my sprink- 
 ler. That 's all there is about that." 
 
 " Gid Ketterell," the older brother replied, " if 
 every true word you speak was a bushel of cher- 
 
MIDGET AND HIS CHAMPION 21 
 
 ries on that tree, there would n't be enough to 
 climb for. He got his wetting in a different way." 
 
 " How do you know 1 " Grid retorted, with sullen 
 defiance. 
 
 " He says so." 
 
 " Says so ? I never knew the little monkey could 
 speak." And Gid giggled. 
 
 "Little monkey? call my brother little mon- 
 key!" Tracy cried out, in blazing indignation. 
 
 " You must n't dispute my word then," said Grid, 
 starting back in a belligerent attitude, and point- 
 ing his hose aside. "Need n't double your fist 
 and look so savage ! Don't you strike me, Trace 
 Lisle!" 
 
 "I 've no notion of striking you, much as you 
 deserve it," Tracy replied. " My fist doubled itself, 
 as any honest fist would, knowing what you 've 
 done, and then hearing you deny it, and call him 
 such a name as that ; a child that can't even speak 
 in self-defense ! " 
 
 "Oh! I thought he could speak!" Grid jeered, 
 still watering his flowers, while he stood ready to 
 dodge a blow. 
 
 " He can't speak a word, and you know it. For 
 all that, he can tell more truth in half a minute 
 than you are apt to tell in all day. He ran home 
 
22 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 and told just how he got his drenching. Now he '11 
 tell you." 
 
 So saying, Tracy made a gesture to the child, 
 who stood watching the disputants as eagerly and 
 as intelligently as if he had understood every word. 
 A brief communication by signs passed between 
 the brothers ; Midget ran to the edge of the flower- 
 bed, pretended to pick a sprig of heliotrope and 
 hold it to his nose, and then suddenly to feel the 
 shower from Gid's sprinkler splash over him ; act- 
 ing the little pantomime with an amusing liveli- 
 ness at which Gid had to laugh. 
 
 " He did n't come in the way of your sprinkler ; 
 the sprinkler came in his way," said Tracy. 
 
 "I guess that 's about the size of it," Gid an- 
 swered. "He was hooking flowers; I am here to 
 protect the flowers, and I thought I 'd give him 
 a lesson." 
 
 "He hooking flowers ? I 'd like to hear you say 
 that to one of the Melvertons ! " Tracy exclaimed. 
 " They encourage him to come in and pick all the 
 flowers he wants. They 're as kind to him as if he 
 was their own child, and they 're always sending 
 bouquets to my mother. The idea of your protect- 
 ing the flowers from any one of us, and especially 
 from him ! " And he made a motion for Midget to 
 
MIDGET AND HIS CHAMPION 23 
 
 help himself to the heliotropes, which the child did, 
 casting up at Gideon a glance of gleeful triumph. 
 
 "You can take the responsibility," Grid muttered, 
 discomfited and surly. " The Melvertons did n't 
 say anything to me about letting neighbors come 
 in and help themselves to things. I supposed I 
 was here to prevent just that." 
 
 "Suppose you are," cried Tracy. "They ex- 
 pected you to use some reason and decency in 
 guarding the premises. A good house-dog would 
 do that much." 
 
 " Now look here ! " broke forth young Ketterell, 
 losing his temper. "I 've heard enough of your 
 insults. Get off these grounds, or I '11 give you a 
 soaking ; and don't you ever set foot here again as 
 long as I am in charge." 
 
 " You won't always be in charge," Tracy retorted 
 scornfully. "You can give me a soaking if you 
 think it 's wise to do so, but you '11 wish you had n't. 
 You don't know the Melvertons, and they don't 
 know you. There '11 be an end of your insolence 
 to neighbors and meanness to little children on 
 this place, soon as ever they find you out." 
 
 And, taking Midget by the hand, he walked off 
 very deliberately, leaving Gideon stifled with feel- 
 ings he did n't deem it safe to indulge. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 AT THE PARSONAGE 
 
 ESCENDING into the cool ravine, 
 Tracy caught the child up in his 
 arms, and was crossing the brook 
 with him, when he met their mother 
 coming down the opposite slope. 
 " I heard high words," she said, with a look of 
 pain in her gentle face, "and I am so sorry!" 
 
 "I 'm sorry, too," said Tracy. "I hate to get 
 into a row, especially with a fellow like Gid Ket- 
 terell ; but it was just as Laurie told us. He was 
 picking a flower when Grid came up behind and 
 showered him. I let him understand that he did n't 
 own quite all the earth." 
 
 At the same time Midget, perched proudly on 
 his brother's shoulder, with one little arm about 
 his neck, held up in the other hand his bunch of 
 heliotropes, as if to show that he had come off 
 triumphant. 
 
 With the trees and shrubs of the brookside for a 
 
 24 
 
AT THE PARSONAGE 25 
 
 background, they formed a picture that made the 
 mother smile, with moist eyes. 
 
 " Well, I hope it is all over," she said, " and that 
 you won't go near him again." 
 
 " I sha'n't go near him, be sure ! But it is n't all 
 over. The Melvertons shall know how he treated 
 Laurie," Tracy declared. " The idea of punishing 
 him for picking a flower, where he has always been 
 as free as the birds are, and as welcome ! " 
 
 " It is exasperating," said Mrs. Lisle, as they 
 walked up toward the parsonage. "Gideon did n't 
 consider. But I 've no doubt he is sorry enough 
 now. Don't, my son, think for a moment of re- 
 porting him to the Melvertons." 
 
 "He deserves it," said Tracy, scowling at the 
 recollection of the wrong. "Why did they ever 
 engage such a fellow to take care of the place?" 
 
 "To encourage him, I suppose, and to help his 
 hard-working mother. The Melvertons do a great 
 deal for her, as they do for everybody who needs 
 their help," said Mrs. Lisle; "and no doubt they 
 thought it would be wise to help her in this way." 
 
 "It seems to me like encouraging laziness," re- 
 plied Tracy. " Grid bragged to the boys the other 
 day of his ' snap ' ; he was to have five dollars a 
 week just for doing what! I 'd like to do all he 
 
26 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 does, and more, with, no pay at all, merely as a re- 
 turn for what the Mel ver tons are always doing for 
 us. They might know I would. What did they 
 pass by me for, and get a Ketterell boy? of all 
 boys in this town ! " he exclaimed indignantly. 
 
 They had reached the porch of the old parson- 
 age, and Mrs. Lisle, seated in a porch-chair, was 
 waiting for the child to bring a dry frock and a 
 comb she had sent him for. 
 
 " I 'm afraid you are a little jealous, my son," 
 she replied. "If any good can come to one of 
 poor Mrs. Ketterell's family, you should rejoice, 
 as I do." 
 
 "If he would only do something to deserve it, 
 and behave himself!" Tracy murmured, seating 
 himself on the porch rail. " That 's all. How cun- 
 ning he is, is n't he ? " gazing intently at the child's 
 forehead, as the hair was combed smoothly away 
 from it. 
 
 The little hand was still clasping the bunch 
 of flowers. Midget had returned in a dry frock, 
 which his sister Ida had put on him, and his 
 mother had taken him on her lap. 
 
 " The idea of anybody being harsh or mean with 
 him ! " exclaimed Tracy. " It makes me want to 
 go right back and give that fellow a well-deserved 
 thrashing ! " 
 
AT THE PARSONAGE 27 
 
 "What fellow? How did Laurie get wet?" in- 
 quired the sister, a girl of seventeen, with graceful 
 ways, and a complexion like a peach, which con- 
 trasted charmingly with her plain house-dress. 
 
 She had followed Midget to the porch to learn 
 the particulars of the story he had tried to tell her. 
 Then a man's voice was heard, and Mr. Walworth, 
 the young minister who boarded at the parsonage, 
 mounted the steps. He, too, must know what had 
 happened. 
 
 "Laurie has had a little shower-bath; nothing 
 serious," Mrs. Lisle answered pleasantly. 
 
 She was willing to let the matter pass so. But 
 Tracy, boy-like, still burning with indignation, 
 poured forth his own version of the adventure. 
 
 Mr. Walworth, a slender, quiet young man, stood 
 hat in hand, listening with interest, and watching 
 the combing of the child's hair, then remarked 
 dryly, lifting his eyes to Ida's: 
 
 " One might do Gideon a more substantial favor 
 than to let Fred Melverton know of this." 
 
 "We won't let him know," said Ida, a warm 
 color mounting to her cheeks. "Midget is none 
 the worse for his little shower-bath. I should be 
 ashamed to trouble the Melvertons with so trifling 
 an affair." 
 
28 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 "You are very forgiving," said the young min- 
 ister, with a smile of admiring approval; for he 
 had noticed how indignant Ida was while listening 
 to the story. 
 
 "J J m not ! " said Tracy, far from pacified. " But 
 Fred sha'n't hear of it from me. Only, Gid Ketter- 
 ell must keep his hands and his hose-sprinkler off 
 from our Laurie in future." 
 
 It was n't long before Midget was playing about 
 the Melverton place again, without paying much 
 heed to Gideon. But Tracy took care not to cross 
 the boundary brook. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 "IT 'S DEAD AGAINST THE KULES." 
 
 tf the following Tuesday (we shall 
 have reason to remember the day), 
 Gid Ketterell was fitting his key 
 to the back door of the Melverton 
 house late in the afternoon, when 
 a green apple came skipping along the walk and 
 hit his foot. He turned suddenly, and saw an un- 
 welcome face smiling through the shrubbery above 
 the grassy bank. 
 
 " Look here, Osk Ordway," he said, " there 's no 
 market for green sass on these premises ! " And 
 he kicked the apple away. 
 
 " Oh, close your candy-trap ! " said Osk, good- 
 naturedly, coming over the bank. 
 
 He was a strongly built youth, with a bend in 
 his shoulders that threw his head well forward, 
 and gave him an air of peering curiously into 
 things, with a pair of small keen eyes, from un- 
 der prominent brows. He had a powerful neck, 
 
 29 
 
30 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 a white throat, and a short, curved nose. There 
 was a humorous quirk to his mouth and he spoke 
 with a sarcastic drawl as he came forward. 
 
 " You have n't got the deed of this property yet, 
 Grid. The boys said you seemed to think you had ; 
 but I ventured to remark that you would n't play 
 the Grand Mogul with me." 
 
 "There 's no Grand Mogul about it," Gid re- 
 plied; "but I came here on one condition, as I 
 told 'em that I was n't to have any loafing about 
 the place." 
 
 "But that don't apply to me, you know," said 
 Osk, laughing. 
 
 "It applies to you particularly," Gid replied; 
 and the two stood looking into each other's eyes, 
 Gid with a weak assumption of authority, Osk 
 with amused insolence. 
 
 "How have I gained that honor me particu- 
 larly?" Osk drawled. 
 
 "Shall I tell you the truth?" Gid asked. 
 
 " If you have n't been too long out of practice, 
 and got rusty, give us a sample." 
 
 " Here it is, then ! I hope you '11 like the qual- 
 ity and send in your order. Fred Melverton says 
 to me, he says, 'You are not to have any loafers 
 around, and I warn you against that Oscar Ord- 
 
"IT >S DEAD AGAINST THE RULES" 31 
 
 way particularly.' I did n't mean to tell you, and 
 hurt your feelings," Gid continued, "but you forced 
 me to." 
 
 "Oil, you don't hurt my feelings in the least. 
 It 's too killing ! I knew I should be entertained 
 if I came to look at you on your throne, Grid, but 
 I did n't expect this." Osk seemed choking with 
 laughter. "Don't say another word, or I shall 
 drop in my tracks. A good smart fly might kick 
 me over ! " 
 
 " I 'm glad it amuses you," said Gideon, blush- 
 ing very red. 
 
 "Amuses me? Why, I 'm thinking how it will 
 tickle the boys! I know they '11 ask why Fred 
 Melverton did n't put me in charge, and warn me 
 against you, and I 'm bothered if I can tell 'em. 
 But see here, Gid ! " Oscar became less savagely 
 ironical. " You and I are too old friends for this. 
 We 've been on too many after-dark watermelon 
 raids and grape-spoiling expeditions together. 
 What are you going to do now?" 
 
 Gid could bear anything better than ridicule, 
 and he was glad to escape from Osk's. 
 
 "I 've got to shut up the house," he replied. 
 "I 've had the windows open to air it off; now 
 I 'm going to fasten up and go home." 
 
32 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 "I thought you 'd be going, about this time; 
 hurry up, and I '11 go with you," said Osk. 
 
 U A11 right," Grid replied, glad to get rid of him 
 in that way, " if you don't mind waiting." 
 
 " I 'd sooner go in with you than wait outside," 
 Osk said, making a motion to enter with him. 
 "I 'd like to see the inside of this house; they 
 say it 's out of sight." 
 
 " It is out of sight for you ! " Grid exclaimed, 
 trying to keep him back. 
 
 "Oh, bosh!" Osk said, forcing his way in. 
 "Where 's the harm?" 
 
 "If anybody knew!" Grid faltered weakly. 
 
 "Anybody ain't going to know," said Osk. He 
 was already inside, peering about with his deep- 
 set eyes, but taking care not to betray too much 
 admiration. "It 's all very fine, as the toad said 
 of the new garden-rake ; but I 'd just as lief be in 
 my own comfortable hole. A man can't more than 
 live if you put him into a gold-and-silver house," 
 he added philosophically. 
 
 "It 's dead against the rules, letting you in 
 here ! " Grid remonstrated, irritated and anxious. 
 
 " I understand all that," said Osk, putting him 
 carelessly aside. "By the way, speaking of gold 
 and silver, I 'd give more to see that prize cup Fred 
 
"IT >S DEAD AGAINST THE RULES" 33 
 
 won on the Fourth than all these fine fixings. Do 
 you know where it is ? " 
 
 " If I do," replied G-ideon, " it won't do you any 
 good." And he went on closing windows and 
 blinds, followed from room to room by his per- 
 sistent companion. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 "SHOW ME THAT CUP ! " 
 
 HIS is Fred's room, I '11 bet ten 
 thousand dollars, or half I 'm 
 worth!" Osk exclaimed, as they 
 entered a chamber that particu- 
 larly struck his fancy. " Does he 
 fence? or are those foils crossed over the mantel- 
 piece just for ornament 1 Now, say, Grid," with- 
 out waiting for a reply "is it here?" 
 
 "You mean the cup? No; it is n't," said Grid- 
 eon, as he pulled down a curtain. "Come along, 
 and I '11 show you a den that beats this just a 
 dandy, you '11 say yourself." 
 
 Osk Ordway, bending his brows and peering 
 closely at everything, left the room reluctantly. 
 Grid waited to close the door after him, and then 
 ushered him into a smaller chamber across the 
 entry. 
 
 " This is Frank's," said Gideon, proudly ; " just 
 
 34 
 
"SHOW ME THAT CUP!" 35 
 
 a little tumbled up, for he left it in a hurry, I 
 guess, the morning they went off, and his mother 
 did n't have time to follow him around. These 
 bronze horses take my eye and these pictures 
 of horses! Ain't they fine?" 
 
 "Y-e-s," Osk drawled, scrutinizing everything; 
 "nice knickknacks in this room. Does he use 
 the boxing-gloves ? " 
 
 "Of course he does, and he '11 box you if you 
 don't keep your hands off!" Gid declared, seeing 
 that Osk seemed inclined to handle everything. 
 
 " What am I hurting ? " cried the visitor. 
 "You 're a fussy kind of a watch-dog. Don't 
 you know a friend from a stranger 1 " 
 
 " Yes ; but I don't want a thing moved out of 
 its place," Gid replied, as he put his head out of 
 a window to reach a blind. 
 
 Osk laughed quietly, and took up with his 
 thumb and finger an embroidered silk handker- 
 chief that lay in a rumpled heap on Frank Mel- 
 verton's dressing-table. He had no intention of 
 keeping it, but was actuated by idle curiosity, 
 quickened, perhaps, by a reckless determination 
 to do as he pleased in spite of Gid's warnings. 
 
 But the lifted handkerchief exposed an object 
 that instantly and to a violent degree excited his 
 
36 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 cupidity. It was all he could do to keep from 
 grasping it, as he would certainly have done if Grid 
 had n't at that moment closed the blind with a 
 sharp click, and drawn in his head. Osk dropped 
 the handkerchief again over the glittering temp- 
 tation, and had a few seconds to reflect upon what 
 he was about to do before Grid went to another 
 window. 
 
 When at last Grid turned to his companion, he 
 found him standing a little way from the dressing- 
 table, with his hands behind him, in a most inno- 
 cent attitude, puckering his brows in the subdued 
 light, and whistling softly. 
 
 Grid noticed, as he led the way through the lower 
 rooms, that his friend appeared strangely absent- 
 minded by fits, and then again unduly hilarious ; 
 and finally said to him: 
 
 " "What 's the matter with you, Osk, anyway ? " 
 
 Osk was ready with an excuse for his moodiness. 
 
 "That prize cup," he replied. "You said it 
 was n't in Fred's room ; now, where is it I " They 
 had reached the dining-room ; he stood before Grid- 
 eon, laughing maliciously. " You don't get me out 
 of this house until you show me that cup." 
 
 " I can't. I don't know where it is," said Gideon, 
 defending himself, for Osk grasped his neck with 
 
"SHOW ME THAT CUP!" 37 
 
 rough playfulness. " Let me alone, Osk Ord- 
 way ! " 
 
 "You know where it is well enough," said Osk, 
 pressing in his thumb over Grid's collar-bone, with 
 a grim consciousness of his superior strength. 
 "No use, Grid. I don't go out of this house, and 
 I don't let you go, till I 've seen that prize cup." 
 
 " I '11 scream ! You hurt ! " Gid cried, trying in 
 vain to shake off the ruthless clutch. 
 
 "I '11 hurt more yet, and you won't scream 
 twice," replied Osk. He loosened his hold, how- 
 ever. " See here, Grid, it 's all in fun ! " 
 
 " Pretty mean kind of fun, I say!" Grid muttered 
 sulkily "choking a fellow that way! Will you 
 go now?" 
 
 " No, I won't," said Osk. " I 'm in earnest about 
 that. Oh, come now, Grid ! Just give me a peep. 
 I won't touch it, and I won't tell. I '11 choke you 
 again ! " He laughed, but with a keen menace in 
 his eyes. 
 
 "You 'd no business to force yourself into the 
 house the way you did, anyway," said Gideon. 
 
 " I made it my business ; and here I am," replied 
 Osk, with smiling arrogance. " I generally have 
 my way about things, don't I ? And I stand by 
 the fellows that stand by me. I don't care that 
 
38 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 for the cup," snapping his fingers. "Only I 've 
 said I '11 see it, and I will." 
 
 Grid expostulated; Osk wheedled, threatened, 
 coaxed. And before long the weaker character 
 yielded. 
 
 At the end of the dining-room was the hand- 
 some sideboard, with a few pieces of china on 
 the upper shelf, and closed drawers beneath. Grid 
 reached his hand under the large shelf, found a 
 key somewhere at the back, and with it unlocked 
 the drawer. 
 
 Osk uttered an exclamation of surprise as Grid 
 opened the drawer and exposed the gold-lined 
 silver prize, on a red napkin. He reached to grasp 
 it, but Grid held him back. 
 
 " What you 'fraid of ? I won't hurt it," he said. 
 "A reg'lar old glory, ain't it? Open a blind, Grid, 
 so we can see it better." 
 
 " Pshaw ! There 's light enough," said Grid, hesi- 
 tating, yet pleased and proud to be able to excite 
 his friend's admiration. 
 
 The room was indeed rather gloomy. Over the 
 sideboard was a high window of stained glass, 
 which subdued the light that came through it to 
 a deep crimson tone. All the other windows had 
 closed blinds. Two, on the side of the piazza, 
 
"SHOW ME THAT CUP!" 39 
 
 reached almost to the floor. Grid had just closed 
 one of these ; he now raised the sash again, a little 
 way, and, reaching out, partly opened a blind, let- 
 ting in a streak of brighter light, by which Osk 
 reexamined the cup. 
 
 " I ain't touching it," he said, in answer to Grid's 
 remonstrance, as he took the prize up on the nap- 
 kin. " There 's a pile of silver in it, Grid. Do you 
 suppose it 's solid ? " 
 
 " Of course it 's solid," replied Grid. " Fred Mel- 
 verton would n't have anything to do with it if it 
 was n't." 
 
 "Just heft it," said Osk. 
 
 " I have," said Gid, with a scared sort of smile. 
 " I know just how heavy it is." 
 
 "He has n't got his name on it yet," Osk ob- 
 served. " But there 's the rest of the inscription ; 
 so it would have to be melted up." 
 
 "What do you mean!" cried Gideon, alarmed. 
 
 " I was thinking. Suppose somebody not quite 
 so honest as you and I should have the handling 
 of it!" Oscar laughed. 
 
 " Come, put it back ! " Grid whispered anxiously. 
 
 "That 's just what I 'm going to do; and you 
 see your showing it to me has n't hurt it in the 
 least. But I 'm glad I 've seen it," said Osk, re- 
 
40 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 placing the cup in the drawer, with the napkin 
 spread out under it. "Now, shall I tell you the 
 fault I find with that cup ? " 
 
 "That you did n't win it yourself, I suppose," 
 replied Gideon, beginning to feel relieved. 
 
 " That it was n't made to drink out of that 's 
 its chief fault," said Osk, closing the drawer. 
 " That ain't my idea of a cup. Splendid as it is, 
 it would n't make your drink taste any better,, 
 Makes me thirsty, though, thinking of it. Grid," 
 he continued, " my throat is dry as an ash-barrel. 
 There must be something in this house to treat 
 your friends with." 
 
 "I don't know anything about that," Grid mut- 
 tered. 
 
 " It 's time you did know. Come, I '11 help you 
 make discoveries. The expressman used to bring 
 out cases of bottled cider to the Melvertons. I bet 
 we can find a pint or two left over. I 'm going to 
 explore the cellar." 
 
 " No, you 're not ! " And, as Osk started off, Grid 
 hastened after him. 
 
 There was another dispute a scuffle; and again 
 the weaker character yielded to the stronger. We 
 will not follow them to see what they found in the 
 lower regions of the house. Osk was smacking his 
 
"SHOW ME THAT CUP!" 41 
 
 lips and looking complacent when they returned to 
 the dining-room. 
 
 " Here, don't forget this key ! " he said, taking it 
 from the drawer and handing it to Grid. 
 
 " I guess not ! " Grid exclaimed, startled to think 
 how near he had come to leaving it in the lock; 
 and he carefully returned it to its place under the 
 shelf. 
 
 He looked around to see that he had left the 
 dining-room in good order, and then accompanied 
 Osk to the door by which they had entered. 
 
 " You must n't be seen going out of the house if 
 you can help it," he said ; " and I must n't be seen 
 with you. Get over into the ravine, and I will fol- 
 low, and maybe find you down by the river." 
 
 " I 'm going to look at that phcebe's nest under 
 the bridge," Osk replied. " It 's time for the birds 
 to be starting a second brood." 
 
 " There are eggs in it now," said Grid. " I 've 
 seen 'em. But don't you touch one of ? em. Little 
 Midget is there, looking into the nest, every day, 
 and if it 's disturbed there '11 be a row." 
 
 "Who 's going to disturb it?" Osk replied. 
 Leaving Grid to watch him from the doorway, he 
 retired over the bank, and disappeared in the 
 ravine. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE PHCEBE'S NEST 
 
 FTER a little delay Gid passed out 
 through the front yard, crossed the 
 street, stepped down over a bank- 
 wall near the bridge, and took a 
 well trodden brook-side path lead- 
 ing to the river a path frequented by fishermen 
 and rambling boys, from immemorial time. 
 
 On his right was the brook, which gurgled over 
 its stones and pebbles. On his left, clumps of su- 
 macs and barberries grew. Passing near a mass of 
 these, Grid shied suddenly, like a frightened colt, 
 and stepped off, splashing, into the water. 
 
 " What are you down there for ? " said a mock- 
 ing voice from the bushes. 
 
 " Osk Ordway ! " Grid exclaimed, scrambling back 
 to the path. "You scare a fellow! Seeing your 
 head poked out from the bushes that way, with- 
 out your hat, I did n't know you from a wildcat." 
 
THE PHCEBE'S NEST 43 
 
 " I must have been a pretty tame wildcat to sit 
 still while you passed near enough to brush my 
 cat's whiskers, if I had had any," said Osk, peering 
 up at him with his keen, curious eyes. " I Ve got 
 something to show you." 
 
 He was sitting on a rock, with his hat between 
 his knees, and his hands spread over it with an air 
 of mystery. 
 
 Gid turned pale. Ever since parting with Osk, 
 he had been so troubled with misgivings in re- 
 gard to his .own weak conduct in showing him 
 the cup, that he was ready to imagine the most 
 absurd consequences of his indiscretion. He firmly 
 believed that if that daring and unscrupulous youth 
 wished to get possession of so much solid silver, 
 he would find sure means of doing so, since he 
 knew where it could be obtained. And now for 
 an instant the wild thought thrilled him that, 
 before his very eyes in the dining-room, or per- 
 haps when his back was turned for a moment, 
 Osk had by some puzzling feat got the goblet into 
 his hat, and that he had it there, covered with his 
 hands, in the bushes. 
 
 Of course, it was preposterous. Osk was n't a 
 fool ; and if he had succeeded, by any such hocus- 
 pocus, in conveying the cup from the house, it was 
 
44 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 extremely improbable that he would have sat there, 
 waiting to show it to anybody. 
 
 That was the conclusion Grid came to, after a 
 moment's reflection. " What is it 1 " he demanded, 
 with fluttering eagerness. 
 
 And Osk smilingly removed his hands. It was, 
 after all, a relief to Gideon to see that what they 
 had covered was not the cup. Yet what he saw 
 roused his resentment. 
 
 "Oh, Osk," he exclaimed, "how could you do 
 that ? You promised me you would n't ! " 
 
 "No," replied Osk, coolly; "I said, 'Who is go- 
 ing to disturb it ? ' I put the question. I did n't 
 answer it ; if I had, I should have said I was going 
 to. 'Who killed Cock Robin? I, said the spar- 
 row, with my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin.' 
 Ain't it a daisy 1 " 
 
 "Yes but " Grid bent over the hat with looks 
 of mingled envy and admiration, pity and reproach. 
 "Why did you, Osk?" 
 
 What he saw was something more wonderful, 
 rightly considered, than any gold or silver goblet 
 the hand of man ever wrought. It was a nest of 
 the common pewee, or phcebe-bird, containing 
 three of those delicate, white-walled, orbic cells of 
 life whose mystery the utmost ingenuity of man 
 
THE PHCEBE'S NEST 45 
 
 cannot even comprehend ; each a miniature world 
 in itself, a pearly drop of beauty inclosing a new 
 creation, possibilities of life and joy, of song and 
 wings little marvels we call eggs ! 
 
 Did you ever see a phcebe's nest 1 I will try to 
 describe to you this one. 
 
 It is not at all a thing of the imagination, but 
 an actual nest that I have just taken from a case 
 where it is kept, and placed upon the table before 
 me, where I write. 
 
 It was first shown to me by the little deaf-mute 
 himself, when I was visiting at the parsonage that 
 summer; for it was Midget's delight to lead his 
 friends, young or old, down the brookside to the 
 bridge, and let them take one peep at the small 
 tower-shaped structure under it, built against a 
 beam, over the abutting wall. There, in the cool 
 cavern-like gloom, the phosbes had fixed their 
 home, undismayed by the hoofs and wheels of the 
 highway, clattering and thundering close above 
 their heads. A single egg was in the nest when 
 I saw it dimly undoubtedly one of the three Osk 
 afterward carried away. 
 
 Midget would allow me to take only one little 
 peep, for fear of worrying the parent birds; though 
 they knew him so well as their small friend that 
 
46 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 they did n't appear to be much afraid. I can look 
 at the nest all I wish to now. 
 
 The whole structure is a little more than three 
 inches high, and four or five inches across from 
 side to side; flat at the back, where it was plas- 
 tered with dabs of mud to the beam, and flat also 
 on the bottom, where it rested on the abutment 
 wall. It is made of moss, hair, fine stems of grass, 
 and twigs or roots almost as fine, with here and 
 there a bit of string or fleck of wool, all woven 
 together in a fine and compact mass, with a cup- 
 shaped hollow at the top. This hollow is the nest 
 proper, measuring about three inches across, and 
 softly lined with the fibers and down of plants. 
 When Midget climbed up on the stones to point it 
 out to me, it looked like a bunch of moss growing 
 on the side of the timber, the moss still green with 
 the dampness of the place. But the moss is now 
 faded, and the nest shows signs of rough treatment. 
 
 In this nest there were, when Osk carried it off, 
 three eggs, as I have said ; they were of a delicate 
 creamy tint, with a few scattered reddish spots, 
 chiefly about the larger end. These markings were 
 unusually pretty, as Grid noticed. Kneeling down 
 and looking into Osk's hat, he again exclaimed : 
 
 " What made you do it I Say ! " 
 
THE PHCEBE'S NEST 47 
 
 " I am going to start a collection," Osk replied. 
 
 "Your collection never '11 amount to anything; 
 none of the boys' collections ever do," said Grid. 
 "They get tired of seeing the nests knocking 
 around ; some of the shells get broken ; then they 
 kick the rubbish outdoors, or their mothers do. 
 See here, Osk, take it back to the bridge, won't 
 you ? " 
 
 " What '11 I take it back to the bridge for, after 
 I 've been to the trouble of bringing it away?" 
 Osk retorted. " I thought the old birds would pick 
 my eyes out. Did n't they make a fuss and flirt 
 their tails!" 
 
 " Oh, take it back, Osk, before it is missed ! " Grid 
 pleaded, moved partly by compassion, but quite as 
 much by his fear of disagreeable consequences to 
 himself. " It won't be long before Midget will no- 
 tice the trouble with the birds, and find out what 
 has happened. There '11 be an inquiry, and I 'm 
 afraid I '11 be brought into it. You know the law 
 on birds and nests." 
 
 " Bah ! " said Osk, contemptuously. " Why, 
 the fellows around here are always getting birds 
 and nests, and we never hear of one being com- 
 plained of." 
 
 "We never have yet, but it 's going to be dif- 
 
48 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 f erent now," G-id replied. " I don't dare to be seen 
 here with you." 
 
 He looked anxiously up and down the brook and 
 over the tops of the bushes to see if anybody was 
 in sight. Osk demanded what he meant. 
 
 " Fred Melverton and four or five others have 
 agreed together that this robbing nests and killing 
 birds must be stopped; so Fred himself told me. 
 They 're going to see that the first one caught do- 
 ing it is prosecuted. There 's a ten-dollar fine, 
 you know." 
 
 "But how am I going to be found out or com- 
 plained of ? " Osk replied. " Nobody saw me ; no- 
 body '11 know it but you ; and you ain't going back 
 on a friend, Grid. 'T will be all your neck 's worth, 
 if you do." 
 
 " No," said Grid ; "I sha'n't give you away. But 
 I know Fred is in earnest ; and his folks and the 
 Lisles thought everything of this nest. I know I 
 shall be hauled up and questioned." 
 
 " Confound it, yes ! " Osk exclaimed. " And 
 you 're one of the kind they can worm anything 
 out of, whether you want them to or not. Why 
 did n't you let on about this agreement when I told 
 you at the door I was going for the nest ? " 
 
 " I had no idea you would take it ; you said as 
 
THE PHGEBE'S NEST 49 
 
 much. You won't dare to start a collection; there '11 
 be no fun in it if you can't show it; and if you 
 show it you '11 get found out, sure." 
 
 "I don't know what I touched the thing for," 
 said Osk, looking down with disgust at the con- 
 tents of his hat. "Here, you may take it back 
 to the bridge ! " 
 
 "I don't dare touch it!" Grid exclaimed, recoil- 
 ing with affright. 
 
 " Then I suppose I must," said Osk ; " though I 
 don't see how I am going to make it stay in place. 
 It won't rest on the stone unless it 's made fast to 
 the string-piece." 
 
 " Can't you stick it on with something ? " Grid in- 
 quired. 
 
 " I don't know. I can set it on the stone ; then 
 if it tumbles off it will look as if it was an acci- 
 dent. I '11 manage somehow. And see here, Gid!" 
 Osk laughed recklessly, ashamed of having be- 
 trayed such weakness ; " if you tell on me you 
 understand ! " 
 
 Grid promised solemnly. "I must go now," he 
 said, and hurried away. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE TWO BICYCLE-RIDERS 
 
 IDEON did not see Osk again for 
 two or three days, and he did not 
 venture to look under the bridge 
 to learn the fate of the phoebe's 
 nest. He was only too thankful 
 that Osk kept away from him, and he endeavored 
 to forget the incidents of that single, compromis- 
 ing visit by giving stricter attention to his duties. 
 One morning, three days after that memorable 
 Tuesday, he was running a light lawn-mower in 
 front of the house, when two young men in trim 
 bicycle suits, mounted on handsome wheels, whirled 
 rapidly into the driveway, and dismounted at the 
 piazza steps. 
 
 Grid stopped to lift his hat as they went hum- 
 ming past him, muttering to himself, " I 'm awful 
 glad he happened to ketch me at work ! " while his 
 guilty breast swelled with anxious apprehensions. 
 
 80 
 
THE TWO BICYCLE-RIDERS 51 
 
 The two riders turned their machines over on 
 the turf ; and when they stood erect, side by side, 
 you could see that one was a full head taller than 
 the other. The taller one was Fred Melverton. 
 He wore his dark gray cap and suit, while his 
 friend, a stranger to Grid, was clad in a suit of 
 lighter gray. 
 
 The friend was no such young Apollo as Fred 
 appeared. His shorter limbs, however, showed a 
 rugged strength ; he had a sandy complexion, and 
 an expression full of a certain bright mirthfulness, 
 which gave a peculiar allurement to features other- 
 wise rather plain. Do you see him in your mind's 
 eye, laughingly lifting his cap to pass a handker- 
 chief over his face, showing a white forehead, 
 crowned by carelessly tossed locks of deep-red 
 hair? Then let me introduce him: Mr. Canton 
 Quimby, of Yale. 
 
 " Canton " is an odd name for a boy, you think. 
 I remember once hearing him tell how he came by 
 it. His father, during the early years of his mar- 
 ried life, served his country abroad in various ca- 
 pacities, and his mother had named her children 
 after the places in which they happened to be 
 born. So the oldest girl was called Florence a 
 very pretty name. The second child (also a girl) 
 
52 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 saw the light when the father was secretary of 
 legation at Vienna. The parents hesitated a little 
 at the name; but Mrs. Quimby saw no good reason 
 for objecting to it, and " Vienna " Quimby grew 
 up so charming a girl that everybody wondered 
 why no girl had ever been so christened before. 
 "Then my father was sent to Constantinople, 
 and there my eldest brother was born. Constan- 
 tinople was a poser ! My father would n't hear of 
 it, and my mother was staggered. But they finally 
 compromised on Constant, which is a very good 
 name for a good fellow. You will readily under- 
 stand that I was born in Canton, not quite so 
 good a name, but good enough for the bearer. So 
 far," young Quimby rattled merrily on, "the rule 
 had worked very well, and my mother was trium- 
 phant. She has always been exceedingly tenacious 
 of her ideas ; but when she had two children born, 
 one in Copenhagen and one in Amsterdam, she ac- 
 knowledged that the fates were against her. They 
 are called Capen and Amy quite a breakdown, 
 you see, of her scheme. She could n't forgive the 
 government for not sending nay father to Paris, 
 and afterward giving him the consul-generalship 
 at Rome, when he asked for it ; for i Paris ' and 
 'Roma' would have been very good names; and 
 
THE TWO BICYCLE-EIDERS 53 
 
 a little obligingness on the part of each adminis- 
 tration would have saved her system. But admin- 
 istrations don't always consider!" he concluded, 
 with a laugh. 
 
 But we are rambling from our story, which has 
 nothing to do with the Quimby family, except that 
 vivacious member of it, the Yale junior, who passed 
 his babyhood and got his name in China. 
 
 Grid Ketterell, seeing the young master beckon 
 to him, left his lawn-mower and hastened toward 
 the house. 
 
 " How are you getting along, Gideon ? " Fred in- 
 quired. 
 
 "All right, I guess," Gid replied. 
 
 "Any callers since we 7 ve been away ? " 
 
 " Not when I Ve been here ; I guess about every- 
 body knows the house is shut up." 
 
 " Have you kept it well aired 1 " 
 
 "I 've had some of the windows open four or 
 five hours every good day." 
 
 "Are they open this morning?" 
 
 " No ; it seemed so cool this morning," Gid said, 
 growing more and more confident as he found 
 himself able to answer these simple questions, as 
 he believed, satisfactorily. 
 
 " So cool I " Fred Melverton smiled, but not al- 
 
54 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 together in approval of Grid's judgment. " It is 
 cool, and that is all the better for airing the house, 
 as I thought I explained to you. A simple fact " 
 addressing his companion, without noticing Gid's 
 blank face " which it is very hard for some peo- 
 ple to comprehend. A warm south wind let into a 
 cool house, especially into a cellar, will often de- 
 posit more moisture than it takes away. The cold 
 walls condense it; and the owners, who choose 
 such days for ventilation on the theory that warm 
 air must always be a drying air, wonder why their 
 houses continue damp, and why the hard-wood 
 floors hump, in summer weather." 
 
 The young man again addressed Gideon, who 
 stood staring rather stupidly. 
 
 " Don't you remember, I cautioned you against 
 opening the windows in muggy weather, even if 
 the sun should be shining? But a cool dry air, 
 like this to-day, wind northwest, admitted once 
 or twice a week, will keep even a cellar in good 
 condition. I tried to make the reason clear to 
 you : that ordinary warm air let into a cool apart- 
 ment shrinks, and, like a moist sponge when you 
 squeeze it, tends to part with its humidity ; while 
 a cool current, passing through a warm space, 
 expands, and tends to suck up any particles of 
 moisture that come in its way." 
 
THE TWO BICYCLE-EIDERS 55 
 
 " But you said it might be necessary to have a 
 fire in the furnace, just to dry off the house and 
 that makes hot air," Grid murmured confusedly. 
 
 For a moment Fred Melverton appeared slightly 
 discomfited. The young man who was named for 
 a Chinese city looked as if he enjoyed Grid's an- 
 swer, as he did everything that could be turned 
 into a joke. 
 
 " Your philosophy has got a poke under the 
 fifth rib, Melf ! if philosophy can be said to 
 have a fifth rib," he remarked dryly, while his 
 eyes danced with suppressed fun. 
 
 A hopeful smile dawned, struggled, and finally 
 spread all over Grid's face, as for a moment he was 
 made to imagine that he had really advanced an 
 argument that had perhaps floored a Melverton. 
 
 But Fred was not entirely prostrate, as Canton 
 Quimby was pleased to observe ; he was pausing 
 to think how he should shape an explanation that 
 would enter even the dullest comprehension. Not 
 so complimentary to Grid's wit as Grid supposed. 
 
 " You say I spoke of a furnace fire. I did ; and 
 I said I would send word to you if I thought it 
 necessary to build one. Now, what does a furnace 
 fire do? It takes the air from out-of-doors, even 
 humid air, and expands it so that it becomes a 
 volume of comparatively dry air when it is poured 
 
56 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 through the registers. Then all the air in the 
 house that is n't driven out by it warms and ex- 
 pands also, and becomes thirsty to absorb mois- 
 ture. Do I make myself understood?" 
 
 Seeing the blank expression come again into 
 Grid's face, Fred Melverton turned once more to 
 his friend. 
 
 "A little common sense is a good thing to use 
 on occasions ! " he remarked, with an air that im- 
 plied a conscious possession on his part of more 
 than an average share of the quality in question. 
 
 "I '11 go in now and open the windows," Gid 
 volunteered. 
 
 " Never mind," said Fred ; " I am going to take 
 my friend in, and I will attend to them. Come, 
 Quimby ! " producing a key from his pocket, turn- 
 ing it in the lock, and throwing the broad front 
 door wide open. 
 
 Grid was n't greatly disturbed by the little lec- 
 ture upon ventilation, any uneasiness that might 
 have been caused by Fred's faultfinding being lost 
 in a deeper anxiety. With a scared smile he 
 watched the two young men as they passed on 
 into the house, and then he returned slowly to his 
 lawn-mower. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 "STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN IN THIS HOUSE!" 
 
 H, I like hard- wood floors ! " said 
 Canton Quirnby, as he was ushered 
 into the ample hallway of the Mel- 
 verton mansion. "And these are 
 fine ones ! " 
 
 " If there 's anything my mother particularly 
 prides herself upon," Fred Melverton replied, " it 
 is her oak floors. They 're neat, but they require 
 a vast deal of attention. They must be skilfully 
 laid, and scraped, and dressed, in the first place. 
 Then they have to be kept waxed, polished, and 
 dusted every hair or speck of lint shows; but 
 all that is very well. The great trouble is that 
 they shrink, and the seams open, when you have 
 hot furnace fires in winter; and, on the other 
 hand, they swell and bulge if the house gathers 
 dampness in summer. Hence the need of care- 
 ful management of your fires, and of a rational 
 
58 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 system of ventilation. I explained everything to 
 that boy the first day he was here, and you see 
 the result." 
 
 "We must n't expect too much of the average 
 human biped's intelligence," said Quimby, as the 
 two passed on into the dining-room. "What a 
 floor for a roller-skating rink ! " he exclaimed, 
 laughing. 
 
 "My mother would be horrified if she should 
 hear you say that," replied his friend. " Sit down, 
 old fellow, and I '11 see if I can scare up a little re- 
 freshment. I think it will be acceptable after our 
 eighteen-mile run, and with another eighteen miles 
 before us." 
 
 He started to open a window on the side of the 
 piazza. 
 
 " Look at that ! " he exclaimed. " This sash 
 is n't fastened. Nothing to prevent a person out- 
 side from pushing it up and walking right in! 
 Pretty careless, I say, if it 's true that boy has n't 
 been in and unfastened it this morning. I rather 
 think it 's a good thing I took a run up here to 
 look after matters." 
 
 "It 's a magnif old dining-room!" Canton 
 Quimby remarked, casting an admiring eye over 
 the walls and ceiling. Then, seating himself with 
 
" STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN IN THIS HOUSE \" 59 
 
 a smile of content near the table of polished an- 
 tique oak, he went on to praise the stained glass 
 over the sideboard, the fireplace, and the carved 
 mantel, in a way that made his friend pause and 
 regard him with quiet satisfaction. 
 
 " Say all that to my mother if you wish to please 
 her. This dining-room is her favorite room. Now 
 sit and admire it, while I see what I can find. I 
 can't promise much. I forewarn you that we 've 
 come to a poverty-stricken house." 
 
 " i Beggars all, beggars all, Sir John ! ' " quoted 
 his friend, with a laugh. 
 
 " You '11 find, to your sorrow, there 's more truth 
 in that, in our case, than there was in Master Shal- 
 low's," replied Fred. 
 
 From an adjoining china-closet he brought out 
 a dish of crackers and a jar of olives that had been 
 left behind by the family in its flight ; and putting 
 a plate before his friend, bade him " nibble" while 
 he went in search of something "moist"; at the 
 same time winking suggestively, and making with 
 his mouth a sound as of a popping cork. 
 
 " I 'm glad I came," said Quimby, winking in re- 
 turn, and proceeding to harpoon an olive with the 
 long-handled jar-fork. " Do you know," he called 
 after Fred, who was departing for the cellar, " in 
 
60 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 the six months we spent in Italy and France, we 
 never saw such olives as these?" 
 
 "That 's another observation that will please my 
 worthy mama," Fred replied, pausing with his 
 hand on the door-knob. " But that may not be 
 saying very much ; one never seems to see any 
 first-class olives in Italy." He went off in high 
 spirits, was gone an "unconscionable while," his 
 friend thought, and finally returned with a frown 
 on his brow, and a solitary pint bottle in his hand. 
 " You '11 think I 'm a jolly fraud ! " he declared. 
 "I could have sworn there were at least three or 
 four bottles of cider in the case. But the bottles 
 of cider have been reduced to mere cider-bottles 
 all empty but this ! " 
 
 " Well, that will be empty pretty soon ; so don't 
 worry," the guest replied gaily. 
 
 "But I 'm astonished I 'm mortified!" Fred 
 exclaimed. "It 's like the fox inviting the crane 
 to supper though in this instance the fox is as 
 badly off as the crane." 
 
 " You don't imagine that lubber outside 1 " 
 Quimby suggested. "I noticed he smole a smile, 
 when he saw us coming in, not quite healthy; like 
 a smile raised under glass rather forced; not the 
 smile of an easy-conscienced lubber." 
 
" STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN IN THIS HOUSE!" 61 
 
 "I did n't notice it." Fred opened the bottle, 
 darkly musing. " I '11 have him in here, and start 
 an inquisition." 
 
 " There, there ! Hold your horses ! " cried the 
 guest, as Melverton was filling his glass. "Don't 
 give me more than my share, or I '11 swap glasses 
 with you. Good sparkle, hey ? I 'm glad he had 
 the considerashe to leave us even one bottle ! " 
 
 " I really can't think he has taken any," Fred re- 
 marked, seating himself opposite his friend. " He 
 is n't that kind of a boy." 
 
 "There are always fewer bottles in a case than 
 you think there are," the red-haired one suggested, 
 as he nibbled and sipped. "To be quite confidensh 
 with you, Melf, your little lunch is n't half bad! 
 It goes to the right spot if I 've got a right spot, 
 and know where to locate it. The cider 's splendif ; 
 just the right age. And enough of it. I never 
 take anything stronger. I 'm a tee-tote, myself." 
 
 " So am I," said Fred; "though I think we might 
 stand another bottle, without breaking a pledge. 
 Now," he put a fragment of cracker into his 
 mouth, and rose, leaving his glass unfinished, 
 " I 've told you what my mother is proud of ; what 
 I 'm proud of is here." 
 
 " Oh, your prize ! I had n't forgotten that," re- 
 
62 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 plied the guest, that being, indeed, one thing he 
 had made the morning's ride to see. 
 
 Melverton turned to the sideboard, reached un- 
 der the shelf, found the key, fitted it in the lock, 
 and uttered an exclamation. The key would n't 
 turn! 
 
 "But it turns the other way," he said immedi- 
 ately. " Do you see ? the drawer was n't locked ! 
 Strange things happen in this house, in our 
 absence ! " 
 
 So saying, he pulled the drawer open, and then 
 stood looking down into it with dumb amazement. 
 
 " What 's the troub' 1 " cried the guest, also ris- 
 ing from the table, with an olive in his fingers. 
 
 " The cup ! " ejaculated the dazed young man, 
 pulling the drawer well out, and staring into it. 
 "The cup is gone!" 
 
 "With hurry and trepidation Fred opened in turn 
 all the drawers, then backed away from the side- 
 board, regarding it with brows contracted and lips 
 compressed, in utter amazement and incredulity. 
 
 Then he turned to his companion. 
 
 " You '11 think I 'm a bigger fraud than ever ! " 
 he exclaimed. " But, by George ! wherever it 's 
 gone, there was a cup ! " 
 
o 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 "WHERE ? s THAT CUP?" 
 
 T was ten minutes after this that the 
 winner of the prize cup stepped out 
 from the open door, put up a beckon- 
 ing hand, and called in a very gentle 
 voice, as if he had been addressing 
 the most innocent of the Babes in the Wood : 
 " Gideon, if you please ! Here, a minute ! n 
 There was nothing in his look or tone to indi- 
 cate the slightest inquietude of mind ; so that Grid 
 experienced a sense of relief to his ever-growing 
 apprehensions. 
 
 Fred had had time to discuss the situation with 
 his friend, and to prepare for a calm, judicial in- 
 quiry. As he stepped back into the house, Gid 
 followed, with a countenance almost too open and 
 candid. It was, however, startled a little out of 
 its childlike innocence of expression by the aspect 
 of the solitary bottle on the table. 
 
66 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 "The house seems to be in pretty good condi- 
 tion," Melverton remarked, standing with his hand 
 on the back of his friend's chair; Quimby mean- 
 while playing with his empty glass, and smiling 
 upon Gideon. 
 
 " I 'm glad you find it so," said Gideon, grate- 
 fully. 
 
 " After we are gone," Fred proceeded, " you can 
 take the empty bottle to the cellar. You know 
 where the case is?" 
 
 Gid gave a little gasp, but answered promptly, 
 "I guess I can find it." 
 
 He felt the eyes of both young men upon him, 
 and his face, which was slightly pale at first, be- 
 gan to flush. 
 
 " When were you in the house last ? " inquired 
 the young proprietor. 
 
 "When I shut it up yesterday afternoon." 
 
 "Oh! I remember! You had n't opened the 
 windows to-day." 
 
 " No," said Gid ; " I was just going to, when you 
 came." 
 
 " You had n't been in the house, then, since yes- 
 terday ? " 
 
 The inquiries were taking a direction that did n't 
 seem at all alarming ; yet Gid felt that he was on 
 
"WHERE >S THAT CUP?" 67 
 
 the brink of some danger. As he really had not 
 been in the house since the day before, he thought 
 he might as well stick to the truth and stuck to it. 
 
 "How happens it, then, that this window was 
 unclasped ? " 
 
 "Was it?" Grid exclaimed, in genuine surprise. 
 
 "I found it so," Fred Melverton replied. "Any 
 rogue could have got in." 
 
 Gid looked hot and troubled. But he said 
 earnestly : 
 
 "I don't know how it happened. I thought I 
 clasped it. I can't understand!" 
 
 He began to tremble, remembering that he had 
 not opened that window since the afternoon when 
 he left the room in such haste to follow Osk Ord- 
 way to the cellar. He had, indeed, avoided that 
 part of the house ever since, on account of the 
 disagreeable associations his conscience connected 
 with it. 
 
 "When did you have it open last?" Fred in- 
 quired. 
 
 "I can't remember," Grid replied, fearful of 
 committing himself. 
 
 "You have n't had any of your friends in the 
 house since you have been in charge ? " Fred smil- 
 ingly queried. 
 
68 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 For a moment Grid felt the dreadful necessity of 
 telling the simple truth, and gaining some sort of 
 foothold in the mire of deception in which he felt 
 himself sinking. But the spirit of Osk Ordway 
 seemed to control him, and he answered stoutly: 
 
 "No; of course not." 
 
 "And you said you guessed you could find 
 the case of cider-bottles; you had n't found it 
 already ? " 
 
 And Gid repeated, even more emphatically, "No; 
 of course not." 
 
 He had drunk but little of the two bottles he 
 had permitted Osk to open; and Osk had per- 
 suaded him that the Melvertons were not a family 
 that counted their bottles very closely. Still he 
 had been troubled with a dread of these questions, 
 and he had made up his mind beforehand how he 
 would answer then. A good, rousing falsehood, 
 he hoped, would carry him through his present 
 difficulties. 
 
 " I did n't suppose you would," said the young 
 man, pleasantly. " Don't consider me too inquisi- 
 tive, but I would like to ask who unlocked this 
 drawer ? " 
 
 Gid was stunned for a moment. Seeing the 
 drawer closed, and the key in it, and being sure 
 
" WHERE 'S THAT CUP?" 69 
 
 he had not left it so, he wondered how Fred could 
 have found out that it had been unlocked. 
 
 "That drawer!" he said, with growing agitation. 
 " Unlocked ? I don't know anything about it ! " 
 
 " Did you know what was in it ? " Fred asked. 
 
 "Y yes," Gid faltered. "I thought you put 
 your prize cup in it the day you left me in charge." 
 
 " You saw that, did you ? " Fred queried, look- 
 ing sharply at him. 
 
 Gid was afraid he was admitting too much ; but 
 he answered: 
 
 " I could n't help seeing you put the cup in the 
 drawer. I happened to look back just as I was 
 leaving the room, that day you left for the sea- 
 shore." 
 
 "There is no mistake, then, about my locking 
 the cup in the drawer ! I was beginning to think 
 there might be," Fred remarked, so unsuspiciously 
 and quietly that Gid was quite sure he had ad- 
 mitted too much. 
 
 " I ain't quite positive," he said. " I thought you 
 put it in one of the drawers." 
 
 The questioner did not seem to notice this quali- 
 fication, but added : 
 
 "And you 've been the only one in the house 
 since ? " 
 
 
70 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 " Fur as I know," replied the culprit, aghast at 
 what he felt sure was coming. 
 
 " Well, there 's the drawer," said Fred, opening 
 it. "But it 's empty like the bottles" with a 
 smile of gleaming sarcasm. " Grideon Ketterell ! 
 where 's that cup I " 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 GID'S ENTANGLEMENT 
 
 ID stepped to the drawer, and saw 
 for himself that the prize cup was 
 gone. Only the red napkin re- 
 mained as it had been left when 
 the cup was replaced, after he had 
 shown it to Osk. 
 
 " Hain't you took it out?" he asked, as he turned 
 an appealing look on Fred Melverton. 
 Fred replied, imperturbably : 
 " I have n't taken it, nor seen it, since you were 
 witness to my locking it in that drawer." 
 
 " Must have been stole ! " Gid murmured. " Looks 
 as though the house had been broke into ! " 
 
 " It certainly has been stolen," the young master 
 replied frankly. "And the house has been broken 
 into, unless your key let the robber in." 
 
 " But I hain't took it ! " Gid protested, with the 
 utmost earnestness. " I don't know nothing about 
 
 71 
 
72 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 it!" In times of unusual excitement he was apt 
 to relapse into double negatives, an early habit, of 
 which he was supposed to have been cured at 
 school. "I wish I did!" 
 
 He was almost ready to cry. Better than that, 
 he was almost ready to tell the truth. Why had 
 he not done so before I Why had he not explained 
 at once how Osk forced his way into the house, ac- 
 tually compelled him to show the cup, and then 
 opened two bottles of the cider drinking the 
 most of it himself in spite of him? Instead 
 of that, he had gone on with denial after denial, 
 winding himself up in this terrible entanglement, 
 from which even confession itself might not clear 
 him. 
 
 Fred Melverton put to him a few more search- 
 ing questions, without obtaining satisfactory re- 
 plies, then said quietly: 
 
 "I don't see that you will help me much in 
 clearing up the mystery. You can go, Gideon, 
 and await further orders." 
 
 Again Gideon turned toward him with red, ap- 
 pealing eyes. 
 
 "I hope you don't think I " he uttered, with a 
 a lump in his throat. 
 
 "I am not prepared to say what I think," the 
 
 
GID'S ENTANGLEMENT 73 
 
 young man replied, with a resolute calmness more 
 terrifying to poor Gid than violent threats or ac- 
 cusations would have been. "Go, now." 
 
 Gid hesitated, struggled with the lump in his 
 throat, trying to speak, and finally withdrew with- 
 out another word; but paused again at the door, 
 with half a mind to go back and confess his own 
 share in the transaction which he felt sure must 
 at least have opened the way to the robbery. But 
 that simple step required more courage than he 
 possessed ; and every moment was making it more 
 difficult for him to take it. He slowly went down 
 the steps, and presently the merry clatter of the 
 lawn-mower was heard once more. But it was 
 not a merry sound to Gid's ear. 
 
 Then Fred Melverton turned to his guest, who 
 had all the while sat a silent spectator of the 
 scene, and exclaimed : 
 
 "Old fellow, speak a word!" 
 
 And the guest replied, "It 's a funny conglom' ! " 
 meaning conglomeration, as we may as well inter- 
 pret for the benefit of those who have n't heard 
 young people spice their speech with these pecu- 
 liar abbreviations. 
 
 " What do you make of that boy ! " Melverton 
 asked, walking nervously to and fro. 
 
74 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 ." Want my opin' ? Let me tell you first, Melf," 
 the guest answered, " what I make of you. I 've 
 thought the Tech " (Institute of Technology) " was 
 your right place, and I was confirmed in that when 
 I saw you befog that boy's brain (if he has one) 
 with your jargon about ventilation, condensation, 
 evaporation, and all the other Cations. But now 
 I 'm under the impresh' that you should have 
 chosen the law." 
 
 "How do you make that out?" Melverton in- 
 quired. 
 
 " Why, the way you cross-exam'd that unwilling 
 witness was worthy of a first-class pettifogger. 
 You tangled him up like a dog-fish in a square 
 rod of gill-netting." 
 
 "Was n't it his own fault?" Fred demanded, 
 with some irritation. 
 
 " No doubt of it ! " said Quimby. " It was not 
 the bald-headed truth he was giving you. But it 
 seemed to me you began at the wrong end of the 
 string in trying to get the snarl out." 
 
 "I don't see, Canton!" Fred replied. "What 
 are you driving at ? " 
 
 "Suppose," said Canton Quimby, with a smile 
 that would have sugar-coated his bitterest criti- 
 cism "suppose you had shown him the empty 
 
GIB'S ENTANGLEMENT 75 
 
 drawer in the first place and given him time to 
 think what a serious business it was, before you 
 tried your corkscrew?" 
 
 " I was only trying to loosen the wires from the 
 cork, before opening the bottle," Fred said, tossing 
 back the figure of speech. 
 
 " Instead of that you were all the while twisting 
 them tighter. You let him commit himself to one 
 denial after another, in minor matters which in- 
 volved tracks that led directly to the trap you had 
 ready to spring upon him tracks he could n't re- 
 trace. Do I make my meaning clear I " 
 
 " I should say so ! " Fred exclaimed, with a rue- 
 ful laugh. " Instead of opening his mouth I was 
 ingeniously shutting it." 
 
 " Something like that," Quimby smilingly as- 
 sented. 
 
 " How much does he know about the robbery ? " 
 
 " Something ; not everything," replied the guest. 
 
 "That 's the way I read him," said Melverton. 
 " I can't think he stole the cup himself, but I 'm 
 inclined to believe he knows who did. He 's mixed 
 up in it." 
 
 Canton Quimby nodded approvingly, and said: 
 " Of course he is." 
 
 " The cider I care nothing about ; some not very 
 
76 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 bad boys might fall into a temptation of that sort. 
 And I could pardon his carelessness if that 's the 
 name for it in leaving the window unclasped. 
 But he is so evidently concealing something ! 1 'm 
 at a loss to know what to do." 
 
 " Want my opin' ? " 
 
 " I should like it very much." 
 
 "Tell that youthful prevaricator he can put on 
 his coat and go home. In short, fire him ! That 
 is," said the guest, "unless he will tell you where 
 the cup is, or who has it." 
 
 " That 's the logic of it, of course," said Fred, 
 again walking to and fro in troubled thought. 
 " But I don't want to injure him. His mother is 
 really a very worthy woman, and I hate a scandal." 
 
 " Naturally. But, Melf , it is n't generally thought 
 wise to keep a person in a place of trust after he 
 has shown himself unfaithful." 
 
 "You 're right every time," Fred said, hastily 
 clearing the table ; which done, the two went out 
 and walked about the place. 
 
 " The house will be all right for a few days," re- 
 marked the young proprietor, musingly ; " so will 
 the lawn and the flower-beds. But I must get 
 somebody to feed the cat and the poultry. I think 
 T can manage that." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 GID LOSES HIS SITUATION 
 
 HE lawn had been trimmed, and 
 Gid Ketterell was running the in- 
 verted mower toward the barn, 
 when Melverton intercepted him. 
 " Well, Gideon, you 've had a lit- 
 tle time to think about it. You see how it is. Can 
 you give me any idea how that cup has got hocus- 
 pocused out of the house while you have been in 
 charge 1 That 's what we 've got to find out, you 
 know." 
 
 "I know it," replied Gid. "And I 'd tell if I 
 had the slightest notion what 's become of it, 
 but I hain't." 
 
 In the interim of reflection he had fully resolved 
 to stick to his original story, and admit nothing 
 that would reflect blame upon himself. 
 
 "You can't think of anybody who may have 
 known about it, and got into the house and taken 
 
 77 
 
78 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 it I For I can't find that anything else has been 
 touched," Fred continued. " Seems to me you 
 must be able to tell us something." 
 
 " I would if I could," Grid muttered, with a dog- 
 ged, down look, tipping his hat-brim so as to hide 
 his conscious face ; " but I can't." 
 
 " Sorry ! " replied Fred, exchanging glances with 
 Canton Quimby, who stood by, twirling a flower in 
 his fingers, but never losing a word of the dialogue. 
 " I 'm afraid I shall have to dispense with your ser- 
 vices, Gideon." 
 
 "All right ! " said Gideon, surlily. That was evi- 
 dently what he had expected. 
 
 "The house has been entered, I rather think, 
 more than once. Cider-bottles have been emptied ; 
 I find a sash unfastened, and a prize no money can 
 replace has disappeared. Mind, I don't accuse you 
 of anything. But look at it yourself does n't it 
 seem as if the place might have been better taken 
 care of ? " 
 
 "Maybe it might; don't know," Gid mumbled. 
 He wanted to say more, but the lump was in his 
 throat again ; and, indeed, what could he say, un- 
 less he began by retracting his previous denials, 
 the falsity of which he felt was certain some day 
 to appear? 
 
GID LOSES HIS SITUATION 79 
 
 Fred waited a minute for him to speak, then 
 said gently: 
 
 " I '11 take your key of the house, if you please." 
 Gid produced it from his pocket. " Thank you, 
 Gideon." 
 
 " Sha'n't I carry that bottle to the cellar I " Gid in- 
 quired, looking up with a sullen despair in his eyes. 
 
 " No, I won't trouble you. The bottles will do 
 very well without your attention," Fred replied, 
 with a shade of sarcasm in his tones. " Let 's see, 
 you 've been here not quite so long as you might 
 have stayed under other circumstances." He was 
 opening his pocket-book, while Gid, his eyes once 
 more cast down, kicked the graveled walk with his 
 toes. "It was to be five dollars a week, was n't it?" 
 
 Gid's features worked, and a tear slid down his 
 cheek. He had been so proud of his " snap," as he 
 called it; and the money, to be so easily earned, 
 had seemed so much to him ! I regret to say, he 
 had considered far less what it would be to his 
 hard-working mother. It was as a hard-hitting 
 mother that he thought of her now. 
 
 "We '11 call it seven dollars," said Melverton, 
 "if that strikes you favorably." 
 
 " I don't want your money," Gid muttered, sniff- 
 ing away his tears. " I won't take it ! " 
 
80 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 He was turning away, convulsed with grief, or 
 anger, or remorse, or dread of Ms mother, or all 
 these together, when Fred laid a hand kindly on 
 his shoulder, and with the other extended the 
 bank-notes. 
 
 " Oh, yes, you will, Gideon ! " he said, his voice 
 trembling a little with sympathetic emotion. 
 " Take it to your mother ; she can't afford to miss 
 anything you may have the luck to earn. I hoped 
 you would earn a good deal for her and yourself 
 during the summer. I am as much disappointed 
 as you are, Gideon." 
 
 He thrust the bills under the boy's suspenders. 
 Then, after a pause : "In parting with you, may I 
 give you a bit of advice? with the kindest feel- 
 ings toward you, Gideon, understand. If another 
 chance offers, be faithful, and truthful, and " 
 His voice broke. " Gideon," he added, with an 
 effort of self-control, "I am as sorry as you are; 
 and I I wish you well!" 
 
 This was more than Gid could stand. He was 
 prepared to encounter harsh and threatening 
 words; but kindness was too much for him. He 
 started to speak, but found he could n't without 
 sobbing. If Fred had given him time, and asked 
 him again to tell the truth, he might have told all. 
 
GID MOVED SULLENLY AWAY.' 
 
GID LOSES HIS SITUATION 83 
 
 But Fred merely said, " Leave the barn key in the 
 door, after you put away the mower," and walked 
 off with his friend. 
 
 Grid obeyed, and with his coat on his arm moved 
 sullenly away, muttering to himself revengefully: 
 " It was Osk, I know it was, as well as if I 'd 
 seen him do it ! It 's all up with me ! I '11 just 
 about kill him, when I ketch him, if ma don't kill 
 me first!" 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 MIDGET AND HIS FKIENDS 
 
 JHAT do you think now?" Fred 
 asked his friend, as he led the 
 way down the bank toward the 
 brooklet. 
 
 "Want my opin'?" 
 "I always want it" 
 
 "In the first place," said Canton Quimby, "I 
 find I was mistaken, after all, about your proper 
 sphere. It 's neither science nor the law; it 's 
 the ministry." 
 
 "How do you cipher that out?" 
 "Why, you talked to that scapegrace like a 
 regular old parson. Almost made me cry!" 
 
 " I hope I have n't wronged him ! Or, rather, 
 I hope I have ! I shall be very glad to know that 
 my suspicion is unfounded. I 'm wondering what 
 my mother will say," Fred added dubiously. 
 
 "Your suspish' is all right; founded on a rock," 
 
MIDGET AND HIS FRIENDS 85 
 
 replied Quimby, confidently. "Did n't you see? 
 He was on the very point of breaking down. Your 
 old clergyman's talk went deep, plowed a tre- 
 mendous subsoil furrow, really got down to his 
 conscience, if you call it that, when it 's the fear 
 of exposure chiefly that makes a poor sinner anx- 
 ious to confess a fault, and sorry he committed it. 
 Not a first-class conscience, hardly the genuine, 
 fast-color, warranted-not-to-fade article, but ' jes' 
 better than none at all,' as the old negro woman 
 said of her husband. He '11 own up yet." 
 
 " I hope he will ! " Fred exclaimed fervently. 
 
 " But I say, Melf ! " cried Quimby, looking round 
 upon the little glen into which they had descended. 
 "You did n't tell me you kept a small private 
 paradise here! A miniature Garden of Eden! 
 This brook, these wooded banks and overarching 
 boughs, the sunshine flickering through, it 's per- 
 fectly exquiz' ! " 
 
 "G-lad you like it," said the young proprietor, 
 well pleased. 
 
 " Like it," echoed the guest. " That 's no word 
 for it. Where 's Adam ? Seems to me he should 
 be strolling around somewhere. This bench little 
 Cain and Abel might have sat here and counted 
 their marbles, or played with their popguns, and 
 
86 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 listened to the finches and the waterfalls, and quar- 
 reled, and been as happy as any children in the 
 world, at that early period. There 's the infant 
 Cain now, or is it Abel 1 " 
 
 " It 's the little deaf-mute I told you about," said 
 Melverton. " Over there is the parsonage side of 
 the brook." 
 
 Quimby was regarding the child with intense 
 curiosity. 
 
 "What an elf!" he exclaimed. 
 
 " I '11 show him to you," said Melverton, leading 
 the way along the streamlet's edge. 
 
 At a spot where it gushed between two rocks, 
 the child was stooping over a tiny water-wheel 
 which the current kept whirling, while he dropped 
 twigs and small sticks upon it, to see them flung 
 off with the flying drops. He was unconscious of 
 the voices and the feet approaching behind him, 
 until the young men were quite near; then he 
 turned with quick surprise and a bright laugh, 
 as Fred crossed the brook and caught him up in 
 his arms. 
 
 " He 's the preciousest little old man that ever 
 was!" cried Fred, tossing him. "He knows his 
 best friend ! " as the child put out a tiny hand and 
 smoothed the young man's cheek. " But think of 
 
'FRED CROSSED THE BROOK AND CAUGHT HIM UP IN HIS ARMS.' 
 
MIDGET AND HIS FRIENDS 89 
 
 it, Quimby ! He can't hear a word, and never will 
 in all his life ! " 
 
 "'The pity of it! The pity of it!'" Quimby 
 quoted, with a sincerity of feeling that betrayed 
 a tender heart under all his gaiety. "Born so?" 
 
 " No. Scarlet fever. A terrible calamity. He 's 
 the only one who does n't realize it. You never 
 saw a happier sprite. Curious, what compensa- 
 tions nature sometimes provides for our worst ills. 
 Blessed himself, he 's a blessing to all around him. 
 Keeps the little trickling springs of affection open 
 in their hearts, you know. I believe he 's a source 
 of deeper happiness to his mother than if he had 
 all his five senses, like the other children." 
 
 There were bright tears in the young man's fine 
 eyes as he held the child on his shoulder, clasping 
 with one hand the little feet, and with the other 
 arm hugging him close to his handsome head and 
 manly neck. 
 
 "He must be a great care, though," said Quimby, 
 looking into the child's laughing eyes, and study- 
 ing their expression. "Mischievous, I fancy." 
 
 "He 's in everything!" Fred replied. "Of 
 course it 's impossible to discipline him as you 
 would another child. Conscientious very in 
 his own way ; but his notions of right and wrong 
 
90 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 are sometimes strangely inverted, judged by our 
 standards. If he wants a thing, he '11 have it, if 
 he can get it; the desire is justification enough, 
 to his unsophisticated conscience." 
 
 " Have they ever tried to teach him to speak by 
 the modern methods of deaf-mute instruction I " 
 
 " Yes, but without much success. He won't even 
 learn the printed or sign alphabet. The trouble 
 is," said Fred, "he communicates too easily in a 
 sign-language of his own. He is trying to tell 
 us something now. What is it, Midget ? That 's 
 the name we can't help giving him, it fits him so 
 exactly." 
 
 The child, carried in his arms along the brook- 
 side, looked back up the stream, making earnest 
 gestures, a quick, whirling movement of his little 
 hand being one of them. 
 
 " Something about his water-wheel," Quimby 
 observed, making a similar motion in return. 
 
 Midget nodded with pleasure, and, slipping from 
 Fred's arms, ran back to the spot where he had 
 left his wheel. This he removed from its support 
 of two stakes, held it up laughingly, and made 
 signs that were easy to interpret. 
 
 "He is afraid some accident may happen to it 
 if he leaves it there," Fred remarked ; " and he is 
 
MIDGET AND HIS FRIENDS 91 
 
 going to take it to the house. Let 's see if I can 
 make him do an errand for me." 
 
 As Midget came running back to him, Fred se- 
 cured his attention, and, looking down into his 
 bright little face, began to communicate with 
 him in a way that surprised and amused Canton 
 Quimby, who stood observing them, and endeavor- 
 ing to read their language. 
 
 u He understands," Melverton said, as the child, 
 with a final affirmative response, started to run up 
 the bank toward the old parsonage. 
 
 "I understand, too, some of your gestures, 
 anyway," replied Quimby. "When you put up 
 your hand, like this, you meant to ask for 
 somebody as high as your necktie ; but when you 
 put it behind your ears, with a motion of cutting 
 your head off, that bothered yours truly." 
 
 " I meant a person about that height, as you say, 
 and with short hair. His mother is near Tracy's 
 height, and his sister is almost as tall; but they 
 have long hair. There 's a young minister board- 
 ing in the house; but he is taller than Tracy. 
 Midget told me his brother was at home; then 
 I said, 'Find him, and bring him down here to 
 see me.' 
 
 " That 's nothing to the conversations his family 
 
92 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 can carry on with him," Fred went on as they 
 seated themselves on the bench by the brook. 
 "It 's a very interesting family, as you will see ; 
 for I am going to introduce you to them some 
 time, though not to-day." 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 TKACY TRIUMPHANT 
 
 HERE comes Tracy. He ? s a re- 
 markably fine boy. The mother 
 is a rare woman, but she finds it a 
 hard struggle to get along, and it 's 
 a constant study with some of the 
 well-to-do parishioners how to help the family 
 without making them feel that they are objects 
 of charity. Notice what a frank, engaging face he 
 has ! " Fred said, as Tracy, brightly smiling, came 
 down the bank. 
 
 " How are you, Tracy ? " he went on, when Tracy 
 was nearer, and gave the new-comer a hearty 
 handshake. " This is my friend, Mr. Canton 
 Quimby, of Yale. We have just taken a run up 
 from the beach to look at our place. What did 
 Laurie tell you?" 
 
 "He said you were here, and a friend with you, 
 not quite so tall, but a little stouter, and with 
 
94 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 fuller cheeks/' said Tracy, laughing to see how 
 perfectly the Yale Junior answered the child's 
 description. 
 
 "All that in his own sign-language ? " Canton 
 Quimby inquired with evident interest. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; he has been more our teacher in that 
 than any one has ever been his. Conie up to the 
 house, won't you? Mother will be glad to see 
 you," said Tracy. 
 
 " I 'm afraid we can't at present," Melverton re- 
 plied; "but I 've something to say to you here. 
 Sit down, for it may be a long story." 
 
 But Tracy remained standing before the young 
 men on the bench, while he heard from Fred's lips, 
 with running comments by Quimby, an account of 
 the strange doings on the Melverton premises, and 
 of Grid's dismissal. 
 
 Astonishment at the loss of the cup, and the 
 mystery attending it, and, as must be owned, the 
 satisfaction of his grudge against Gideon, sent 
 the blood mounting to the boy's head in keen 
 excitement. 
 
 " I never had any faith in that Ketterell fellow ! " 
 he exclaimed ; " and I was surprised " 
 
 A timely recollection of his mother's warning 
 checked the impetuous outburst ; but for that he 
 
TRACY TRIUMPHANT 95 
 
 might have gone on and given his latest, burning 
 reasons for disliking Gideon. 
 
 " Surprised I should have employed him," Mel- 
 verton rejoined. "I am a little surprised myself. 
 But my mother thought we ought to give him a 
 chance. And I surely believed he was honest. 
 Mind, I don't say I 'm convinced to the contrary 
 yet. He has unquestionably been negligent, and 
 he may have been knowingly unfaithful, but we 
 are bound to have a good deal of charity for the 
 son of so worthy a mother and of so unworthy 
 a father!" 
 
 " That 's true," Tracy assented, generously ; 
 "that 's what mother says. Old man Ketterell 
 can't be trusted even to collect money for the 
 washing his wife does to support the family. Grid 
 comes honestly by his shiftlessness." 
 
 " So we won't be hard on him," Fred went on. 
 " But this affair must be looked into ; and in the 
 meanwhile, Tracy, can't you, as a special favor to 
 me, keep your eye on the place, and perhaps air 
 the house for us in fine weather ? " 
 
 Tracy was delighted. 
 
 "I '11 do everything that Grid did, or ought to 
 have done, and think it nothing but sport," he 
 said, heartily. 
 
96 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 "That 's altogether too much," the young man 
 protested. 
 
 " Just let me try it ! " cried the boy. " Our own 
 garden does n't take more than a few hours a 
 week, and Mr. Walworth likes to help about that. 
 And I shall be so glad to do the least thing in 
 return for all the favors your family has done for 
 us," he added, with grateful emotion. 
 
 " Oh, don't mention trifles of that sort ! " Fred 
 replied, with responsive feeling. Then he resumed: 
 "It 's just possible you may pick up a clue that 
 will lead to the unraveling of the mystery. Look 
 out for any suspicious characters that come prowl- 
 ing about the place ; and find out, if you can, any 
 that have been seen there during Grid's administra- 
 tion. If you make any discoveries, send me at 
 once a telegram that I and nobody else will under- 
 stand, for I don't want any publicity given to the 
 affair at present. I sha'n't mention it to a living 
 soul, except the chief of police." 
 
 " Can I tell my own folks?" Tracy asked, thrilled 
 to the roots of his hair by the confidence his friend 
 reposed in him, and by the importance of his trust. 
 It did n't seem possible that he could keep it all to 
 himself. 
 
 "Tell them oh, certainly; we can rely upon 
 
TEACY TRIUMPHANT 97 
 
 their discretion," Fred replied. "Now come over 
 to the house, and I '11 give you the keys and ex- 
 plain matters." 
 
 " You 're sure you can't just step up to the door 
 and speak to my mother and Ida 1 " said Tracy. 
 
 But Fred answered firmly: "Not this time"; 
 and led the way up the Melverton bank. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 TKACY GETS A " CLUE " 
 
 |HY, what is it, Trace!" said Ida 
 Lisle, noticing her brother's pant- 
 ing breath and gleaming eyes when 
 he came in to dinner. 
 
 "The strangest things have been 
 happening ! " he exclaimed. " They 're not to be 
 spoken of outside," he glanced around at the 
 young minister coming out of his study "but I 
 can tell you all, here at home." 
 
 And, without waiting to be questioned, he broke 
 forth impetuously : 
 
 " The Melverton house has been entered, Fred's 
 beautiful prize cup has been stolen, Grid Ketterell 
 has been turned off, and I am in charge ! " 
 
 The exciting news was discussed as the family 
 sat down at the table. 
 
 "I am sorry for Grideon and so sorry for his 
 mother ! " said Mrs. Lisle. " I hope he is not sus- 
 pected of taking the cup." 
 
TRACY GETS A "CLUE" 101 
 
 " Not exactly, but " \\ ^ j : ^ ; 
 
 And Tracy went over the ^cfrcunistances of the 
 case as well as he could recall? Vt$eja5 VHs^H/ 
 
 " Now I am to look after the place, and do what 
 I can if there 's anything I can do toward 
 clearing up the mystery. I have n't the slightest 
 idea how I am to begin." 
 
 " Possibly I can give you a hint," suggested Mr. 
 Walworth. "Gideon, I understand, says he re- 
 ceived no one into the house in the absence of 
 the family!" 
 
 " He was quite positive about that ; so Fred told 
 me," replied Tracy. 
 
 " I shall regret to contradict Gideon's testimony," 
 rejoined the young minister. " You know the rock 
 among the syringas, where I sometimes have my 
 cushion, and my book, and my writing-pad " 
 
 " Your out-door study, we call it," said Ida. 
 
 "Last Tuesday afternoon I was there, making 
 some notes, when I noticed a young fellow coming 
 down through the hollow by the brook. Some- 
 thing in his manner excited my curiosity; and I 
 watched him as he went up rather slyly over the 
 bank toward the Melverton house. I saw him 
 throw something from behind the shrubbery ; then 
 I heard a voice, two voices, and he disappeared 
 
102 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 in ;tl>e' v direction Q the house. I continued to hear 
 the voices for 'a Vhile, then they ceased with the 
 v 
 
 v o tfe.cloor. . I had forgotten the circum- 
 stance, and was absorbed in my studies again, 
 when I hardly know how long after I heard 
 the same subdued voices, and shortly after saw 
 the same young fellow come down over the bank, 
 moving cautiously till he got into the ravine. 
 Then, instead of going up the brook, the way he 
 came, he followed it down toward the bridge, and 
 I lost sight of him." 
 
 More than once during this recital Tracy had 
 interrupted it to demand excitedly, "Who was 
 it? Who was the fellow!" and his sister had 
 silenced him with, " Can't you wait a minute 1 
 Can't you let him tell his story ? " At length the 
 minister replied: 
 
 "I don't know his name; but I have several 
 times seen him, oftener on the river than anywhere 
 else. Under the clump of willows, not far from 
 where the brook flows in, somebody keeps a boat, 
 which I have seen him help himself to, as if he had 
 a right to it." 
 
 "A muscular young fellow with a bend in his 
 shoulders ! Carries his head forward like this f " 
 cried Tracy eagerly. 
 
TEACY GETS A "CLUE" . 103 
 
 " That 's it ; that 's very like him," Mr. Walworth 
 smilingly assented. 
 
 "It 's Osk! It 's Oscar Ordway!" Tracy ex- 
 claimed. "The very last fellow the Melvertons 
 would wish to enter their house ! " 
 
 "Mind, I don't say positively he did enter it," 
 said the minister. "I 've only told you how it 
 appeared to me." 
 
 "Of course Grid let him in," Tracy cried jubi- 
 lantly. " You 've given me a very important point, 
 Mr. Walworth. If Osk Ordway did n't drink some 
 of that cider, and if he does n't know something 
 about the missing cup, then there 's no sense in 
 my knowledge-box!" 
 
 "Don't start out with the notion that there 's 
 more sense in it than there really is," his sister 
 warned him, laughingly. " There 's a limit even 
 to that, as we all know." 
 
 "Oh, but anybody can see," cried her brother, 
 " Osk is in it, and Grid knows he is. I know boys 
 that know Osk, and I 'm going into this affair, to 
 the very bottom." 
 
 " Don't be rash, my son," his mother cautioned 
 him. "Whatever you do, be considerate, be dis- 
 creet." 
 
 " Considerate ? " echoed the boy, in a flush of 
 
104 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 high spirits. " I 'm the most considerate, the most 
 discreet I '11 prove it to you! In all my talk 
 with Fred Melverton, I never mentioned the mean 
 trick Gid played our Laurie, nor his impudent at- 
 tempt to drive me from the place. If that does n't 
 show forbearance ! " 
 
 "Well, be as circumspect in everything, and I 
 shall be satisfied," said his mother. "Why, Laurie! 
 where have you been?" she cried, precisely as if 
 the child, who just then came running in, had pos- 
 sessed the sense he lacked. 
 
 There had been inquiries for Midget as the fam- 
 ily were sitting down to dinner ; but he was so 
 wayward a little wanderer, often very hard to find, 
 since no calling could make him hear, that they gave 
 little heed to his absences, assured that he would re- 
 appear when he was hungry, if not before. 
 
 He was in a joyous mood, and he had a merry tale 
 to tell, which all except the minister understood. 
 
 " Somebody has taken him to ride," said his 
 sister. 
 
 " On a bicycle," added Tracy, reading the child's 
 rapid gestures. "There were two bicycles; they 
 picked him up at the bridge " 
 
 " Grave him a fine ride to the village," Ida struck 
 in, "and dropped him at the bridge again." 
 
TEACY GETS A "CLUE" 105 
 
 "Fred and his friend," concluded Tracy; "it 
 was Fred who gave him the ride. They were 
 going to see the chief of police." 
 
 " You don't mean to say he tells you that ! " said 
 Mr. Walworth. 
 
 " Oh, no, not about Fred's errand to the village," 
 Tracy replied. " Fred told me that was his inten- 
 tion. I wish I could have caught him when he 
 came back to the bridge, to tell him about Osk 
 Ordway. For it 's a clue!" he cried, "decidedly 
 a clue, and I 'm going to follow it up ! " 
 
CHAPTEE XVII 
 
 GIDEON MEETS HIS FOE 
 
 1HEN aid Ketterell went out from 
 the Melverton place after his dis- 
 missal, he took the brookside path 
 below the bridge, and strode as 
 straight as the winding way would 
 permit to the clump of willows by the river, where 
 Osk Ordway usually kept his boat. 
 The boat was gone. 
 
 " He 's off with the boys somewheres," Gid mut- 
 tered, casting impatient glances up and down the 
 placid stream out of his reddened and sullen eyes. 
 " Never mind ; I don't move from this spot, all the 
 same, till he comes in ! " 
 
 There was a tree that pushed out so straight from 
 the group, before its top and branches curved up- 
 ward over the water, that it made a saddle-shaped 
 seat. This Grid bestrode; and with a large limb 
 at his back, forming an upright support, he found 
 
 106 
 
GIDEON MEETS HIS FOE 107 
 
 himself in a comfortable position while waiting for 
 the boat. 
 
 Comfortable as to his body, but by no means so 
 as to his state of mind. Savagely angry with Osk, 
 whom he blamed for his disgrace, and for the ter- 
 rible suspicion that had fallen upon him; almost 
 as angry with himself for having weakly yielded to 
 Osk's influence after he had been warned against 
 it; afraid to go home and fall into the hands of 
 his mother agitated with these emotions he took 
 no thought of the quaint and gnarly old easy-chair 
 he sat on, nor of the pleasant, sun-flecked shade 
 flung over and about him, on the stream and on 
 the shore, from the long willow-boughs swinging 
 in the breeze. 
 
 The breeze fanned his hot brow ; the water rip- 
 pled and sparkled in the sun; bees and dragon- 
 flies hovered over the water-lilies and pickerel- 
 weeds, and butterflies flitted along the shore. 
 Turtles were sunning themselves on a half -sunken 
 log, and a kingfisher, springing his rattle as he 
 flew from a tree near by, poised a moment in the 
 air, and then struck the wave with a splash. But 
 Grid Ketterell saw none of these things. He took 
 out his knife, and began to whittle the trunk on 
 which he sat, in the bark of which many a pre- 
 
108 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 vious jack-knife had carved the rude initials of 
 names he knew. 
 
 He was not even aware that he had a knife in 
 his hand. Behind his screen of boughs he listened 
 for voices, and looked up and down the shore for 
 the returning boat, thinking intently of the bad 
 things that had happened to him, what he ought 
 to have done differently, and what he was still to 
 do and say when he and Osk should meet once 
 more face to face. He hoped that would happen 
 soon, before he had time to get over his anger; 
 for it was anger alone, as he very well knew, that 
 gave him courage for the encounter. 
 
 " If I had only owned up when I had a chance ! " 
 he said to himself. "Why did n't I! I 'd have 
 done it, if I had n't been afraid and ashamed to 
 say how I had let him impose on me forcing his 
 way in, making me show him the cup, and drink- 
 ing the cider. Now see where I am ! After I 'd 
 begun to lie, I could n't go back. Telling the truth 
 could n't have made it any worse for me ; I should 
 have got turned off just the same. I could stand 
 that. But to be blamed for what Osk did after- 
 ward! For it was Osk I know it was Osk ! " 
 
 He was musing in this way, though not in so 
 many words, when he heard voices and the clank 
 
GIDEON MEETS HIS FOE 109 
 
 of oars, and presently saw Osk's boat coming 
 around a bend. Osk was in the stern, steering, 
 and a boy about Grid's own age was rowing, with 
 his back turned toward the clump of willows. 
 
 "It 's Dord Oliver," Gideon said, as he peered 
 through the branches with fierce eyes. " I '11 wait 
 till he gets out of the way. You may laugh, Osk 
 Ordway, but 't will be out of t' other side of your 
 mouth when I tackle you ! " 
 
 The voices were pitched in a low key, but sounds 
 pass easily over the water, and soon Grid could hear 
 parts of the conversation. The sound of his own 
 name, uttered by Osk with a derisive titter, was 
 like the sting of a hornet. " They 're talking about 
 me!" he muttered, holding himself stiff and still 
 against the upright trunk to keep from being seen. 
 
 Dord made some reply, but the words were in- 
 distinguishable. Then Osk said: 
 
 " Oh, yes, you can ; he 's one of the sort you can 
 do almost anything with; you can wind him 
 around your little finger at least, I can ! Only 
 don't tell him I said I had seen it; he made me 
 promise not to." 
 
 " They 're talking about the cup ! " thought Gid, 
 stunned and breathless. He listened again, as the 
 boat drew nearer. 
 
110 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 " I 'm afraid you won't get any cider," said Osk ; 
 "for there was only one more bottle left. I left 
 that for manners. But you can make him show 
 you mind, I don't say what." 
 
 If he meant the cup, he was talking as if he be- 
 lieved it was still in the place where he had seen 
 it. Grid was bewildered by this supposed assump- 
 tion on the part of the suspected thief, until he 
 had rallied his wits a little. 
 
 Meanwhile the boys ran the boat aground, and 
 began to throw out fish, which they counted as 
 they cast them on the shore. 
 
 "It 's all make-believe," Grid reasoned. "He 
 thinks it 's time for the cup to be missed. He 
 knows I '11 accuse him, and he talks that way so he 
 can bring up a witness to prove that he thought it 
 was still in the house. But he can't throw dust in 
 my eyes not very much ! " 
 
 By turning his head a little and looking back he 
 could watch every movement of the others ; while 
 they might likewise have seen him if they had not 
 been so busy with their catch of fish. After they 
 had thrown these out and had stepped out them- 
 selves, they made the boat fast to a stake, within 
 three paces of the ambushed Gideon. 
 
 "You divide 'em, while I 'm cutting twigs to 
 
GIDEON MEETS HIS FOE 113 
 
 string 'em on," said Osk, looking up into the wil- 
 low branches, and advancing directly toward Gid 
 on the other side of his upright tree. He was 
 raising his hand to reach the hanging branches 
 beyond. "Ough!" he ejaculated, starting back 
 as if he had chanced upon a wild Indian in am- 
 bush. " What in thunder Gid ! " 
 
 Grid turned upon him angrily glowering eyes. 
 
 " What 's the matter with you ? " Osk demanded? 
 quickly recovering from his surprise " stuck here 
 in the crotch of the tree ! " 
 
 For sole response Grid continued to glare at him 
 threateningly. Osk perceived at once that some 
 untoward thing had happened. No doubt Grid had 
 overheard his talk with Dord; well if it were no- 
 thing worse ! 
 
 " Here 's Gid Ketterell," cried Osk, " glum as an 
 oyster. I can't get a word out of him." 
 
 " Osk Ordway," said Gid, without moving from 
 his seat, but keeping his fiery eyes on the author 
 of his woes, " you '11 get words out of me you won't 
 like to hear, before we part company. I can wait 
 until you string your fish and let Dord get out of 
 the way ; for I guess you ' 11 think it 's as well to 
 talk with me alone ! " 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 OSK OKDWAY'S LITTLE FINGEK 
 
 LL this Grid said without faltering, 
 but a spasmodic catching of his 
 breath made his voice sound omi- 
 nously thick and tremulous. 
 
 "Thunder and Mars!" Osk ex- 
 claimed. " I never saw you so mad in all my life. 
 I did n't know you could be so riled ! If it 's any- 
 thing I 've done, I '11 make it all right." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " Grid retorted. " I know you will. 
 I 'm one of the sort you can do anything with ! 
 wind me around your little finger, can you ? We '11 
 see about that ! " 
 
 " That was all in fun," Osk said, trying to turn 
 off his embarrassment with a laugh. " I '11 see you 
 in a minute." 
 
 He cut two or three forked branches, and turned 
 to his companion on the shore. 
 
 " That 's all right, Dord," he said, seeing how the 
 
OSK ORD WAY'S LITTLE FINGER 115 
 
 fish had been divided. " Take whichever pile you 
 please, and don't wait for me. I 've got to have 
 a little row with Grid here," lowering his voice; 
 "he 's pudgicky about something, what I was 
 saying to you, I suppose. Keep dark about that 
 thing, Dord!" 
 
 Osk busied himself stringing his own fish until 
 Dord was gone, then turned once more to Grid, who 
 got down from the tree-trunk and stood confront- 
 ing him. 
 
 " Now what is it, Grid ? " Osk asked in the friend- 
 liest way. 
 
 "You know what it is!" Gid flung back, his 
 quivering features charged with wrathful reproach. 
 
 " My talk with Dord, I suppose," said Osk. " But 
 I don't see anything in that to raise your porcu- 
 pine's quills at me this way. A fellow must have 
 his joke. That 's all it was." 
 
 " It ain't that, and you know it," replied the im- 
 placable Gid. 
 
 He still grasped his knife, looking as if he might 
 easily be tempted to turn it into a weapon. Osk 
 kept a wary eye on the blade. 
 
 "Why, Gid, you 're out o' your head! you 're 
 crazy, sure!" he said, taking a step backward. 
 
 "You '11 find out whether I 'm crazy or not," 
 
116 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 said Grid, growing more bold and menacing as 
 Osk showed a disposition to retreat. But as he 
 advanced, Osk stopped with a fire in his eyes, 
 and put up a warning hand. 
 
 " Quit right there, Grid ! " he said, with his chin 
 out and his head thrust insolently forward from 
 his bent shoulders. "I ain't going to stand this 
 nonsense talking to me that way and threaten- 
 ing me! Put up that knife or I '11 throw it into 
 the river, and you after it." 
 
 " Better try it ! " G-id answered, defiantly. " I '11 
 talk as I please, spite of your bluster and pretended 
 ignorance. I 've been turned off by Fred Mel- 
 verton, kicked out, and ah 1 through you, Osk 
 Ordway ! " 
 
 " You don't say ! " Osk exclaimed. " I never be- 
 lieved that would happen, and I 'm awful sorry. 
 Did he miss the cider ? " 
 
 " Yes ; and he missed something else, Osk Ord- 
 way!" Gid leveled at him a terrible look. Osk 
 turned pale so at least Gid thought, as he put 
 the question Fred had put to him, "Where is 
 that prize cup ? " 
 
 " That prize cup ! " Osk repeated, with real or 
 feigned astonishment. "You don't mean " 
 
 " Yes, I do mean ! The prize cup I was fool 
 
OSK ORDWAY'S LITTLE FINGEE 117 
 
 enough to show you, and you were dishonest 
 enough to steal ! w said Gideon. 
 
 " You don't say that has been taken ! You left 
 it in the drawer; I saw you," Osk said rather 
 weakly, as it seemed to Grid. 
 
 " And nobody else saw me," Grid retorted. " No- 
 body else knew where to look for it. The cider 
 and the cup are the only things Fred has missed. 
 You know about the cider and you know about 
 the cup." 
 
 " Did you tell him that ? " Osk inquired quickly. 
 
 " No, I did n't. But I wish I had. I had denied 
 touching the cider, or letting anybody into the 
 house. Then when he said the cup had been ta- 
 ken, I could n't go back on my word. I wish now 
 I had," Gid repeated, with bitter self-reproach. 
 
 He related all that had happened in his inter- 
 view with Fred, and again charged Osk with the 
 robbery. Osk laughed scornfully. 
 
 " The idea of my doing such a thing as that ! " 
 he exclaimed. " You don't really think I did, Gid 
 Ketterell. For my part," he went on, without list- 
 ening to Gid's indignant protestation, " I don't be- 
 lieve the cup has been stolen. I don't take any 
 stock in that story. Fred Melverton is bluffing 
 you. He took it out of the drawer himself, to 
 
118 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 give you a good scare, after he found out about 
 the cider." 
 
 "You think so?" Grid replied, shaken by the 
 plausible argument, and grasping at that straw 
 of hope. 
 
 " No doubt of it," said Osk. " Fred says to him- 
 self, he says, ' Two bottles of cider gone,' he says ; 
 4 he 's had somebody in the house, and now I '11 
 teach him a lesson.' See ? " 
 
 " No, I don't see ! " Grid muttered. He was, how- 
 ever, more than half convinced that Osk was right, 
 and he wished to be wholly convinced. "I don't be- 
 lieve he 'd have made a fuss about the cider, if that 
 had been all he missed; he ain't that kind of a chap. 
 Anyhow, it 's all through you I 've lost the place." 
 
 " You '11 get taken back again," Osk assured him. 
 "Only stick to your story, and soon as he sees 
 you 're not to be beat out of it, he '11 conclude he 's 
 in the wrong." 
 
 "The cup is all I care for," Grid murmured, his 
 anger fast giving way before the wily influence of 
 his betrayer. "If I could only think it was the 
 way you say ! " 
 
 " I '11 bet my life on it ! " Osk declared. "Keep 
 still about it, and you never '11 hear from it again. 
 As for the place, I 'm sorry ; but even if you don't 
 
OSK ORDWAY'S LITTLE FINGER 119 
 
 go back, you '11 have a better time this summer 
 than if you 'd kept it ; you 'd have soon got sick 
 of aU that." 
 
 " I suppose I should," Grid admitted ; " but what 
 will my mother say when she knows ? " 
 
 u She need n't know," said Osk. " You can go 
 off every day just as if you were going to Melver- 
 ton's, and have all your time to yourself. Would n't 
 she like some of these fish ! I '11 give you some to 
 carry home ; they '11 please her, and keep her from 
 noticing anything strange in your looks. Then 
 I 've got some schemes to let you into. You know 
 we 've always had good times together, Grid." 
 
 " But why did you talk about me that way to 
 Dord Oliver ? " said Gid, with a last feeble flaming 
 up of his waning resentment. "You told him 
 about my showing the cup." 
 
 "I never mentioned the cup! It was all talk, 
 anyway ; a fellow must say something. You know, 
 you and I are always good cronies," said Osk, com- 
 pleting again the process, which he had boasted 
 was so easy, of winding Grid around his little finger. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 TKACY LISLE AND DOKD OLIVER 
 
 RACY LISLE entered upon his new 
 duties with a satisfaction to which 
 a feeling of triumph over Gideon 
 gave a peculiar zest. He laughed 
 as he handled the hose with which 
 Midget had been sprinkled and he himself had 
 been threatened, saying to himself : 
 
 " He told me never to set foot on these grounds 
 as long as he was in charge; and I said, 'You 
 won't always be in charge.' " 
 
 He wondered a little that the prophecy had so 
 unexpectedly come true. Meanwhile it was a pure 
 delight to see Midget playing about the place, free 
 and happy, and enjoying, in his own silent way, 
 the new order of things. The child, who had 
 always been accustomed to run in and out of the 
 house at pleasure when the Melvertons were at 
 home, would have taken similar liberties in their 
 
 120 
 
TEACY LISLE AND DOBD OLIVER 121 
 
 absence if Tracy had not rigorously kept him 
 out. 
 
 So, before going in himself that afternoon to 
 close the windows and pull down the shades, he 
 sent the little deaf-mute home, promising to follow 
 soon. He had carefully put everything in order, 
 and was about lowering the shade of a back cham- 
 ber window, when he saw something like a human 
 figure moving behind the vines of the trellis framed 
 against the side of the barn. 
 
 "Why, is that Midget?" he said to himself. 
 " Has n't he gone home yet f " 
 
 But it was n't Midget ; a much larger form ap- 
 peared at an opening of the vines, a head nodded, 
 and a hand made signs to Tracy. 
 
 " It 's George Oliver ! " he said. " What can he 
 want of me ? " 
 
 The two boys were about the same age, and were 
 on good terms enough, but not so intimate as they 
 had once been, the Oliver boy consorting too much 
 with the idle and reckless sort to be, in Mrs. Lisle's 
 opinion, a fit companion for her precious son ; in 
 the opinion also, we may add, of the precious son 
 himself. 
 
 " He never would have come here for me," Tracy 
 reflected. " He must think Grid Ketterell is still in 
 
122 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 charge; he is after Grid," his conclusion being 
 that George Oliver had seen, but had not recog- 
 nized, him through the window. "I ? 11 ask what 
 he wants, and maybe find out something else;" 
 for he had been all the afternoon in a study as to 
 which of the associates of Gid and Osk he should 
 approach in order to follow up the clue given him 
 by Mr. Walworth. 
 
 He was undoubtedly right as to George Oliver's 
 object in visiting the place. George appeared very 
 much surprised to see Tracy coming out of the 
 back door presently, locking it, and walking straight 
 to the trellis. 
 
 "Hello, Dord!" said Tracy, smiling diplomati- 
 cally. 
 
 Young Oliver had at first thought of taking him- 
 self unceremoniously out of the way; but though 
 he might easily have avoided an interview, there 
 was not time for him to escape recognition. So he 
 concluded to remain and face Master Lisle with as 
 confident an air as he could assume upon short 
 notice. 
 
 " Hello, Tracy ! " he replied, smiling in his turn, 
 but somewhat glassily. "I did n't know it was you." 
 
 "Well, it happens to be," said Tracy, with en- 
 gaging suavity. "Sorry I 'm not the one you 
 wanted." 
 
TEACY LISLE AND DOED OLIVEE 123 
 
 " That 's of no consequence," Dord replied. " I 
 thought Gid Ketterell " 
 
 " Gid went off some little time ago. Can't you 
 make use of me in his place 1 " said Tracy. " You 
 know you and I used to be pretty good friends, 
 Dord." 
 
 " Yes ; I always did like you, Tracy," Dord an- 
 swered honestly, pleased at the turn the talk was 
 taking. " We don't see much of each other, lately, 
 though." 
 
 "No," said Tracy; "and I wonder whose fault 
 it is." 
 
 Poor as the Lisles were, since the minister's 
 death, they stood high in the respect of the village 
 people, and likewise in their own esteem. Tracy, 
 as he grew up, saw more and more the propriety 
 insisted on by his mother of keeping a certain 
 class of boys at a distance. This independence on 
 his part they resented by calling him " stuck-up " 
 and " big-feeling." They might have conceded his 
 right to keep apart from them if the Lisles had 
 been wealthy, like the Melvertons ; but as it was, 
 his assumption of superiority was deemed offensive. 
 
 " I don't see how it can be my fault," said Dord. 
 Then, in a burst of candor, u Fact is, Tracy, I have 
 n't thought I was quite 'ristocratic enough for you." 
 
124 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 As he said this he turned very red, and looked 
 as if he feared he had wounded Tracy's sensibili- 
 ties. Tracy colored, too, but maintained his smil- 
 ing countenance. All this time they stood within 
 the vine-covered trellis, with the afternoon sun- 
 shine slanting in, and flickering upon them through 
 the leaves. 
 
 " I 'm glad you spoke so plainly, George," Tracy 
 replied, without betraying the least resentment. 
 " For now perhaps we can come to a better under- 
 standing. I am aristocratic, in one sense. But you 
 know it is n't because I have money, or dress par- 
 ticularly well, or " 
 
 " I know that," Dord hastened to admit, with an 
 air of apology. " Money and good clothes have n't 
 much to do with it." 
 
 "What has, then? Come, Dord!" said Tracy. 
 " Speak right out ! I '11 promise you that I sha'n't 
 be offended." 
 
 Leaning an elbow in a diamond of the trellis, 
 and resting on one foot, with the other thrown up 
 carelessly on the toe behind it, he regarded Dord 
 ingratiatingly. Dord stood before him, with his 
 hands in his pockets, his eyes cast down, and his 
 russet cheeks drawn with a grin of comical em- 
 barrassment. 
 
. 
 
 "'COME, DORD!' SAID TRACY. 'SPEAK RIGHT OUT!'" 
 
TEACY LISLE AND DORD OLIVER 127 
 
 " You don't dare tell me ! " Tracy urged coax- 
 ingly. " Come, Dord ! " 
 
 After a pause Dord lifted his eyes and, looking 
 straight into Tracy's with a frank expression, 
 replied : 
 
 "You 're a better fellow than the rest of us; 
 that 's just where it is, Tracy. You 're a better 
 fellow than the rest of us." 
 
 Tracy was touched ; his brave blue eyes glistened 
 as he answered : 
 
 " Oh, now, see here, Dord, what do you mean by 
 that f I 'm no such good fellow as you think. I 've 
 got a high temper, I can be as selfish and jealous 
 as anybody, and I 'm constantly saying and doing 
 things I 'm ashamed of, or sorry for, afterward." 
 
 "If you were pretty mean you would n't be 
 ashamed of 'em," Dord suggested, with a shy look 
 out of the corner of his eyes. 
 
 " Something in that ! " said Tracy, with a gay 
 little laugh. "But what I 'm coming to is this. 
 " It 's the good heart that makes one fellow really 
 better than another; and there is n't a better- 
 hearted boy in town than you, Dord Oliver ! There 
 is n't one I 'd sooner go to for a genuine, down- 
 right, disinterested kindness. Do you believe it ! " 
 
 It was Dord's turn to feel happy and grateful 
 
128 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 now. He winked quickly as he leaned back against 
 the trellis, with his head turned half away, and 
 said in a low voice : 
 
 " I do mean right ! But I don't know how it is 
 you 're brighter 'n the rest of us; that 's the 
 difference." 
 
 " Heigho ! " said Tracy, with something between 
 a laugh and a sigh, as he took a step toward him, 
 across the overarched space. "' Brighter'? You 
 know yourself, Dord Oliver, that in school you 
 were as bright at your lessons as I was, when 
 you tried. If you had kept on and entered the 
 high school, instead of dropping out as you did, 
 you might be as far along as I am. So might sev- 
 eral of the boys, who got tired of study, and im- 
 agined they had education enough. Is n't that so?" 
 
 " Maybe 't is," Dord assented, with a sorry nod. 
 
 " No ! " cried Tracy. " It is n't that, either, that 
 makes me aristocratic if I am aristocratic and 
 I hope I am, in the right way. Shall I tell you 
 what it is ? " 
 
 "I 'd like to know," Dord replied earnestly, as 
 Tracy paused. 
 
 " It is because I try to make the best of myself. 
 That 's why I keep away from boys that hold 
 themselves too cheap. I can't afford to idle away 
 
TEACY LISLE AND DOED OLIVEE 129 
 
 my time as they do, caring only for the fun of the 
 moment. Something won't let me. I must im- 
 prove my mind get knowledge prepare myself 
 for whatever may be before me in life. When I 
 read about great and noble men, I can't help com- 
 paring myself with them, and trying to be like 
 them. Our youth is too precious to be trifled 
 away. I believe in enjoying it as we go along, 
 but in a different way from those that find it so 
 dull without coarse excitements. If that is what 
 makes me aristocratic," Tracy went on, "why, 
 then I 'm glad I am aristocratic." 
 
 Dord stared at him with astonishment akin 
 to awe. 
 
 "I don't wonder you keep away from us," he 
 replied. 
 
 " Don't you ever have such feelings?" Tracy 
 inquired. 
 
 "Yes I suppose every fellow has odd spells. 
 I only wish I could live up to 'em, as you do ! " 
 Dord declared, sincerely. "But it 's so much 
 easier to go off and have a good time ! " 
 
 "Yes," said Tracy; "and the right kind of a 
 good time is something I believe in, too. I enjoy 
 it as much as anybody. But you fellows want to 
 make life all a good time. You 've got to go to 
 
130 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 work before long, and you ought to be interested 
 in that work. Then suppose you give a part of 
 your leisure to serious reading and thinking say, 
 an hour or two a day; have you any idea what a 
 difference it would make in the course of a year? 
 three years? ten years? I think, Dord, if you 
 should try that, you would begin to feel * aristo- 
 cratic ' yourself ; you would be a little more choice 
 of your spare time and of the company you keep." 
 
 " That 's so ! " said the conscience-smitten Dord. 
 " I guess that 's so." 
 
 Then there was a long pause, Tracy wondering 
 how he should approach the subject that was up- 
 permost in his mind when he had come to meet 
 Dord. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 FOLLOWING UP THE "CLUE" 
 
 were coming here to find Grid 
 Ketterell," Tracy at last said. 
 
 "Yes; I thought it was about 
 time for him to be going along 
 home, and I 'd go with him," Dord 
 replied, after a little hesitation. 
 
 " You 've been here for him before ? " 
 " No, never once." 
 
 " Do you know of anybody who has 1 " Tracy in- 
 quired. 
 
 " I don't know as I ought to tell," said Dord ; for 
 he, like almost all the village boys, and some of 
 their parents and teachers too, I regret to say, 
 was in the habit of saying "don't know as" for 
 "don't know that," and using other incorrect ex- 
 pressions of which fastidious mothers like Mrs. 
 Lisle disapproved. 
 
 "If there is any good honest reason why you 
 
 131 
 
132 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 should n't tell, don't," said Tracy, studying him 
 with kind, searching eyes. " But I have a very 
 good and a very honest reason for asking the 
 question." He concluded he had better come 
 frankly to the point. "You can help me about 
 a very important matter, Dord, if you will." 
 
 "I should like to do that," said Dord. 
 
 " Then tell me who has been here to see Gid." 
 
 " Osk Ordway has ; I don't know of any others." 
 
 " When was that ? " Tracy asked, with quicken- 
 ing heart-beats. 
 
 " I don't know ; just two or three days ago." 
 
 "What did he want?" 
 
 "Nothing particular, I guess," Dord answered, 
 evasively. 
 
 Tracy thought it time for him to take a bold 
 stand. 
 
 "He wanted something, and he got something; 
 and you know it, Dord. And you wanted some- 
 thing to-day. Was it cider ? " 
 
 Dord gave a sheepish sort of laugh. 
 
 "I guess there wa'n't" (wtfn't for was n't was 
 another of his incorrect words) "much of any 
 cider left." 
 
 " I should n't suppose there would be, after Osk 
 Ordway had had a taste of it," Tracy observed. 
 
FOLLOWING UP THE "CLUE" 133 
 
 " That 's so ! " said Dord. " I wa'n't after cider." 
 
 "What then? You ought to tell me," Tracy 
 insisted. 
 
 "Osk told me Grid would show me something, 
 and I thought it might be Fred Melverton's prize 
 cup," Dord replied. "But I could n't make him 
 say so." 
 
 " Dord ! " Tracy exclaimed, " this is very impor- 
 tant what you are saying to me. Now I am 
 going to tell you something a most astonishing 
 thing that has happened in strictest confidence. 
 You won't speak of it till I give you leave." 
 
 Dord gave the required promise, and listened 
 wonderingly. 
 
 " That prize cup has been stolen ! " 
 
 " It hain't ! " said Dord, not by way of contradic- 
 tion, but as an expression of his intense amaze- 
 ment. " Hain't " was another of his words. 
 
 " You 're a lucky fellow, Dord," said Tracy. 
 
 " I don't see how " began Dord. 
 
 "Why, that you did n't come here and get Grid 
 to show you the cup before it was stolen. Don't 
 you see! You might have become an object of 
 suspicion." 
 
 Dord's face grew flushed and damp. 
 
 " And let me advise you," Tracy continued, " if 
 
134 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 you have any sort of connection or understanding 
 with Osk, to wash your hands of it at once. Just 
 what did he tell you ? " 
 
 " About the cup 1 He did n't call it by name," 
 Dord replied. " He only said Gid had shown him 
 something in the Melverton house, and that I could 
 make him show it to me. That was all. I thought 
 it must be that; for, before that, we had talked 
 about Fred's winning the prize." 
 
 " It was that ! " Tracy assured him. " Osk is 
 mixed up in the business the robbery, to speak 
 it plainly and he meant to mix you up." 
 
 " I can't believe it ! I thought Osk " Dord fal- 
 tered incredulously. 
 
 " You thought better of Osk than that. I can't 
 say whether I did or not. His visit to the house 
 that day was as secret as possible ; I happen to 
 know about that," Tracy declared, triumphantly. 
 "That Grid let him in I am as sure as I am that 
 Grid denied it afterwards. Very soon after that 
 perhaps that very day the cup disappeared. Gid 
 vows he knows nothing about it. He also says he 
 knows nothing about the cider that was taken." 
 
 "Did he say that?" cried Dord. He seemed 
 about to add more, but stopped, fearing perhaps 
 he had already said things that might complicate 
 matters for Gid. 
 
FOLLOWING UP THE "CLUE" 135 
 
 "Don't mince it!" said Tracy. "Did n't Osk 
 brag to you that he drank cider in the house? 
 You said as much before." 
 
 " Yes, he did," Dord was forced to admit. 
 
 "Then what can we think of Gid's denials?" 
 Tracy demanded. 
 
 "I don't know what to think," Dord replied. 
 " But here 's one thing. If Osk took the cup, or 
 knew it had been taken, why should he put me up 
 to come and ask to see it ? " 
 
 " To mix you up in it, as I told you. Or for any 
 other reason. It does n't deceive me. And you, 
 Dord candidly, now ! don't you see I 've good 
 reason for believing Osk took the cup ? " 
 
 " Yes," Dord avowed. " And you 'd have a still 
 better reason if you knew something I know." 
 
 "What 's that?" Tracy asked, so very eagerly 
 that Dord became alarmed. 
 
 "I guess I 'd better not tell; it 's something I 
 had n't ought to have mentioned." 
 
 "How! something you ought n't to have men- 
 tioned ? " Tracy questioned, unconsciously correct- 
 ing Dord's language in repeating it. " I '11 tell you 
 this, Dord Oliver ; it 's always better, in a matter 
 of this sort, to meet it squarely and make a clean 
 record for yourself. You don't help a wrong-doer 
 
136 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 by keeping back anything that must come out; 
 and you may be injuring yourself, you know." 
 
 "'T ain't anything that'll hurt me if I tell it," 
 said Dord ; " and I don't suppose it will hurt Osk 
 not if he 's all right." 
 
 " Of course not ! that ? s the point," said Tracy. 
 " But if he ought to be exposed, he will be ; and 
 you don't want to pass for one who has knowingly 
 covered up his misdeeds. Now Dord ! " 
 
 Dord had backed up against the trellis, as Tracy 
 followed and urged him ; he could now retreat no 
 farther, nor escape in any direction, Tracy holding 
 him fast, with both hands on his shoulders, and 
 confronting him with a determined smile. 
 
 "I 'd jest as lieves tell; I don't know why I 
 should n't," said -Dord. " Two or three nights ago 
 Tuesday night, I 'm pretty sure I was on the 
 street with the Sweeney boys, when we saw Osk 
 come out of Elkins's orchard ; he got over the wall 
 and started to cross over to the street his gran'sir 
 lives on." 
 
 "I know; Mr. Pudgwick Maple street," said 
 Tracy. 
 
 "He was carrying something under his coat, 
 which we might not have noticed," Dord continued, 
 "if it had n't bothered him in getting over the 
 
FOLLOWING UP THE "CLUE" 137 
 
 wall. Just as lie was getting down to the sidewalk, 
 lie seemed to see ns coming around the corner 
 by the harness-shop. He hesitated a little, then 
 jumped down and started to cross over, as I said ; 
 appearing not to notice us though it was bright 
 moonlight." 
 
 " What time of night was this ? " Tracy inquired. 
 
 He had taken his hands from Dord's shoulders, 
 but still stood facing him, listening with intense 
 interest to every word of his story. 
 
 " A little after nine ; between nine and half -past," 
 replied Dord. "We ran after Osk, and overtook 
 him, and the first thing Dick Sweeney said was : 
 
 " l Hullo, Osk ! What ye got there I ' 
 
 " ' There ? Where f ' says Osk. 
 
 " ' Under your coat-flap,' says Dick. 
 
 "'Oh! that?' says Osk. ' That 's a bullhead I 
 ketched up here in the river.' 
 
 "' Funny place to carry it, under your coat, 
 wrapped up in your handkerchief,' Dick says ; for 
 we ketched a glimpse of something white. It was 
 only Dick's guess that it was a handkerchief." 
 
 " What did he say to that ? " Tracy questioned 
 with excited eagerness. 
 
 "Something about a fellow having a right to 
 carry fish in his own fashion. Then he got away 
 
138 THE PKIZE CUP 
 
 from us as soon as he could ; and the last we saw 
 of him," said Dord, "he turned into his gran'sir 
 Pudgwick's gate, and went around to the shed 
 door." 
 
 "And what did you boys think 1 " Tracy asked. 
 
 "We did n't swallow the fish," Dord replied, 
 with a grin. " He never 'd have made such a mys- 
 tery of a horned pout ketched in the river. But I 
 had no idea, till now, what it might really be." 
 
 Tracy hurriedly put the question : 
 
 " What 's your idea now 1 " 
 
 " Seems as if it must have been well, I 'd 
 ruther not say." 
 
 "There 's no need of expressing an opinion," 
 cried Tracy, gratified beyond measure. " Do you 
 believe it was a handkerchief you saw, or the 
 thing itself?" 
 
 " Should n't wonder if it was the thing itself," 
 Dord replied. "'T was just a glimpse we got of 
 something light-colored under his dark coat-flap." 
 
 " Will the Sweeney boys remember about it ? " 
 
 " I should say so ! We talked it over enough on 
 our way home, after Osk left us." 
 
 Then Dord told of the meeting between Grid and 
 Osk under the willows. 
 
 " It was n't what Osk had been saying to you, 
 
FOLLOWING UP THE "CLUE" 139 
 
 and Grid may have overheard, that made the 
 trouble," Tracy declared ; " at least, not that alone. 
 I '11 wager the stolen cup was at the bottom of it." 
 
 " 'T was something pretty serious, anyway," said 
 Dord; "for Gid appeared awful cut up; I never 
 saw him look so black." 
 
 " Dord," exclaimed Tracy, " you 've no idea how 
 important all this is. Say nothing of it to 
 anybody, till I report the whole thing to Fred 
 Melverton." 
 
 " I hope I sha'n't get dragged into any scrape," 
 said Dord. 
 
 "You won't, if what you tell me is true, I 
 promise you." 
 
 "But I don't want to get Osk's ill-will," said 
 Dord uneasily. 
 
 "I know that won't be pleasant," said Tracy; 
 " but I 've no doubt it will be much better for you 
 than his good-will. Osk Ordway's bad influence 
 over boys in this village has got to be put down; 
 and I think this thing is going to do it. Now, take 
 my advice, Dord," Tracy continued earnestly; 
 " keep away from him and his gang. As for Grid 
 Ketterell, you need n't come here for him any 
 more; he has been turned off on account of the 
 robbery." 
 
140 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 Dord was greatly surprised. " His mother did n't 
 know. I stopped at his house," he said, " on nay 
 way over, thinking he might have gone home 
 early. She said he had been home to dinner, and 
 gone back again that I would find him here." 
 
 " Grid seems to be weaving rather a tangled web," 
 Tracy suggested, "he and Osk Ordway. Now, 
 thanks to you, Dord, I think I 've a chance to 
 unravel it." 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 TRACY'S TELEGRAM 
 
 BELIEVE I have tracked the fox to 
 Ms den." 
 
 This was the ten-word despatch 
 which Tracy wired to Fred Melver- 
 ton that evening; and it brought 
 Fred up from the seaside again early the next 
 forenoon. 
 
 Fred was accompanied by his friend Canton 
 Quimby, as before ; they came sailing into the 
 Melverton place so swiftly and silently, on their 
 pneumatic tires, that Tracy, who was kneeling in 
 the flower-beds, was hardly aware of their ap- 
 proach until they sprang off upon the walk close 
 behind him. 
 
 He rose and turned quickly, and saw them stand- 
 ing there, radiant with health and gay spirits, each 
 beside his wheel. 
 
 " Well, Trace, we ? re here," said Melverton, 
 laughing. 
 
 141 
 
142 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 " I see you are ! " Tracy replied, recovering from 
 his surprise. "You 're not exactly a pair of 
 seraphs, but if you had dropped down out of 
 the sky you could n't have come upon me more 
 suddenly." 
 
 He stood blushing before them, handsome but 
 embarrassed, conscious of fingers soiled from the 
 pulling of weeds about the roots of the plants, and 
 awkwardly unpresentable for hand-shaking. 
 
 " I never meant you should do this sort of work, 
 Trace ! " Fred exclaimed, leaning his wheel against 
 the piazza steps. 
 
 " It 's the one thing Gid Ketterell did n't do, and 
 the one thing that needs to be done," Tracy made 
 answer. " Did you get my telegram ? " 
 
 " Did I get it ! " echoed Fred. " It gave me such 
 a start, I nearly upset the tea-table." 
 
 And his friend Canton Quimby added, " It was 
 all I could do to keep him from hopping on his 
 bike and scooting up here last evening; it was 
 only by promising I would come with him this 
 morning. We 're fox-hunting!" 
 
 " That is, if I understand just what you meant 
 by the fox," said Melverton. " If you have tracked 
 
 fkat-~* 
 
 "That 's just what I have done," said Tracy, 
 confidently. 
 
TRACY'S TELEGRAM 143 
 
 He went on to relate, rapidly but circumstan- 
 tially, the discoveries he had made, through Mr. 
 Walworth and G-eorge Oliver ; Fred listening with 
 delighted approval, both of Tracy's tact in the af- 
 fair and of his shrewd conclusions. At the close, 
 Canton Quimby, who was always finding spheres 
 of usefulness for his friends, remarked pointedly : 
 
 "Don't consider me impertinent, young man, 
 but allow me to inform you that you have a career 
 before you. You are a born detective. I advise 
 you to take it up as a biz." 
 
 " Thank you ! " Tracy replied with a laugh, not 
 in the least displeased. " A little amateur work is 
 all I should ever care to do in that line, and that 
 only to oblige a friend. I fairly stumbled upon 
 this, without much credit to myself." 
 
 "You 've worked it up with admirable address 
 and discretion," Fred declared. 
 
 " But the fox is n't caught yet," Tracy suggested, 
 aglow with modest pleasure. 
 
 " No, but we '11 have him out of his den, I war- 
 rant ! " said Fred, with enthusiasm. " I know this 
 fellow's folks, Osk Ordway's grandparents," turn- 
 ing to Canton Quimby. "Honest old people as 
 ever lived. Their daughter made a runaway 
 match eloped with a music-teacher, whom they 
 
14:4 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 and everybody except her knew to be an unprin- 
 cipled adventurer. After two or three years she 
 came home with broken health and bringing this 
 boy. She died, and left him to the care of her 
 parents. They have had no end of trouble try- 
 ing to bring him up in the way he should go." 
 
 "And the boy's father?" Quimby inquired. 
 
 " The last I heard of him he was in trouble for 
 drawing money on a forged check somewhere in 
 Colorado. He has never done anything for his son's 
 support. The boy just preys upon his grandparents, 
 who can neither govern him nor turn him out of 
 doors. The old man has got him out of several 
 bad scrapes ; he vows each time he will never help 
 him out of another. I think we 'd better lose no 
 time in following up this trail." 
 
 " That 's my opin'," Quimby replied. " Take it 
 while it 's fresh." 
 
 " Do you want me to go with you to find Dord 
 Oliver, and get him to tell his story to you ? " Tracy 
 asked. 
 
 " No," said Fred ; " I 've no doubt you have re- 
 ported it correctly. We can call him as a witness 
 later. And we '11 leave Gideon for the present. 
 Osk Ordway is our game." 
 
 Then, leaving Tracy to await developments, the 
 
TRACY'S TELEGRAM 145 
 
 young men leaped upon their wheels, and sped 
 away down the road in the direction of the village. 
 
 As they approached Maple Street, Fred pointed 
 out to his companion the small brown house where 
 Osk lived with his grandparents, and said to him : 
 
 " Now we separate. I '11 run down to the house, 
 and get a chance, if I can, to interview the old 
 grandfather alone ; I believe I see him in his gar- 
 den. In the meantime, you ride on to the police 
 headquarters, and lay the whole thing before the 
 chief the officer I introduced you to the other 
 day." 
 
 " Yesterday," Canton Quimby suggested. 
 
 "Was it no longer ago than that? How an 
 exciting event crowds the sense of time!" Fred 
 exclaimed, and then he added, " I M better not be 
 seen visiting the police with you; the fox might 
 take alarm." 
 
 " I understand. I am to consult the chief, and 
 to have him and his machinery ready for emer- 
 gencies," said Quimby in a business-like way. 
 "Then what?" 
 
 " Then ride back, and pass leisurely to and fro 
 before the house, once or twice, or until I give you 
 a signal. Say twenty minutes or half an hour from 
 now. I '11 be in sight somewhere." 
 
146 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 So saying, Fred Melverton turned down a street 
 that ran parallel to Maple street, and, making a 
 swift detour, again approached the house of the 
 grandparents from the other side. 
 
XXII 
 
 GKAN'SIR PUDGWICK 
 
 SK ORDWAY'S grandfather (or 
 " gran'sir," as Osk and others called 
 him) was a house- and sign-painter, 
 who had so far retired from busi- 
 ness that he employed his activi- 
 ties which in his advanced age and portly con- 
 dition were not great chiefly in the care of his 
 cow and his garden, his poultry and his pigs. He 
 had a ponderous person, a big bald head, a smooth- 
 shaven face, and a three-story chin. 
 
 He was at work that morning hoeing his sweet 
 corn in a little patch beside the house, when young 
 Mr. Melverton alighted from his bicycle at the gate, 
 and walked toward him. 
 
 " Good morning, Mr. Pudgwick ! w said Fred, 
 tracking the freshly stirred earth between the rows. 
 " Your corn looks well." 
 " Passable, passable," said the old man, holding 
 
 147 
 
148 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 his hoe-handle with one hand, while with the other 
 he lifted his tattered straw hat not to salute his 
 visitor, but to admit the cooling breath of heaven 
 to the dewy expanse of white scalp which he un- 
 covered. At the same time the triple chin became 
 quadruple as he settled it on his immense chest. 
 " Well enough," he added, " considering who the 
 gardener is." 
 
 The big man, by the way, had so small a voice, 
 that it seemed as if there must have been a little 
 man somewhere inside him who did the talking. 
 
 "You take care of it yourself, I see; and it 
 speaks well for the gardener," remarked Fred, his 
 fine face and athletic figure, as he stood there, tall, 
 handsome, erect, in his trim bicycle suit, present- 
 ing a curious contrast to unwieldy old Gran'sir 
 Pudgwick, in his baggy pantaloons and coarse 
 shirt open at the throat. 
 
 The piping voice in the huge bulk made answer : 
 
 " I do about all the taking care of it that it gets. 
 And I am seventy-six and scant of breath, and it 
 jest about kills me to stoop, and quite kills me to 
 get up again once I am down." 
 
 There was a humorous twinkle in the small eyes 
 that looked out from the coarse features, as he 
 added : 
 
GKAN'SIR PUDGWICK 151 
 
 "I don't have to lift quite all creation when 
 I rise up, but it 's a pretty good lump of it. It 's 
 some years since I got too heavy to resk myself 
 with a paint-pot on a ladder." 
 
 "What does that strapping grandson of yours 
 do?" Fred inquired. "I should think he would 
 help you in the garden." 
 
 u That 's what any one would think ; any one that 
 did n't know him," replied Gran'sir Pudgwick. 
 
 "Is n't he any more industrious than he used 
 to be!" Fred continued. 
 
 " Any more what f " cried Gran'sir Pudgwick, 
 with grimly humorous surprise. "I never heard 
 that term applied to him in any degree. The only 
 way for me to get work out of him is to hire him 
 at exorbitant wages ; then he quits soon as ever he 
 gets a little money to spend." 
 
 Fred had got the conversation started in the 
 right direction, and he pursued it. 
 
 "He is entirely dependent on you, is n't he?" 
 he inquired. 
 
 "That 's the general impression," said Gran'sir 
 Pudgwick. "I feed him, lodge him, clothe him; 
 and I 'ye sent him to school as long as he could 
 be got to go. But it seems to be his opinion that 
 J'm dependent on Mm. He 's master of the house; 
 
152 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 I 'm only his steward, and I 'm wrongfully keeping 
 back money that should be turned over to him." 
 
 " That 's a strange condition of things," Fred 
 answered. "You have everything in your own 
 hands ; why don't you bring him to terms by 
 putting him on a short allowance ? Show him 
 that you are master of the situation." 
 
 "I 've threatened it and I 've tried it. But 
 he 's got one thing you don't take into account." 
 
 " What 's that I " Fred queried. 
 
 " A gram'er ! " said the old man, bringing his 
 hoe down beside a hill of corn with a smart slap. 
 
 Fred was puzzled to imagine what advantage 
 any sort of a grammar could be to a boy so little 
 studious unless it were to throw it ; and the 
 whimsical idea occurred to him that Gran'sir 
 Pudgwick would be a mark not easy to miss. 
 But, quickly divining the old man's meaning, he 
 said seriously : 
 
 "His grandmother? She takes his part?" 
 
 " She does, and she does n't," Gran'sir Pudgwick 
 replied. " She knows him, and she '11 say as bitter 
 things about him as I do. He shows her no more 
 respect than he shows that cow hitched by the 
 chain. His gram'er 's hitched by a chain and a 
 stake druv into the ground. That chain and stake 
 
GRAN'SIR PUDGWICK 153 
 
 is her memory and her affection for the boy's 
 mother our beloved, misguided, only daughter. 
 When it comes to the case in hand, and I 'm de- 
 termined either to discipline him, or to turn him 
 outdoors, she relents; she can't break the chain 
 nor pull up the stake. She says, * Think of Angie ! 
 for her sake ! ' and she forgives everything, though 
 his cruel ingratitude is breaking her heart." 
 
 The old gran'sir spoke with an emotion that 
 heaved his profound chest. Fred was moved with 
 compassion; but he thought it time to introduce 
 the errand that had brought him. 
 
 " Where is he to-day ? " he asked. " I 've a little 
 business with that grandson of yours" all the 
 time keeping a lookout over the garden fence, for 
 Canton Quimby on his wheel. 
 
 " Nobody knows where is ; nobody ever knows," 
 said G-ran'sir Pudgwick, fitfully hoeing at a hill of 
 corn, then stopping to talk again. "What scrape 
 is he in now ? " he added sharply. 
 
 Although he seemed often to find relief to his 
 wounded affections in complaining of his grand- 
 son, he was seldom willing to hear others accuse 
 him. This morning, however, he was in an unu- 
 sually resentful mood ; and when Fred replied that 
 a valuable object had been taken from the Melver- 
 
154 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 ton premises, in the absence of the family, and 
 that he had reason to believe Oscar knew what 
 had become of it, Gran'sir Pudgwick set up his 
 hoe between the rows of corn, and exclaimed : 
 
 "Jest like him! jest like him. We '11 ferret it 
 out! We '11 ferret it out! Was it anything he 
 could carry in a six-quart pail?" 
 
 " Oh, yes ; very conveniently," Fred answered. 
 
 " When was it taken 1 " 
 
 " Three or four days ago ; probably last Tuesday 
 night." 
 
 " Come with me ! " said Gran'sir Pudgwick, start- 
 ing to leave the corn-patch. " We can't talk here." 
 
 He tramped heavily between the rows, with 
 Fred at his side; but stopped suddenly, facing 
 the young man, as he said : 
 
 "I 'm afraid he has got it, whatever it was. 
 Wait till I tell you. Two or three mornings ago, 
 it might have been Wednesday morning, I 
 noticed a singular thing. He went out afore break- 
 fast, which he does n't often do. Breakfast is a 
 favorite institution of his, and his was waiting that 
 morning. His gram'er will keep his breakfast on 
 the stove till he comes for it, if it ain't till noon. 
 Then it must be ready, and he must have it hot, or 
 there 's a circus ! " 
 
GEAN'SIE PUDGWICK 155 
 
 Again the old gran'sir started to leave the field, 
 Fred accompanying him. 
 
 " But on that morning, Mr. Pudgwick 1 " 
 
 " I '11 tell ye." They stopped on a strip of sward 
 beside the house. " It was such an unusual thing 
 his going out before he set down to his break- 
 fast, which his gram'er was hurrying to put on the 
 table that I kept watch of his movements. He 
 went first to the woodshed, then up the stairs 
 them outside stairs to the shop the old paint- 
 shop here, over the barn." 
 
 " I know the old shop," said Fred, casting a glance 
 up at it. 
 
 " I do precious little work in it, late years," Gran'- 
 sir Pudgwick went on; "but once in a while a 
 small job comes in, and I still use it as a shop, 
 though sometimes I don't get up them stairs once 
 a week. He uses it more than I do for traps, 
 fishing-gear, and such like." 
 
 " Well, about that morning 1 " Fred urged. 
 
 "If he has taken anything from your place he 
 had no business with, I ain't going to shield him," 
 Gran'sir Pudgwick went on, as they walked toward 
 the outside stairs. "He was absent some little 
 time in the shop, then he comes back to the wood- 
 shed, and gets a six-quart tin-pail, which he carries 
 
156 THE PKIZE CUP 
 
 up to the shop, with the cover on. All the time 
 I was pretending to read my newspaper by the 
 kitchen window. He was gone about as long as 
 before ; then bimeby he comes out of the shop, and 
 down the stairs, without the tin-pail, and comes 
 into the house, to be scolded by his gram'er, and to 
 scold back, 'cause his breakfast was n't served hot, 
 as if he lived in a hotel." 
 
 " Can I see that pail ? " Fred Melverton asked. 
 
 " I guess we can find it," the old man made an- 
 swer, as he began his slow and laborious ascent of 
 the stairs, with his hand on the rail. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE OLD PAINT SHOP 
 
 UST then Canton Quimby glided by 
 on his wheel, and received a signal 
 from Fred, who was patiently fol- 
 lowing the ponderous Pudgwick up 
 | the steep flight. The old man car- 
 ried a key he had taken from some projection un- 
 der the stairway ; with this he unlocked the shop- 
 door, and entering, sank down, gasping for breath, 
 upon the nearest stool. 
 
 The place had a littered and desolate look with 
 its empty paint-buckets, paint-kegs, and oil-cans 
 cluttering one end of the room; old sign-boards 
 stood in a corner; there were paint-smeared tres- 
 tles and planks, and rubbish of various sorts on 
 the paint-spattered floor. 
 
 On one of the trestle-supported planks was a tin 
 pail, which Gran'sir Pudgwick pointed out as the 
 one in question. 
 
 157 
 
158 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 " I hain't never looked into it," he said ; " but you 
 can. I 'm afraid, though, since it is left out in 
 plain sight so, you won't find what you 're looking 
 for, inside on 't." 
 
 Nevertheless, Fred hastened to lift the cover, and 
 found the pail empty. 
 
 " I expected it," he said. " You say Oscar came 
 up into the shop twice that morning : the first time 
 without bringing the pail. No doubt that was a 
 visit of exploration ; he was looking for a safe hid- 
 ing-place for his booty. That is still, probably, 
 somewhere in this room, unless he has since taken 
 it away." 
 
 " I don't think he has," Gran'sir Pudgwick replied. 
 " For I 've reason to think it is still here." 
 
 Fred was eager to learn that reason. 
 
 " He has brought fellows in to see it," said the 
 old man. 
 
 "That 's interesting!" Melverton exclaimed. 
 "What fellows?" 
 
 " That young Allston ; he was the first. He was 
 here two evenings ago." 
 
 " Winthrop Allston ! I thought he had a place 
 in the city. 
 
 " Yes, he has, in a jeweler's store," said the old 
 man. "Comes out here, though, pretty often, in 
 
THE OLD PAINT SHOP 159 
 
 summer. I believe my gran'son sent for him. You 
 see, I ? m telling you everything I know; for if 
 there 's anything crooked, I >m bound to help you 
 straighten it." 
 
 " I >m greatly obliged to you ! " Fred exclaimed. 
 "What you say astonishes me! In a jeweler's 
 store ? And Oscar sent for him 1 " 
 
 " I saw a letter addressed to him, on my gran'- 
 son's table, the morning before Allston came," said 
 Gran'sir Pudgwick. 
 
 Fred Melverton, keeping a lookout for Canton 
 Quimby, had gone over and stationed himself by a 
 window. He now asked permission to open it. 
 
 " The air is close here," he said. 
 
 " Certain, certain; do anything you like." 
 
 Fred opened the window, and stood by it until 
 he had an opportunity to make another signal to 
 Canton Quimby, repassing on his bicycle. Mean- 
 while he remarked : 
 
 "I always thought Wint Allston was a pretty 
 decent sort of fellow." 
 
 " Why not I " retorted the old man. " My gran'- 
 son goes with decent fellows, when he 's a-mind to. 
 I buy good clothes for him ; and, see him dressed 
 up, you 'd say he might be a ornament to society, 
 if he chose. Polite 1 he can be as polite as a basket 
 
 10 
 
160 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 of chips to anybody but his gram'er and me. From 
 something I overheard, as they went ont of the 
 yard together, he seemed to be making some sort 
 of a bargain with Winthrop." 
 
 " I see ! " Fred replied, mentally making swift 
 combinations of all the accumulating circumstances 
 in the case. " You 're sure Winthrop did n't carry 
 the thing away ? " 
 
 " Yes ; without 't was something he could carry 
 in his pockets. Besides," said Gran'sir Pudgwick, 
 " Oscar has had fellows here since : to show it to 
 'em, I judged. At all events, he had some mys- 
 terious business with 'em, up here in the shop 
 Tom Hatch yesterday forenoon ; and that Ketterell 
 whelp in the evening. Never more than one at a 
 time." 
 
 "Gideon Ketterell !" Fred exclaimed. "He is 
 in it, then, after all ! " 
 
 " I judge so," said the old man. " As my gran'- 
 son went away with him, I heard him say, ' You 
 can't complain but what that 's fair, if I give you 
 half.' Seemed as if there 'd been some sort of 
 trouble between 'em, and Oscar was coaxing him 
 around. He 's a master-hand to coax, as he is to 
 bully ; good at one as t' other." 
 
 Fred Melverton stepped forward in front of the 
 
THE OLD PAINT SHOP 161 
 
 fat old gran'sir on the stool, nursing his series of 
 chins, and said earnestly : 
 
 "With your consent, Mr. Pudgwick, I wish to 
 make a thorough search of these premises." 
 
 " Certain," said the old man. " As I said before, 
 do anything you like. I never shielded my gran'- 
 son in wrong-doing, and never will." 
 
 " We all know you to be a thoroughly upright 
 man," said Melverton. " I shall need some help ; 
 and to have everything regular, I have called in 
 Mr. Hazel." 
 
 " Chief of Police? " the old man looked up, some- 
 what startled. " Is it so serious ? " 
 
 "If we find nothing it won't be serious at all," 
 Fred replied. "If we do find what I am in search 
 of, it will be well to have an officer at hand. I 
 have relied upon your good-will to enable us to 
 dispense with a search-warrant." 
 
 " Certain, certain," said Gran'sir Pudgwick, firmly. 
 "If you can unearth anything of yours on my 
 premises, I am not the man to hender you. Good 
 morning, Mr. Hazel ! " as the Chief of Police, in 
 citizen's dress, just then entered the shop, followed 
 by Canton Quimby. 
 
 In a few words Fred Melverton explained the 
 situation to the new comers. The first thing Chief 
 
162 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 Hazel did, was to go and look into the empty pail. 
 Canton Quimby also looked into it, in his turn; 
 going so far as to hold it upside down, and rap the 
 bottom with his knuckles. As he did this with a 
 droll smile, Fred, who thought he was burlesquing 
 the officer, tried to look grave, but failed. 
 
 Then the three held a consultation, while they 
 made a general survey of the room. 
 
 " You hain't told me yet what you 're hunting 
 for," observed Gran'sir Pudgwick. 
 
 " If we don't find it there 's no need of mention- 
 ing it; if we do, you will see it with your own 
 eyes," Fred replied. 
 
 " We '11 begin here in the corner, and go through 
 everything," said Chief Hazel; "look into every 
 bucket and tub as we turn 'em over, and set 'em 
 out from the wall." 
 
 He did the most of the overturning ; Fred and 
 his friend watching to see that the search was 
 thorough, and offering suggestions. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 OSK OFFEKS TO ASSIST IN THE SEAKCH 
 
 HERE was in the room an air-tight 
 stove which particularly attracted 
 Canton Quimby's attention. But 
 though he explored it so far as to 
 thrust a hand, and afterward his 
 face, into it, and to poke a stick in the ashes and 
 up into the stove-pipe, he made no discoveries. 
 
 As the search progressed and gradually became 
 narrowed down to some unpromising rubbish, the 
 light of expectation faded from Melverton's face, 
 and he began to walk about, looking dubiously at 
 the floor. 
 
 " We may have to pull up a loose board or two," 
 he said. 
 
 " That 's right ; rip 'em up ! " cried the old gran'- 
 sir. " Tear the shop down, if that will satisfy you." 
 He was evidently growing sceptical, and there 
 was a tone of sarcasm in his speech. 
 
 163 
 
164 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 " I don't think that will be necessary," the young 
 man replied calmly. "We '11 try to leave every- 
 thing in as good shape as we find it. See a mov- 
 able board anywhere, Canton 1 " 
 
 And Canton Quimby murmured in his ear : 
 
 " I 'm afraid we 're barking at the wrong hole for 
 your fox. That old heavy-weight is too willing. 
 He 's leading us on a false scent." 
 
 " Think so! " And Fred gave a keen but puzzled 
 look at the old man, who sat fanning himself with 
 his tattered hat. 
 
 " There 's craft in that colossal turnip-head," his 
 friend whispered. "I can see the cunning in his 
 eyes. He 's shaking inside now, with a small 
 earthquake of fun, to think how he has bamboozled 
 you." 
 
 " I can't think it," said Melverton, although there 
 was indeed a gleam of something like triumph in 
 the broad Pudgwick visage. " Anyhow, I 'in not 
 going to give it up yet. If we don't find it here, 
 we '11 look in the barn below." 
 
 " Here 's somebody that can help you," called out 
 the old man, as his grandson bounced into the 
 room. 
 
 Having seen moving figures through the win- 
 dows from below, and noticed the two bicycles at 
 
OSK OFFERS TO ASSIST IN THE SEARCH 165 
 
 the gate, Osk had mounted the stairs two steps at 
 a time, and hurried in to see what was going on in 
 the old shop. At sight of Chief Hazel and the two 
 young men, he stopped and stared. 
 
 " Why, I did n't know you had company, gran'- 
 sir ! " he said, with a forced laugh. 
 
 " Well, I have, and I 'm glad you 've come to help 
 entertain 'em," replied the gran'sir, tartly. 
 
 "What 's the powwow?" Osk inquired, with a 
 brazen attempt to conceal his manifest embarrass- 
 ment. "Think of buying out gran'sir's shop?" he 
 demanded impudently of Fred. "Groing into the 
 house-and-sign painting business 1 " 
 
 " Not while he has so industrious a grandson to 
 succeed him," Fred answered. 
 
 " Grood ! a first-rate hit ! " said Osk, with a ner- 
 vous chuckle. " I owe you one ! " 
 
 " Perhaps it will turn out that you owe me more 
 than one," Melverton replied, without a smile. " I 
 miss something from our place, and we have come 
 here to look for it." 
 
 " Here ! " said Osk, with an appearance of great 
 surprise. "Perhaps I can help you; only I can't 
 conceive what you 're talking about." 
 
 "Oscar!" said the old man, sternly, "if you 
 know what 's good for yourself, tell a straight story. 
 
166 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 What did you bring up here from the woodshed in 
 that tin pail three mornings ago 1 " 
 
 " That pail 1 I don't remember. Oh, yes ! " said 
 Osk, his pretense of bewilderment giving way to a 
 very natural laugh. "I was going a-fishing, or 
 thought I was ; and I had a pail for my lines and 
 things, and to get my live bait in. But I did 
 n't go." 
 
 " Now let me ask you a question," said Fred. 
 
 " Ask away ! " returned Osk, with gay audacity. 
 
 " Then please tell me, what did you bring home 
 under your coat-flap the night before, when some 
 boys saw you come out of Elkins's orchard and get 
 over the wall ? " 
 
 Osk's assurance was shaken for a moment. But 
 he rallied quickly. 
 
 "The night before? Why, nothing did I ! 
 Oh, I know what you 're driving at!" another 
 laugh. " I had a horn' pout ; 'but it was n't under 
 my coat, not very much ! " 
 
 " Was it a white one ? " Fred asked. 
 
 "A white horn' pout!" Osk smiled at the fan- 
 tastic suggestion. "I see what you mean. I had 
 him in my handkerchief. I had just ketched him 
 out of the river. You can ketch 'em only at 
 night." 
 
OSK OFFERS TO ASSIST IN THE SEARCH 167 
 
 " Then I suppose you had horned pout for break- 
 fast, that morning, Mr. Pudgwick I " Fred observed. 
 
 " If I 'm to speak the truth," said the small voice 
 at the top of the big chin, "there hain't been a 
 horn' pout in my house this twelvemonth." 
 
 "Course not," struck in the grandson, with re- 
 sourceful mendacity. " Gram'er makes such a fuss 
 dressing 'em, I concluded I 'd fling it to the pigs." 
 
 Fred exchanged amused glances with Canton 
 Quimby, sitting quietly observant on a trestle. 
 Chief Hazel, who was all the time listening atten- 
 tively, whilst continuing his search, also smiled 
 incredulously. 
 
 " So," said Fred, " after you had taken the 
 trouble to lug it home, and soiled your handker- 
 chief by putting it to so extraordinary a use, you 
 flung your horned pout to the pigs!" 
 
 "Yes, I did," Osk declared stoutly. "It does 
 seem funny; I don't wonder you laugh. But 
 when a fellow ketches a fine fish, he hates to 
 throw him back; he naturally holds on to him 
 as long as he can, likes to show him and brag 
 about him, you know how it is yourself." 
 
 " But I have n't heard that you showed him to 
 the boys who saw you getting over the wall, or 
 bragging about him to them," said Fred. 
 
168 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 A quick color came into Osk's habitually un- 
 blushing face. 
 
 " You think you 've caught me there," he replied. 
 "All right! A fellow '11 take the trouble to brag 
 to some, and not to others. If you don't believe 
 me, you '11 find the head and horns down there in 
 the pig-pen now. Won't he, gran'sir ? " 
 
 The old man gave a non-committal snort, which 
 was probably all that Osk expected. 
 
 Fred went over to the trestle on which his friend 
 sat, and asked, in a low voice : 
 
 " What do you think, Canton ? " 
 
 " Gas-logs ! " said Quimby, sententiously ; from 
 which allusion to the artificial brands that burn 
 in some modern fireplaces Fred inferred an opin- 
 ion not favorable to Osk's sincerity. " That old 
 man with the Tower-of-Babel chin does n't take 
 any stock in his stories, either. As a practical 
 prevaricator, he beats t' other boy all hollow!" 
 
 " I can't see any movable boards," Fred replied ; 
 "and the chief is at his wit's end. Is there any 
 use keeping on?" 
 
 " Yes, if only to go over the same ground again," 
 said Quimby. " Do something ; on with the dance ! 
 I 'm trying to get behind that truth-destroyer's eye." 
 
 "Your grandfather has kindly granted us per- 
 
OSK OFFERS TO ASSIST IN THE SEARCH 169 
 
 mission to search the premises,' 7 Fred said to 
 Oscar. 
 
 "All right!" said Osk, cheerily. "Can't I as- 
 sist? Only give me the slightest idea what you 
 are hunting for." 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 HOW OSK " ASSISTED " 
 
 HE floor-boards all seemed to be 
 nailed down; the plastered walls 
 showed no signs of a secret panel ; 
 and every object in the room had 
 been examined. Chief Hazel stood 
 with his hands behind him, evidently convinced of 
 the uselessness of further investigation. 
 
 Canton Quimby stepped forward, and looked 
 carefully along the edge of the floor, behind the 
 stove. 
 
 "Look here, Melf!" and he called his friend's 
 attention to some flakes of soot, under the end 
 of the funnel, where it entered the chimney. " You 
 know the rule in whist?" 
 "What rule?" Fred asked. 
 "Follow soot!" 
 "You think ?" 
 " I 'm sure ! " his friend declared. " Twice I 've 
 
 170 
 
HOW OSK "ASSISTED" 171 
 
 seen that inventor of fables cast curiously anxious 
 glances at the top-joint of the funnel. That called 
 my attention to it. It has been taken out of 
 the chimney quite lately; you see this soot is 
 fresh." 
 
 He turned a sudden look on the grandson, who 
 was watching them with a strangely intent ex- 
 pression. 
 
 "We '11 have it down," Fred exclaimed aloud, 
 and called Chief Hazel to his side. 
 
 While they were in consultation, Osk stepped 
 smartly forward. 
 
 "That stove-pipe? want it down?" said he, 
 "That 's easy. I had it down only a short time 
 ago, to clean it. I '11 show you." 
 
 There was an upright stretch of pipe from the 
 stove to an elbow, which connected with a short 
 joint that entered the thimble, about seven feet 
 from the floor. Canton Quimby, who had previ- 
 ously examined the stove and sounded the upright 
 piece, w#s firmly convinced that the short joint 
 would reveal something; nor was he to be de- 
 ceived by Osk's obliging offer of assistance. 
 
 Chief Hazel was slow to take in the situation. 
 Fred started to bring a box for him to mount 
 upon ; but before he could get it in place, Osk had 
 
172 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 set a stool at the other side of the stove, stepped 
 up on it, and, with a fragment of newspaper in his 
 hand, had seized the pipe near its junction with 
 the chimney. 
 
 " I know just how it goes ; I '11 have it down for 
 you in a second," he said, as he began to wrench 
 the short horizontal piece, working it out of the 
 thimble. " Here it comes ! " He exposed the end, 
 and slipped his newspaper over the sooty edge. 
 " Now take care of the lower part, and the stove ! " 
 he cried, making a show of tumbling the whole 
 thing to the floor. 
 
 " Look out there ! " Canton Quimby shouted. 
 
 He was not assisting, but he kept careful watch 
 of every movement. He meant to call attention to 
 what Osk was doing ; but the outcry only caused 
 Chief Hazel to look more closely to his own man- 
 agement of the lower part of the funnel. 
 
 Osk seized the opportunity to thrust his hand 
 into the short section, reach some object, sweep it 
 swiftly into the opening of the chimney, and drop 
 it down the flue. 
 
 "Did you see that?" cried Quimby, springing 
 eagerly forward. 
 
 Fred Melverton had looked up in time to detect 
 the trick. 
 
HOW OSK "ASSISTED" 175 
 
 "I saw something wrapped in a newspaper go 
 into the chimney ! " he answered, excitedly. 
 
 "Did you?" said Osk. "You saw the piece of 
 newspaper I was handling the pipe with. A draft of 
 air sucked it in. Smutched my fingers after all ! " 
 
 " Young man," said Canton Quimby, in gleeful 
 earnest, " you have talents of a high order. Put to 
 some useful purpose, they would insure you a 
 brilliant career. But they won't serve your turn 
 here. Hand down that pipe ! " 
 
 "Anything else!" Osk inquired, impudently. 
 
 The funnel was brought to the floor; and 
 Quimby, tipping and turning it, shook out Osk's 
 fragment of newspaper, which had not been sucked 
 into the flue. 
 
 "Well! what are you going to do about it?'' 
 said Osk, his short, hooked nose thrust forward, 
 and his eyes sparkling insolent defiance. 
 
 " Since you have answered some of my questions, 
 I '11 answer yours and more truthfully," Fred 
 Melverton replied, with an air of quiet determina- 
 tion. "I 'm going to explore the flue to the 
 bottom; get a mason to knock out the lower 
 bricks, if there 's no opening below ; and, in the 
 .meantime, I 'm going to ask Chief Hazel to take 
 charge of you." 
 
176 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 " All right," said Osk promptly. " That 's just 
 what I 'd do in your place. But you '11 find you 're 
 very much mistaken as to the thing that went 
 down the chimney; and, what 's more, I can 
 prove it." 
 
 "No doubt, you can prove almost anything, if 
 you have the chance," said Melverton. "It 's to 
 keep you from having chances that I ask the chief 
 to take care of you. I '11 go with you to Judge 
 Carter's office, Mr. Hazel, and enter my complaint." 
 
 " Gran'sir," said Osk, with cool assurance, " will 
 you come along, too, and be my bail ? " 
 
 " No, I won't ! " the old man exclaimed, fuming 
 with wrath and indignation. "I 've stood your 
 bail and paid your fines too often. Now if you 've 
 got into a worse scrape than common, you may get 
 out of it without any help from me." 
 
 "All right, gran'sir," said Osk, cheerfully. "It 
 won't be the first time I 've been in the lock-up ; 
 but I never stayed long. Just let me bid gram'er 
 good by," as the chief laid a hand on his 
 shoulder. 
 
 " I '11 see that this room is put in order later," 
 Fred said to the old man. " Can we find the base 
 of the flue!" 
 
 " Certain ; I '11 show you ; it 's in the barn-cellar," 
 
HOW OSK "ASSISTED" 177 
 
 replied the old man. " You may knock as many 
 holes in it as you please." 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Pudgwick. Mr. Hazel, beware 
 of that boy's tricks ! I '11 go for a mason, and be 
 at the judge's office about as soon as you are. Old 
 man," Fred said to his friend, as they preceded the 
 others down the stairs, "what do you think now?" 
 
 " Want my opin' ! I find I was mistaken about 
 the venerable chin-propeller," Quimby admitted. 
 
 "He 's perfectly upright, I am certain!" Fred 
 declared. 
 
 "Yes; perpendic' as a bean-pole though not 
 quite so slim. He was awfully anxious, one time, 
 that his cub of a grandson should get clear. That 's 
 what deceived me. But we 're right about the cup." 
 
 They paused, before getting on their wheels, to 
 witness the meeting between Osk and his grand- 
 mother, at the kitchen door. 
 
 " Oh, child ! " she said, in deep distress, " be you 
 took up ag'in ? " 
 
 " It 's nothing," said Osk. " I shall be back here 
 in a few minutes. Don't worry." 
 
 At the chiefs suggestion, however, she went to 
 put up a hasty luncheon, which she brought with 
 trembling hands, and urged her grandson to accept. 
 As he indignantly refused it, Chief Hazen said : 
 
178 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 " I '11 take it for him. He '11 need it before he 
 sees your table again." 
 
 "And your ' bettermost ' coat, dearie," pleaded 
 the old lady, "do put that on. I '11 bring it in 
 a minute." 
 
 "No, no!" said Osk; and an ill-natured look 
 came into his eyes, which showed plainly the kind 
 of despot he was in the home of his grandparents. 
 " I say no ! do you hear ? " he called after her, sav- 
 agely, as she was going to bring the garment. " I 
 don't want it, and I won't have it ! Come along,. 
 Cop!" And he marched off with Chief Hazel. 
 
 " Did you ever see such intolerable insolence ? " 
 Fred remarked to his friend, as they rode away. 
 
 "Simply coloss'!" replied Canton Quimby. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 TEACHING THE DUMB TO SPEAK 
 
 H, mama," exclaimed Ida Lisle, with 
 filial admiration, that afternoon, " I 
 do think you are the most patient 
 mother in all this weary world ! " 
 
 " What mother would not be pa- 
 tient in such a cause?" Mrs. Lisle replied, with 
 softly beaming eyes. "It is very slow, and very 
 difficult, and sometimes I should be quite discour- 
 aged if I did n't constantly say to myself that what 
 has been done for others I may also do for my 
 dear child!" 
 
 She was teaching deaf little Laurie to talk. 
 The affliction that deprived him of his hearing 
 had come before he had learned to speak more 
 than a very few words; and these he seemed to 
 have forgotten when, after a prolonged and dan- 
 gerous illness, he regained his bodily health. In 
 his fifth year a few attempts were made to teach 
 
 170 
 
180 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 him the printed alphabet, together with the sign 
 alphabet used by deaf-mutes, but his restless activ- 
 ity had thus far defeated these efforts. It seemed 
 impossible to fix his attention upon what was so 
 far outside of his own little world; and the very 
 facility with which he had always found and used 
 more natural ways of communication was a hin- 
 drance to his acquiring any other method. 
 
 But of late Mrs. Lisle had abandoned the alpha- 
 betical system and begun with him an entirely 
 new scheme of education. She was teaching him 
 to form articulate sounds, and to read and imitate 
 lip-movements. 
 
 He was much more patient under this discipline, 
 since it awakened his curiosity and gave him some- 
 thing to do. It was her custom to place him in his 
 high chair facing her, where he could watch her 
 closely. Then she would put his little hands to 
 use, to perceive the vocal movements of her own 
 throat, and to feel for them at his own; and to 
 feel the breath, soft or forcible, as it came from 
 her lips. She had never received any instruction 
 in teaching speech to a deaf-mute ; she only knew 
 from what she had read that it could be done, and 
 she had gone to work in what seemed to her the 
 simplest way. 
 
TEACHING THE DUMB TO SPEAK 181 
 
 It was a delight to little Laurie to find, as lie 
 quickly did, that he could produce in his own 
 throat such tremblings as he felt in hers. And 
 what joy this first step in his vocal development 
 brought to the mother's fondly anxious heart! 
 Both clapped their hands over it, and with mu- 
 tual hugs and kisses celebrated the event. Then 
 each member of the household had to come and 
 feel the motions of the child's throat, hear the 
 sounds he emitted, and express great surprise 
 and delight. 
 
 The first intelligible word that came from his 
 hitherto dumb lips was mamma, which he quickly 
 learned as the name of the dearest person on 
 earth. True, it was for two or three lessons lit- 
 tle more than mummum ; then the final m was left 
 off ; and at length he was made to open his mouth 
 wide enough to change the short u sound to ah. 
 This triumph alone was sufficient to reward the 
 proud mother for all her previous trials and dis- 
 appointments. 
 
 " Oh ! but how can he ever learn to read words 
 by watching our lips?" said Ida. "Think how 
 many do not come to our lips at all, and must 
 seem just alike to him ! nod, not, dog, dot, got ; 
 in, it, ill, knit; at, cat, can, can't, and hosts of 
 
182 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 others. Even if we should look beyond the teeth, 
 we should often see no difference. Then so many 
 sounds are formed, even by the lips, in precisely 
 the same way, be, me; men, pen; if, give; there 's 
 no end of them ! " 
 
 She said this even after Midget had achieved 
 mamma; not so much to throw doubt upon the 
 success of the undertaking, as to hear Mrs. Lisle 
 reiterate her assurances. 
 
 " Yes, my dear, I know all the difficulties, and I 
 don't expect that all of them ever will be overcome. 
 But they have been overcome in a great measure 
 by others ; and who is brighter than our Laurie ? " 
 
 " Or who has a more devoted teacher 1 " said Ida, 
 with glistening eyes. 
 
 "No deaf person can ever distinguish all the 
 sounds from merely watching the mouth," her 
 mother went on. "Neither can you, Ida, distin- 
 guish all the written letters, taken separately, in 
 your friends' correspondence. How often the m's 
 and w's and w's, and other characters, run together, 
 or look just alike! So that often there will be 
 whole words you can't make out by themselves. 
 But one word helps you to the sense of another. 
 Sometimes you have to glance through a whole 
 sentence before you get an idea of its meaning, 
 
TEACHING THE DUMB TO SPEAK 183 
 
 when all comes to yon like a flash. It is in some 
 snch way that the deaf read spoken language. 
 Long practice makes it almost intuitive." 
 
 Mrs. Lisle repeated some wonderful stories she 
 had heard or read of deaf persons, who could speak 
 and read lip-movements so well that they were able 
 to go about in society, and even transact important 
 business, without betraying their infirmity; and 
 added : 
 
 "I am positive we shall make an accomplished 
 speech-reader of our bright little Laurie, and per- 
 haps prepare him for a useful and happy career." 
 
 He was resting in his chair while this talk like 
 many such talks was going on, and he seemed to 
 know what it was about. 
 
 " Mamma ! mamma ! " he called triumphantly, as 
 if in evidence of the truth of what she was saying ; 
 and he laughed as she caught him in her arms 
 with tears of joy. 
 
 He spoke with the drawl peculiar to the deaf, 
 not always agreeable to hear ; but it was the glad- 
 dest of sounds to Mrs. Lisle. 
 
 It happened to be the day when Tracy had sent 
 Fred Melverton and his friend Quimby on what he 
 called their fox-hunt. He had hurried home to tell 
 his mother and sister, and there had been much 
 
184 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 excited talk on the subject. So it chanced that 
 Ida suggested: 
 
 "Make him say cup; that should be an easy 
 word." 
 
 The mother had previously drilled him in the 
 sound of hard c, or k, with indifferent success. 
 Again she made him look into her mouth, and 
 put one finger in, and to feel the sudden impulse 
 of the breath, while with the other hand he felt 
 the concussion and vibration of her throat. 
 
 "Kuh-kuh, w he repeated after her, making the 
 sound very distinctly. 
 
 " Oh, Laurie, what a dear, delightful little pupil 
 you are ! " she joyfully exclaimed. And again they 
 had to hug each other, the child laughing gleefully 
 upon the mother's neck. "Now try!" she said, 
 having placed his fingers again at her throat so he 
 might know the sound : " Cup." 
 
 " Come? drawled Laurie, prolonging the sound 
 through the nose after the closing of the lips. 
 
 She had got from him a new word unexpectedly, 
 and was as well pleased as if it had been the right 
 one. She made him pronounce it over and over 
 again, and by means of the gestures he was famil- 
 iar with, explained to him its meaning. 
 
 Enough had been accomplished for one lesson ; 
 
TEACHING THE DUMB TO SPEAK 185 
 
 but he was getting on so fast, things difficult be- 
 coming all at once unexpectedly easy, that she re- 
 solved to make another trial of cup. She showed 
 him how the vibration of the throat ceased with 
 the closing of the lips, which then opened with a 
 slight percussion of the breath. He was intensely 
 interested. Both were absorbed in the strange ex- 
 ercise, which to an observer would have seemed 
 incomprehensible and comic until the touching 
 significance of it was revealed. 
 
 Mr. Wai worth chanced to enter just as Midget, 
 who had succeeded in enunciating cup, immedi- 
 ately putting the two words together, cried, 
 " Come cup," and jumped from his chair, too 
 happy over his success to sit any longer. 
 
 " I never saw such progress ! " said the minister. 
 "You will have him talking like any other child 
 almost," he put in conscientiously, "in a few 
 months." 
 
 "He must learn the meaning of words as we 
 go along," said the joyous mother. " Get a cup, 
 Ida; remember that he does not know it by 
 name yet." 
 
 So a tea-cup was brought, and he was made to 
 understand that the word belonged to the thing. 
 Then he ran to the pantry, and brought out his 
 
186 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 own silver drinking-cup, uttering all the while, 
 
 "Cup, cup!" 
 Then he left his own cup and the tea-cup on 
 
 the table, and ran to the outer door, beckoning 
 
 and calling: 
 
 " Come cup ! Come cup ! " 
 
 He ran into his brother Tracy's arms. 
 
CHAPTER XXYII 
 
 AN AMAZING DISCOVERY 
 
 JHAT is this 1 " cried Tracy, rushing 
 into the room. " He is talking ! 
 Midget is talking ! " 
 
 In the excited state of his mind, 
 that forenoon, while waiting to 
 hear of the success of the fox-hunt, it is no wonder 
 that the seeming miracle made him fairly shriek 
 with rapture. He in turn had to hold and hug 
 the child, while the manner of the miracle-work- 
 ing was briefly explained; by which time Midget 
 had struggled from his arms, and was at the door 
 again, calling " Come cup ! " beckoning, and al- 
 ternately making a fluttering movement with his 
 arms, and forming a cup-like shape with his hands. 
 "It is a bird's nest he means," said Mrs. Lisle. 
 " He wants to show us one, and know whether we 
 call that a cup, too. Go with him, Tracy, and ex- 
 plain it. I must see to the dinner if we are to in- 
 vite those young men." 
 
 187 
 
188 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 Midget led the way, faster than his brother cared 
 to follow, down the slope to the brookside, and on- 
 ward to the bridge; in the cool shadow of which 
 the child climbed the lower wall of the abutment, 
 to the end of a timber, where the phoebe's nest 
 used to be. 
 
 "Must be the phcebes are building again," 
 thought Tracy. 
 
 Midget had been the first to discover the ab- 
 sence of the old nest, and he had reported this 
 to his friends with childish grief and anger. They, 
 too, had been indignant at the robbery; but more 
 important events had lately driven the subject 
 from Tracy's mind. 
 
 "He is peeping just as he used to peep into 
 the old nest," thought he, and his indignation re- 
 vived, as he remembered how fond Midget was of 
 his feathered friends, and how little fear of him 
 they ever betrayed. Sometimes the mother-bird 
 would remain sitting on her nest, while his little 
 nose, as he climbed and peeped, almost touched 
 her. But where were the phoabes now? 
 
 Not a bird was heard or seen ; nothing sang but 
 the brook. 
 
 " Come come ! w cried Midget, with his cheek 
 against the end of the heavy string-piece, where 
 it rested on the wall. 
 
MIDGET REVEALS A SECRET. 
 
AN AMAZING DISCOVERY 191 
 
 Stepping along the little sandy beach that bor- 
 dered the bed of the streamlet, Tracy stooped be- 
 neath the bridge; a growing sense of apprehension 
 falling upon him, with the cavern-like shadow. 
 
 Then suddenly, as he put his cheek against the 
 child's, and, looking up, saw what the child saw, 
 he started back in utter amazement and dismay. 
 
 For there, on the top of the wall, close against 
 the beam, from which the old nest had been broken 
 away by ruthless hands, was indeed a cup-shaped 
 thing, but not a nest; an actual cup the cup of 
 all cups 
 
 THE PRIZE CUP! 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 A FAMILY COUNCIL 
 
 JHEN Tracy returned to the house 
 all the joy of the morning had 
 gone out of his face; and he was 
 followed reluctantly by Midget, no 
 longer repeating his first glad 
 words all the happiness faded from Ms face, too, 
 which was the face of a miserable little culprit. 
 
 " Why, Tracy ! Ida cried at sight of him. "You 
 look sick ! " 
 
 "I am sick," he replied dejectedly, holding one 
 hand behind him. "Where 's mama?" 
 
 His mother was called, and she came in haste; 
 she regarded her two boys with anxious, inquir- 
 ing eyes. 
 
 " What has happened 1 " was all she could say. 
 "Look at this!" Tracy answered, in a choked 
 voice. 
 
 And with a countenance full of anguish he held 
 
 192 
 
A FAMILY COUNCIL 193 
 
 out an object which, it would seem, should have 
 gladdened any honest boy's eyes a beautiful, sil- 
 ver-bright, gold-lined goblet. 
 
 " Fred's cup ! " " Where did you find it 1 " cried 
 mother and sister at once. 
 
 "Midget had it," said the boy, from the depths 
 of his wretched soul. 
 
 "How did he come by it?" cried the mother, 
 with an amazed look at the little mischief-maker, 
 who stood peering in at the door, with shy, expect- 
 ant eyes. 
 
 " He took it," said Tracy. " He has told me all 
 about it." 
 
 " The stolen cup ! How could he ? " exclaimed 
 the mother. "What is this?" 
 
 As Tracy handed her the goblet, she noticed 
 that the gold lining was half hidden by some 
 soft, matted substance, with which the hollow 
 was partly filled. 
 
 " Come here ! " she called, and motioned to 
 Midget, who, however, did not stir, but watched 
 eagerly to see what was to come of his strange 
 misdoing. 
 
 "He has been up to the Melverton house with 
 me," Tracy explained, "and shown me how he 
 got into one of the dining-room windows, from 
 
194 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 the piazza, and took the cup from a sideboard 
 drawer." 
 
 " Oh, Laurie, Laurie ! " groaned Mrs. Lisle ; while 
 Ida in her turn examined the curious contents of 
 the goblet. 
 
 "As near as I can make out," Tracy proceeded, 
 "he had peeked through the blinds and seen G-id 
 Ketterell handling it, and showing it to somebody 
 Osk Ordway, I suppose. He already had a spite 
 against Grid; so when he missed the phcebe's nest 
 under the bridge, he took the cup. For what, do 
 you think ? " 
 
 In her amazement and distress, the poor mother 
 could n't conjecture. 
 
 " To be revenged on Grid," suggested Ida ; 
 "though it does n't seem as if he could have 
 looked so far ahead as that." 
 
 " No, not for that," Tracy replied. " But it was 
 really to pay the birds for the loss of their nest ! 
 That 's what he put this fine grass in it for as 
 something inviting for them to lay their eggs in." 
 
 And in the midst of his intense chagrin, the 
 elder brother had to laugh at the pretty, fantastic, 
 childish notion. 
 
 "He put the cup in place of the nest; and he 
 seems to have had no doubt that the phosbes would 
 
A FAMILY COUNCIL 195 
 
 adopt it, when they were ready to raise another 
 brood ; and when he saw how sorry I was about 
 the nest, he thought he would please me by point- 
 ing at the fine nest he had made for them inside. 
 It 's all as cunning as it can be but oh ! " and 
 Tracy ended with something like a yell of pain. 
 
 Mother and sister laughed, too, with tender 
 inirthf ulness ; and with bright tears in her for- 
 giving eyes Mrs. Lisle held out loving arms to 
 the waiting Midget. He rushed into them, and 
 nestled affectionately to her. 
 
 " Why were you so horrified ? " queried Ida. 
 " One would think you were not glad the cup 
 was found." 
 
 " Of course I am glad ! but to have it turn out 
 that Midget is the rogue!" said Tracy. 
 
 " But he meant no harm. He only meant to do 
 an act of justice to the birds, the precious little 
 innocent!" the mother exclaimed, rocking the lit- 
 tle fellow to and fro. 
 
 "Fred Melverton will laugh they will all 
 laugh ! " said Ida, with a merry peal. "It 's the 
 funniest thing I ever heard!" 
 
 " Funny ! " Tracy echoed, with a lugubrious grin. 
 "But there 's one that won't laugh; he will get 
 laughed at ! I 've done such a smart stroke of 
 
 12 
 
196 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 detective business ! I was so sure of everything ! 
 And my telegram to Fred ! " lie added, his voice 
 running up into a falsetto of comic despair. 
 
 Ida wiped her eyes and said: 
 
 " Why should you care for that I It was all a 
 mistake." 
 
 " Don't I know it was a mistake, without being 
 told ? " cried Tracy. " Have n't I found it out to 
 my sorrow ? I fairly grew fat on my grudge, when 
 I found Grid was discharged under suspicion ; and 
 I was just the biggest fellow in this town when I 
 took his place and set about ferreting out the rob- 
 bery. How can I tell Fred that Grid and Osk had 
 nothing to do with it, after the ridiculous fox-hunt 
 I have sent them on 1 Oh, my gracious!" his voice 
 tending again to the wild falsetto. 
 
 Mrs. Lisle, still rocking the child, her face full 
 of tearful smiles, admitted sympathizingly : 
 
 " It will be a little humiliating, no doubt." 
 
 "A little humiliating!" Tracy almost shouted. 
 " It 's the most crushing thing that ever happened 
 to me. Do you know, when I saw the cup on the 
 wall I was tempted to leave it there and say no- 
 thing about it : to let the suspicion still rest on 
 Grid and Osk ! Would you believe I could be so 
 mean ? " And he scowled with bitter self-reproach. 
 
A FAMILY COUNCIL 197 
 
 " It would have been mean and wicked enough 
 if you had listened to the temptation," said his 
 mother. u But I know you did not for a single 
 moment. I know you could n't do such a wrong, 
 even to an enemy. Better the truth, though it 
 shames us, than any advantage gained by an act 
 of injustice." 
 
 Ida was about to empty the cup of its curious 
 contents, in order to dust and brighten it; but 
 Tracy cried out to her: 
 
 " Don't do that ! I want Fred to see it just as it 
 is. Oh ! what luck is he having with his fox-hunt, 
 I wonder ! " 
 
 "Here he comes right into the yard!" Ida ex- 
 claimed, stepping quickly aside from the open 
 window. "He and his friend, on their wheels!" 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 A MEKEY POECH PAETY 
 
 N a moment more the bicycles were 
 lying on the turf, and the bicyclers 
 were mounting the porch steps. 
 
 "Let them in, Ida," Tracy hur- 
 riedly whispered. "I can't look 
 them in the face." 
 
 " You must," said Ida, escaping from the room ; 
 " I can't be seen in this house rig." 
 
 "You may as well meet it, Tracy," said his 
 mother. 
 
 So, putting on a resolute look, Tracy went to 
 
 the front door. 
 
 "Come in," he said, "and tell us what luck 
 you 've had." 
 
 "We can tell you here," Fred Melverton replied, 
 in radiant good humor. 
 
 "We 've had great luck, thanks to you," said 
 Canton Quimby. 
 
 198 
 
A MEEEY POECH PAETY 199 
 
 "We 've found the cup," Fred added, they 
 were both so full of the good news that they told 
 it together, "and we 've got the thief in jail." 
 
 " You can't you don't mean " stammered 
 Tracy, astounded. 
 
 " We have n't got the cup in hand," said Canton 
 Quimby ; " but we have located it we know just 
 where it is ; and, as Melf says, we 've got one of 
 the thieves in the lock-up. We shall have another 
 there in an hour or two, if I can persuade Melf to 
 do his duty." 
 
 Tracy stared, and demanded: 
 
 "How many are there, according to your reck- 
 oning ? " 
 
 " Two, anyway" Fred answered positively. " Os- 
 car Ordway had it in his possession ; but it seems 
 Grid Ketterell is an accessory, probably after the 
 fact, and that he expects to share the proceeds 
 of the plunder. I have n't sworn out a warrant 
 for him yet ; but I left word with his mother, just 
 now, that if he wants to wash his hands of a dan- 
 gerous piece of business, he 'd better lose no time 
 in coming to see me. Then she learned for the 
 first time that I had discharged him." 
 
 " And she was n't so much pleased as if she had 
 had a fortune of a million dollars left her," said 
 
200 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 Canton Quimby, significantly. "He '11 wish him- 
 self in jail already when he falls into her clutches." 
 
 Tracy did not appear hah 3 so much elated as his 
 friends thought he had reason to be. 
 
 "I 'm afraid I don't understand there 's a big 
 mistake ! " he murmured. 
 
 " It 's a mistake of the right sort a mistake for 
 the rogue that 's got caught," Fred Melverton re- 
 plied, with unshaken gaiety. 
 
 He threw himself on a porch chair, while his 
 friend sat upon the rail; and between them they 
 gave an amusing account of their adventure, to 
 which Tracy listened in mute amazement. 
 
 "We did n't find Judge Carter at home," Fred 
 concluded, " so the Chief just took Osk to the cells 
 for safe-keeping. But we did unearth a mason; 
 and he is to go with us at one o'clock to break a 
 hole in the base of the chimney. I 'm sorry for 
 Osk, but then " 
 
 " He must n't make too free with other people's 
 prize cups, you know," struck in Canton Quimby. 
 "Boys take a good many liberties; but there is a 
 limit: we draw the line at silverware, Melf and 
 I especially silver won in a race by hard row- 
 ing. Is n't that the point, Melf?" 
 
 " It 's all too good ! " exclaimed Tracy, rousing 
 
A MERRY PORCH PARTY 201 
 
 from a sort of dream. " It ought to be true. But 
 I don't see through it unless do you miss any- 
 thing else out of your house ! " 
 
 " Not yet I think I told you; though of course 
 I don't know how many things may have been 
 stolen," Fred replied, puzzled in his turn. "Why! " 
 
 " There must be something ; for look here." 
 
 Tracy turned to his mother, who was just then 
 coming out of the house, with a countenance all 
 smiles, bearing Midget in her arms, and holding up 
 the prize cup in her hand. 
 
 Melverton hardly paused to greet Mrs. Lisle as 
 he sprang to his feet. "What 's that!" he ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 "If it is n't your lost cup, then I don't know 
 what it is," she replied, holding it out to him. 
 
 " It is that or it is magic ! " he cried, in ex- 
 treme surprise, taking it in his hand. "Where did 
 it come from ! Where has it been ! Oh, Quimby," 
 turning to his friend, " here 's the game we've been 
 chasing down Gran'sir Pudgwick's chimney ! " 
 
 " I don't catch on ! " Canton Quimby replied. 
 " It must be an intoxicating cup, that makes every- 
 body see double. Is there any answer to this enig' 
 enigma ! " completing the word out of respect to 
 Mrs. Lisle's presence. 
 
202 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 " I beg your pardon ! " said Fred, suddenly re- 
 membering that he had not presented his friend, 
 which he proceeded to do, with awkward abrupt- 
 ness. " I believe I 've lost my wits. What is all 
 this 1 " observing the bits of wilted grass that half 
 filled the cup. 
 
 " I wish Laurie could speak and explain it," Mrs. 
 Lisle replied, while Midget, knowing very well what 
 the conversation was about, shyly hid his face in 
 her neck. "For, I 'm sorry to say, he is the 
 rogue ! " 
 
 " And our other two I " cried Melverton. 
 
 " Seems to be a pretty good day for rogues," said 
 Canton Quimby. 
 
 " I don't know about the others," said Mrs. Lisle. 
 " Tracy, tell them about Midget." 
 
 She herself rarely called the child by that name 
 never, indeed, except when he had shown him- 
 self extraordinarily mischievous. 
 
 And Tracy told. Melverton burst into shouts of 
 laughter, while Canton Quimby shook with more 
 quiet convulsions. 
 
 "A bird's nest!" said Fred. "Oh, you dear, 
 queer little Midget ! You must give me a kiss for 
 that!" 
 
 He held out his arms. Midget, perceiving the 
 
A MERRY PORCH PARTY 203 
 
 pleasant turn the affair was taking, leaped into 
 them, with silent, joyous laughter. Then, after a 
 good hugging, he pointed to the cup, now in Tracy's 
 hands, and repeated the words he had that morning 
 learned words that had made all who heard them 
 so happy, and which he seemed to know would 
 please his friend Fred no less : 
 
 " Cup cup ! Come cup ! " 
 
 As this part of the morning's experiences had 
 been omitted from Tracy's story, Fred was filled 
 anew with wonder and admiration. He danced 
 about with the child, repeating with him the mar- 
 velous syllables, to Midget's great satisfaction as 
 he watched the young man's lips and felt his throat, 
 while Quimby looked on with keen enjoyment of 
 the scene. 
 
 In the midst of which jubilation Ida appeared, 
 lovely as a rose, and almost as red, having given a 
 graceful twist to her hair and thrown a scarf about 
 her neck; and the young minister followed, and 
 there were introductions and congratulations, until 
 a passer-by must have remarked that there was a 
 livelier porch party at the old parsonage than it 
 had ever known before, in the fifty years of its 
 sober existence. 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 
 GID KETTEEELL CONFESSES 
 
 HIS idea may have occurred to a 
 strong-armed and stern-featured 
 woman who was just then crossing 
 the ravine from the Melverton place 
 and ascending the slope in the di- 
 rection of the merry voices. Leading by the coat- 
 collar a reluctant youth who was much inclined to 
 lag a step or two in the rear, she made her appear- 
 ance below the house just as Fred was saying : 
 
 " But, Canton, we forget we have a fellow locked 
 up for stealing the cup that was never stolen ! " 
 
 " No matter," Quimby replied. " He has stolen 
 something else and very likely out of your house 
 if we can only find what it is." 
 
 " Here ? s somebody that perhaps can tell you," 
 said Tracy, as Mrs. Ketterell dragged forward her 
 unwilling son into full view." 
 
 There was a flush on the washerwoman's hard 
 
GID KETTEEELL CONFESSES 205 
 
 features and a green fire in her eyes as she sta- 
 tioned herself at the foot of the porch steps, still 
 holding Gideon by his coat-collar. Her tawny 
 mane, combed straight back over her head and 
 down her neck, was badly frizzed and rumpled, 
 and helped to give her features a wild, ferocious 
 aspect. 
 
 "Mr. Frederick," she began, "if you '11 pardon 
 the intrusion, I Ve brought my boy here to make 
 a clean breast of the bad job you spoke of 5 and 
 if he lives, and I live, he 's going to tell you the 
 whole truth before ever he goes back to the home 
 he has disgraced." 
 
 " If that is so " began Melverton ; then, turn- 
 ing to Mrs. Lisle and her daughter, he said apolo- 
 getically, "I am afraid we are going to have a 
 scene." 
 
 " It is most certainly so," said the washerwoman, 
 her red knuckles turning white with the new grip 
 she gave the boy's collar. " I don't whale him very 
 often, but when I do I make up for neglected du- 
 ties in that particular. I not only settle old scores 
 with interest, but I give him a few extrys on ac- 
 count, so I sha'n't be running too much in his debt." 
 
 " G-ideon is getting to be a big boy for discipline 
 of that sort," Fred suggested. 
 
206 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 "So indeed he is," said the mother; "but lie 
 ain't so big yet but what I can handle him, with a 
 spare finger or two kept in reserve for emergen- 
 cies; and he hain't forgot the small taste of the 
 wrong end of the whip he received wunst when he 
 attempted to handle me. He was persuaded then 
 to take his medicine in regular fashion, and be de- 
 cent about it. Think of a younker like him raising 
 his hand against his own mother, ladies and gentle- 
 men ! But though, as I said, he done it wunst, 
 he never done it twicet, the scapegrace ! Will you 
 tell the truth to your friend and benefactor, now ? " 
 she demanded, giving the said scapegrace a sharp 
 wrench by the collar. " Say ' I will,' if you know 
 what 's hullsome for your soul and body ! " 
 
 " I will," said Gideon, promptly, with a shake in 
 his voice not caused altogether by the twist his 
 mother gave him. At the same time he presented 
 so lugubrious a countenance that Tracy felt im- 
 mensely relieved as to any triumph his enemy was 
 to gain over him, whatever the outcome of the 
 situation. 
 
 "I am glad of that," said Fred Melverton : "for 
 some things need very much to be explained. 
 But" turning again to the ladies "this is 
 hardly the place in which to conduct our inquiries." 
 
GID KETTEEELL CONFESSES 207 
 
 " Indeed, I 've sense enough to know that ; and 
 I 'm begging Mrs. Lisle to excuse what may 
 seem to be very ill manners. I went first to your 
 place, Mr. Frederick; then, hearing your voice, I 
 came directly here, in order to lose no time in 
 bringing my boy to terms whilst a healthy terror 
 was on him." 
 
 " That was right, Mrs. Ketterell," said Mrs. Lisle, 
 approvingly. " Let him say right here what is to 
 be said." 
 
 " And let it be the barefooted facts this time," said 
 Canton Quimby. 
 
 Melverton, standing with his hands behind him, 
 looking down over the porch rail at mother and 
 son, addressed Gideon. 
 
 " You acknowledge that what you told me yes- 
 terday was not the truth 1 " 
 
 "Answer!" Mrs. Ketterell commanded him, as 
 he hesitated. " Did you tell him whoppers ? " 
 
 " I s'pose I did," mumbled Gideon. 
 
 " You know about the cider ? " Fred queried. 
 
 "Yes," Gid answered; "but I did n't drink it. 
 Osk Ordway made me go with him to the cellar, 
 and he drinked the most of it." 
 
 "And did you find cider in the cellar of your 
 friend and benefactor, and treat that miserable Osk 
 
208 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 Ordway with it ! " cried the irate mother. " Lucky 
 for your skin and scalp, I did n't know that be- 
 fore ! " 
 
 Quitting her hold on his collar, she seized his 
 ear, and gave it such a tweak as elicited from him 
 a sharp yelp. 
 
 "If you please, Mrs. Ketterell," said Fred, with 
 difficulty maintaining his gravity, while everybody 
 else laughed, except the two most concerned, who 
 saw no fun in the little comedy they were enact- 
 ing. " So, Gideon, you let Oscar into the house, 
 did you!" 
 
 The boy was dumb again. 
 
 "Did you, or did you not?" said his mother, 
 giving the ear another twist, with much the same 
 effect as if it had been a spigot by which she turned 
 on his squeals. 
 
 " I did ! I did ! yelled Gideon. 
 
 " If you please, Mrs. Ketterell ! " Fred repeated, 
 deprecatingly. "And the prize cup you know 
 something about that ? " 
 
 " Will you speak, sir ? " cried his mother. 
 
 She had taken her hand away; but the im- 
 pulse to give the spigot another turn was so 
 evident in her that Gideon dodged, and blurted 
 out: 
 
GID KETTERELL CONFESSES 209 
 
 " I opened the drawer, and showed it to him : he 
 made me do it. But I put it back, and that 's the 
 last I saw of it hope to die ! " he vowed. 
 
 " And you don't know what became of it ? " 
 
 " Sure 's I live ! I thought Osk might have come 
 that night and taken it, but he swears he did n't, 
 and he wants to make me think it has n't been stole 
 at all." 
 
 " Do you believe him 1 " Melverton demanded. 
 
 " Some o' the time I think I do, and then again I 
 guess I don't ; but as for knowing a thing about it, 
 I'm as innocent as as innocent as that child!" 
 And Gideon, having found what he deemed a strong 
 illustration, flung his elbow out toward Midget 
 playing on the walk. 
 
 Fred repressed a smile, and said : 
 
 " Then what has Oscar kept hidden in the stove- 
 pipe in his gran'sir's shop ? the thing he has 
 been so secret about, which you are to share the 
 proceeds of, when it is sold ? " 
 
 "I don't know of any " 
 
 Grid had got so far in his stammered denial, when 
 his mother interrupted him. The green fire was 
 flaming up in her eyes as she said : 
 
 " Please, Mr. Frederick, may I take him by the 
 flap of his ear again 1 It 's the best way I know to 
 
210 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 wring a drop or two of the truth out of him," the 
 expert in wringing added grimly. 
 
 Fred put her off with a wave of his hand. 
 
 "Gideon," he said, "you know very well that 
 Oscar has carried home plunder of some kind, and 
 hidden it in the stove funnel ; but perhaps you are 
 not aware that he has landed in jail in consequence. 
 Was it anything taken out of our house? I am 
 waiting for you to clear yourself of complicity in 
 that business." 
 
 " Will you I " said his mother. 
 
 " I will ! " Gideon almost shouted, dodging her 
 uplifted hand again. "It 's nothing he took out 
 of your house, or out of anybody's house. But he 
 said he would kill me if I told." 
 
 " Tell, and be killed then," said his mother. " You 
 certainly will be killed if you don't." 
 
 And Gideon told. 
 
 "It 's the phcebes' nest." 
 
 " The phcebes' nest?" exclaimed Melverton. "He 
 took that ! " 
 
 "Yes, the very day I showed him the cup. I 
 blamed him for it, and told him he would get 
 prosecuted, and scared him so he promised to 
 put it back on the stones, under the bridge. But 
 he just hid it in the bushes, and went back for 
 
GID KETTEEELL CONFESSES 211 
 
 it in the evening, and carried it home, and got 
 Wint Allston to come and see it, and offer him 
 half a dollar for it. Wint has a permit for tak- 
 ing nests and birds, and he is making a collection. 
 Then Osk tried to sell it for more to Tom Hatch. 
 I was to have half he got for it, 'cause I knew of 
 his taking it, and he had got me turned off from 
 my place." 
 
 " Is all that satisfactory ? " Mrs. Ketterell in- 
 quired. " For if there 's more to come out of 
 him, we 're bound to fetch it." 
 
 "It is tolerably satisfactory, as far as it goes," 
 Fred replied. " But we have n't got at the bot- 
 tom facts yet. Eh, Quimby ? " 
 
 "That Ordway rapscallion," remarked the Yale 
 junior, "is an artesian well of deception, and we 
 have n't begun to fathom him. 'T was n't a mere 
 bird's nest he was so excited about. I believe now 
 he was laughing in his sleeve all the time at hav- 
 ing led us on a false trail." 
 
 "The trouble will be to get on the right one," 
 Fred answered. " He was a pretty fellow for you 
 to let into the house!" turning sharply on Gid- 
 eon. "Then for you to leave a window unfast- 
 ened ! And that drawer it does n't seem now as 
 if that could have been locked." 
 
 13 
 
212 THE PKIZE CUP 
 
 "I 've been thinking about that," said Gideon; 
 "and I ain't dead sure but what I may have put 
 the key back where I found it, without locking the 
 drawer. I remember Osk took it out of the lock 
 and handed it to me, at the last minute. And I 
 may have left that window unclasped. I was so 
 excited by Osk Ordway's being in the house, and 
 getting the cider, and I was in such a hurry to 
 have him out, I got all mixed up, and did n't know 
 what I did do, or what I did n't do." 
 
 " And was your beautiful prize cup took in con- 
 sequence of his neglect?" the indignant washer- 
 woman demanded. 
 
 "By his own account, it was through his fault 
 that it was lost," Fred replied. "But I am glad 
 to say he was not concerned in taking it." 
 
 " But he is responsible," cried the mother, while 
 her impatient hand started for Grid's ear, but 
 stopped at his coat-collar. "And let me say to 
 you, Mr. Frederick, if hard work will pay you for 
 your loss, he shall work it out, if I have to stand 
 over him with a whip, all the rest of the summer." 
 
 " It is something money could n't pay for," said 
 Fred. 
 
 " Hear that now, will you ? " Mrs. Ketterell ex- 
 claimed. 
 
GID KETTERELL CONFESSES 213 
 
 "I 'm so sorry ! " whined the contrite Gideon. 
 
 " There '11 be no need of your spending the sum- 
 mer in the way you propose," Fred smilingly as- 
 sured the mother. "The cup has been found." 
 
 At the same time Mrs. Lisle held the goblet up 
 to the light, and Midget, who had been playing 
 about the porch, but observing slyly all that was 
 going on, took up his joyous cry : 
 
 " Cup cup ! Come cup ! " 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 OSK IN COUKT 
 
 STONISHMENT at this double rev- 
 elation served to modify the wash- 
 erwoman's wrath. She prepared to 
 depart. 
 
 "And do you want my boy to 
 take care of your place any more ? " she asked. 
 
 " I rather think you had better find some other 
 sphere of usefulness for him," Melverton replied, 
 to Tracy's very great satisfaction. "I may want 
 one thing of him, however, to appear as a wit- 
 ness in the matter of the nest robbery, before 
 Judge Carter, this afternoon." 
 
 " You shall have him ! " said Mrs. Ketterell, with 
 grim resolution, as she gave a final clutch at the 
 lapel of her son's coat, and led him away. 
 
 " I 'm wondering," remarked Fred Melverton, at 
 Mrs. Lisle's dinner-table, " just what I 'd better do 
 with the fellow I 've got locked up on a mistaken 
 charge." 
 
 214 
 
OSK IN COURT 215 
 
 " It might be an awkward posish," said Canton 
 Quimby " position," quickly revising his language 
 to suit his audience, and blushing under the merry 
 look Ida gave him. "But you have n't entered 
 your complaint yet ; and when he comes up before 
 the justice, you 've only to switch off from the 
 wrong charge upon the true one." 
 
 " I really think he ought to be made an example," 
 observed Mr. Walworth. 
 
 " No doubt," said Melverton. " But the worst of 
 it is, there '11 be a fine, which somebody will have 
 to pay for him." 
 
 " Too bad to have it fall on the old chin-piler I 
 mean his respectable grandparent," Quimby has- 
 tened to correct himself, under Ida's laughing eyes. 
 " But he says he won't pay any more fines for him." 
 
 " He has said that before, and then paid them," 
 Fred replied, consulting his watch. " But I shall 
 try to hold him to his resolution this time. Sorry 
 to leave your table so abruptly, Mrs. Lisle ; but an 
 engagement with the mason, and other disagree- 
 able duties I 'd a great deal rather stay here," 
 he laughed, with a humorously reluctant look at 
 Quimby. 
 
 " Can't we let the mason and justice wait I " 
 his friend replied. "I don't want to leave this 
 
216 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 spot. 77 He glanced from Mrs. Lisle to Ida, with a 
 smile of frank enjoyment. " But I 7 m glad of one 
 more chance to look into that impostor's soul if 
 he has one. There 7 s a fascination in the fellow's 
 eyes. -Do you remember how they blazed at his 
 gram'er, Melf , when the poor old creature wished to 
 fetch his 4 bettermost 7 coat ? " 
 
 " There '11 be a lively time when we have him up 
 before Judge Carter," Fred said. " Come around to 
 the police court in about an hour, Tracy, if you 
 want to see the fun. 77 
 
 The appointment with the mason was kept, the 
 base of the chimney was broken into, in the pres- 
 ence of Gran 7 sir Pudgwick, Chief Hazel, and the 
 two young men ; and the phoabes 7 nest, still in its 
 newspaper wrapping, was taken out. The delicate 
 eggs were broken, but the nest itself was in good 
 condition. 
 
 Canton Quimby was so thoroughly convinced 
 that this was not the only object purloined and 
 concealed by the same hands, that he made a thor- 
 ough search amidst the soot and rubbish of the 
 chimney, and afterward reexamined the stovepipe 
 and the flue in the shop above ; but nothing further 
 was brought to light. 
 
 " I 7 m afraid, 77 he said to Melverton, " that that 
 precocious master of craft has beaten us. 77 
 
OSK IN COURT 217 
 
 Arraigned before the village magistrate, that 
 afternoon, Osk Ordway, with amazing effrontery, 
 derided the charge of nest robbery, even when the 
 nest was produced in evidence. But at the calling 
 of an unexpected witness his manner changed. 
 
 Gideon Ketterell was sworn. 
 
 Gid gave his testimony in terror of the vengeance 
 threatened by Osk's eyes, and also of another pair 
 flashing greenish fire upon him from under a heavy 
 mane of tawny hair, in the rear of the court-room. 
 To the embarrassed and unwilling witness the fear 
 of the second pair of eyes was, for good and whole- 
 some reasons, the greater. 
 
 Gideon told a pretty straight story of Osk's visit 
 to the Melverton house that memorable Tuesday, 
 omitting smaller details ; of Osk's saying, as he left 
 the door, that he was going to look at the phoebes' 
 nest under the bridge ; and of his actually having 
 the nest in his hat when Gid found him sitting 
 among the bushes by the brookside afterward. 
 
 " Is this the nest 1 " Judge Carter inquired. 
 
 Gideon stooped over it, where it lay in the opened 
 newspaper wrapper, on the judge's table. 
 
 " I should say so ; but the eggs was n't broke 
 then," replied the witness. 
 
 The judge proceeded with his questions, prompted 
 by Fred Melverton. 
 
218 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 " After you saw it in his hat, in the bushes, did 
 you ever see it again until to-day ? " 
 
 Grid hesitated, and moved cautiously a step far- 
 ther from Osk, who stood scowling near by, in front 
 of the judge's desk. 
 
 " I did," said the witness. 
 
 " Tell us where." 
 
 " He kept it hid in the top of the stovepipe in 
 the paint-shop. I saw him take it out and put it 
 back again." 
 
 "That will do," said the judge; and with a 
 breath of relief Gideon stepped back, followed by 
 the eyes of the vindictively leering prisoner. 
 
 " It seems a perfectly plain case," Judge Carter 
 remarked to Gran'sir Pudgwick, who sat frowning 
 and fretting, and opening and closing his tele- 
 scopic chin (to quote Canton Quimby's lively ex- 
 pression), during these revelations. "I shall have 
 to impose the fine." 
 
 " That 's all right, Gran'sir ! " said Osk, with an 
 impatient shrug. " Pony up, and le' 's get out of 
 this. It makes me tired." 
 
 Beads of perspiration, not produced solely by 
 the closeness of the air of the court-room, glis- 
 tened on the old man's bald crown and visibly 
 writhing features. 
 
OSK IN COURT 219 
 
 " If it must be, I s'pose it must," he said discon- 
 tentedly. "But I hope, Judge, you '11 put it at 
 your lowest figger." 
 
 "The statute fixes the fine at ten dollars," re- 
 plied the judge. "I 've no discretion in the 
 matter." 
 
 " And what if 't ain't paid ? " asked the old man 
 sharply. 
 
 Melverton and Quimby were watching him with 
 the keenest interest, and nudging each other. Osk, 
 from under his lowering brows, fixed piercing eyes 
 upon the irresolute gran'sir. 
 
 The magistrate of the informal village court re- 
 laxed into the genial neighbor as he turned to give 
 Mr. Pudgwick friendly advice. 
 
 " You can have the case continued, and employ 
 a lawyer for your grandson, or you can appeal it to 
 a higher court. But the evidence is so plain, and 
 the law so clear, that it would be very unwise to 
 incur any further cost in the matter." 
 
 "I don't want no cost. I want to save cost. I 
 don't want to pay that fine ! " objected the old 
 man. 
 
 "Nothing obliges you to do it. And I 'm in- 
 clined to think it will be as well for you not to do 
 it," remarked Judge Carter, blandly. 
 
220 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 "Then what?" squeaked the big man's small 
 voice, after a moment's reflection. 
 
 " He will be committed to jail, and detained at 
 the discretion of the court." 
 
 The old man turned his eyes toward his grand- 
 son, and demanded, " "What do you say to that 1 " 
 
 And Osk answered with an indignant scoff: 
 " Just for taking a bird's nest ? It 's absurd. You 
 and gram'er never '11 allow that." 
 
 " I hain't got ten dollars about me," said the old 
 man, in great trouble of mind. 
 
 "No matter. You can raise it. Judge '11 lend 
 it to you. Old friends, you know. Won't you, 
 Judge I " 
 
 This audaciously cool request, on the part of the 
 prisoner, raised a laugh among the dozen or twenty 
 spectators, and tended to make everybody good- 
 natured, as Osk no doubt meant it should, only 
 the old gran'sir failing to see any fun in his grand- 
 son's impertinence. 
 
 Even the judge had to smile, as he remarked, 
 " That would be an unheard-of arrangement for 
 the court to impose a fine and then proceed to pay 
 it!" 
 
 " If I could only believe this was the last of his 
 tricks ! " the agitated old man muttered. 
 
 
OSK IN COURT 221 
 
 " It 's the very last, I promise you," Osk protested. 
 "Get me out of this little scrape, and I '11 be a 
 credit to you after this." 
 
 " I don't know," Gran'sir Pudgwick replied, in a 
 plaintive murmur. " I 've got a little money to 
 home, and if the judge '11 give me ten minutes " 
 
 A gleam of triumph lighted Osk's face. At that 
 moment an eager-eyed youth pressed forward into 
 the court-room. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 "HIS ' BETTEBMOST ' COAT" 
 
 |ALF an hour earlier, while Gideon 
 was giving his testimony, a yellow 
 envelope had been brought in by a 
 messenger and handed to Fred 
 Melverton. Absorbed in the pro- 
 ceedings of the trial, he gave a hasty glance at the 
 message, and then handed it to Canton Quimby. 
 
 "But don't you see?" his friend whispered. 
 " This may be important. When we went through 
 his room we saw nothing of the kind. I should 
 have noticed it." 
 
 " I think I should, too," Melverton replied. " You 
 may be right. It may lead to something. I believe 
 I '11 jump on my wheel and skip over 't won't 
 take long." 
 
 " No, no ! You stay here. You may be needed. 
 I '11 go, or there 's your friend!" And Quimby 
 beckoned to Tracy Lisle, who stood among the 
 
"HIS 'BETTERMOST' COAT" 223 
 
 spectators, watching the young men in consultation 
 over the yellow missive. 
 
 "Look here, Trace," said Melverton, showing 
 him the despatch. " Do you remember seeing any- 
 thing of the sort 1 " 
 
 " N-o-o ! " Tracy murmured, glancing his eye 
 wonderingly over the paper. 
 
 "Suppose you take my wheel at the door or 
 Quimby's ; you could n't ride mine," Melverton said; 
 "spin over to the house, see if you can find out 
 what this means, and be back here again " 
 
 " ' Ere the leviathan can swim a league,' " quoted 
 Canton Quimby. 
 
 Tracy went, and he had now returned. Flushed 
 and panting he quickly made his way to his friends, 
 cap in hand, and carrying a coat on his arm. 
 
 "Find anything of it?" Fred anxiously de- 
 manded. 
 
 " No," Tracy whispered excitedly ; " and I did n't 
 believe I should. There was only a crumpled 
 handkerchief lying on the table in his room." 
 
 " We 're getting a clue," said Quimby, looking up 
 keenly at Osk Ordway, who was regarding the coat 
 on Tracy's arm with a strangely intense and anx- 
 ious expression. 
 
 " But I 've got it ! " Tracy whispered gleefully. 
 
224 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 " The clue 1 " asked Quimby. 
 
 " The thing itself," said Tracy. 
 
 And he whispered a rapid explanation into the 
 ears of his astonished friends. 
 
 "One moment, Mr. Pudgwick! Don't go just 
 yet," said Fred. The old gran'sir, after a consulta- 
 tion with the judge, was setting off to bring his 
 money with which to pay the fine he had before so 
 firmly resolved not to pay. " I 've a few words to 
 say to his honor," Melverton went on, rising to his 
 feet, " which I prefer that you should hear. If his 
 honor will permit. 77 
 
 "Go on," said Judge Carter, while all listened 
 intently. 
 
 " I should like to explain," the young man re- 
 sumed, " that it was a search on our part for very 
 different and much more valuable plunder that led 
 to the discovery of the bird's nest in Oscar's posses- 
 sion. A certain prize cup had been taken from my 
 mother's house about the time when he had access 
 to it, and I frankly confess that I suspected him of 
 appropriating it. I now as frankly own that I was 
 mistaken, and I beg his pardon." 
 
 Oscar, who had been making signs for Tracy to 
 give him the coat, answered Fred's acknowledg- 
 ment with a glassy smile, as if by no means at ease 
 in his mind in regard to the situation. 
 
"HIS 'BETTERMOST' COAT" 225 
 
 " Still," Melverton proceeded, " I thought it prob- 
 able some other object might have been taken 
 a suspicion that could n't be readily verified in a 
 hurried survey of the premises. But since I have 
 been sitting here, a telegram has been handed 
 me, from my brother Frank," he extended the 
 despatch to the judge, "who, as your honor will 
 perceive, asks me to bring away what he men- 
 tions from the table in his room." 
 
 Meanwhile Canton Quimby sat watching, with 
 calm intensity, the changes in Osk's countenance, 
 and he now secured what he had so ardently de- 
 sired a glimpse into that wily deceiver's moment- 
 arily unmasked soul. Fred continued: 
 
 "I immediately sent iny friend, Tracy Lisle, 
 who has charge of the house, to look for what 
 should have been on my brother's table, and he 
 reports that it was n't to be found. By a singular 
 coincidence, however, " He interrupted himself, 
 and added : " Will your honor allow him to make 
 a statement ? " 
 
 " The court sees no objection," the judge replied. 
 "What is it, Tracy!" 
 
 With his blue eyes sparkling, and his ruddy fea- 
 tures glowing, Master Lisle stepped forward, and 
 told his story. 
 
 " I went on a bicycle, and as I was passing Ma- 
 
226 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 pie street, old Mrs. Pudgwick ran out to ask me 
 how the trial was going. I could n't wait, but she 
 seemed so troubled, I said I would tell her when I 
 came along back. I had forgotten all about it, 
 when, as I was nearing Maple street again, I saw 
 her running up from her house, beckoning and 
 calling; and I had to stop. She had this coat" 
 Tracy held it up for all to look at "and when I 
 said there was n't much to tell, and was starting 
 on again, she caught hold of me. 
 
 " ' Do, please, take him this,' she said, i so he '11 
 have something decent to put on. It 's his " better- 
 most " coat. His gran'sir was going to carry it to 
 him,' she told me ; ' but I could n't find it when he 
 started off; I 've had the greatest hunt! What 
 the boy wanted to tuck it away out o' sight so for, 
 I can't imagine ! ' 
 
 " * All right ; I '11 give it to him,' I said ; but as 
 she was handing it to me, she noticed something 
 heavy in one of the pockets, which she had been in 
 too great a hurry to give any thought to before. 
 It thumped against the handle-bar like this." 
 
 Tracy swung the loaded pocket against the 
 judge's table with a muffled thud, as' he added : 
 
 " I started to take it out for her. She saw it, 
 and was ever so much astonished. Then I said, 
 
; * 
 
"HIS 'BETTERMOST' COAT" 229 
 
 4 Never mind ! ' flung the coat over my arm, and 
 here it is ! " 
 
 It was now Melverton's turn to resume his ex- 
 planation. 
 
 " The thing in the pocket is this, " holding it 
 up before the eyes of judge, prisoner, and specta- 
 tors, " my brother Frank's revolver. He meant 
 to carry it with him to the seaside, but must have 
 left it behind by accident, in the hurry of depar- 
 ture. He seems to remember placing it on his 
 dressing-table, where it somehow got overlooked 
 at the last moment. He now telegraphs for it, as 
 there is to be target-shooting to-morrow. Your 
 honor will notice what a curiously wrought and 
 perfect weapon it is ; and that it has my brother's 
 initials on the butt-cap. How it passed from his 
 dressing-table into Oscar Ordway's pocket, Oscar 
 will perhaps explain." 
 
 " I see now," Chief Hazel observed, stepping up 
 to examine the weapon, " why he objected so to 
 his grandmother's getting his 'bettermost' coat 
 when I took him from the house." 
 
 Oscar attempted no explanations, but stood sul- 
 lenly defiant; and when Tracy handed him the 
 coat, with an angry stroke of his arm he flung it 
 upon the floor. There it lay in the dust at his feet 
 
230 THE PEIZE CUP 
 
 until old man Pudgwick stooped with a groan to 
 gather it up. 
 
 Judge Carter asked if Melverton wished to enter 
 a complaint against Osk for the far more serious 
 offense just brought to light. 
 
 " I don't see how I can well shirk that duty," 
 Fred replied, " although it will be a very painful 
 one. I trust I am not actuated by the slightest 
 feeling of ill will. But I am convinced that it will 
 be a good thing for the community, for his grand- 
 parents, and for Oscar himself, if he is placed in 
 some reformatory institution, where he will acquire 
 habits of industry and good behavior, which he 
 will never do in his present surroundings. I think 
 his grandfather will, upon reflection, agree with 
 me." 
 
 "Mr. Melverton is right!" Mr. Pudgwick re- 
 plied with strong emotion, mechanically brushing 
 the dust from his grandson's "bettermost" coat. 
 "And I guess his gram'er '11 be of the same way of 
 thinking when she knows." 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 WHO KEPT THE CUP 
 
 HESE events happened so short a 
 time ago that there is little more to 
 tell. Oscar was in due course sent 
 to the State Reformatory ; where, I 
 am pleased to learn, he is making 
 an unexpectedly good record, showing what needed 
 discipline can sometimes do in the case of a ne'er- 
 do-well who fails to get his deserts at home. 
 
 His absence from the village has proved a bless- 
 ing to the class of boys who were formerly under 
 his influence ; so much of ill in a whole community 
 is often owing to the bad example of one or two 
 reckless leaders. Gideon has gone to work; and 
 Gleorge Oliver, no longer finding anything to ridi- 
 cule in Tracy Lisle's " aristocratic ways," is trying, 
 like him, honestly and truly to " make the best of 
 himself. 77 
 
 In his letters to his grandparents Oscar makes 
 
 231 
 
232 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 no hypocritical pretenses of penitence or affection, 
 but he sometimes alludes to the comforts of home 
 in a way that shows how much better he appre- 
 ciates the privileges and blessings of which he is 
 temporarily deprived than he ever did when in the 
 enjoyment of them. 
 
 " How I M like to walk in and sit down in the 
 corner with you both this evening ! " Or, " If I only 
 had some of grandmother's good" this or that, 
 meaning the dishes she used to prepare for him 
 with such loving pains, often to receive only cross 
 words and scowling looks in return. 
 
 The old people prize these letters more than they 
 do anything else in the world; and find in their 
 grandson the solace of their lives, now that he 
 is separated from them. 
 
 As for Midget, who is the real hero of this story, 
 if it has a hero, he is making extraordinary pro- 
 gress in the line of education his mother fortu- 
 nately hit upon, after so many disappointments. 
 The word cup proved the key that was to open a 
 new world to his childish mind. When it was 
 shown to him in print, he realized for the first time 
 that the alphabet signified speech, and became in- 
 terested in what had failed to fix his attention 
 before. Simultaneously with the printed alpha- 
 
WHO KEPT THE CUP 233 
 
 bet he learned the sign-alphabet of the deaf-mutes ; 
 and each newly-acquired name of a thing became 
 fixed in his memory, associated with its three dif- 
 ferent forms of expression : the spoken word, the 
 written or printed letters, and the finger move- 
 ments by which the same sounds were represented. 
 
 The various steps in his progress would form an 
 interesting story ; but we have no place for it here. 
 Now in his eighth year he can pronounce a great 
 many common words, and read many more from 
 familiar lips (the speech of strangers giving him 
 much greater difficulty); further than this, he can 
 read and write as well as many boys of his age who 
 can hear and who have enjoyed the advantage of 
 school instruction. He has been taught wholly at 
 home, and his mother and Ida will probably con- 
 tinue his teachers for some time yet, although Fred 
 Melverton claims the privilege of defraying his ex- 
 penses at the famous Northampton school. 
 
 Fred would never allow the Prize Cup to be re- 
 turned to the Melverton home. It is so curiously 
 associated with a most interesting incident in the 
 child's life, that the owner has had the inscription 
 on it filled out in a different way from what was 
 originally intended ; so that, after the date of the 
 race, it reads : 
 
234 
 
 THE PRIZE CUP 
 
 " Won by Frederick Melverton, and by him pre- 
 sented to his dear young friend, Laurie Lisle." 
 
 It stands on a mantel in the old parsonage ; and 
 the last time I saw it there, the little nest of fine 
 hay, which had been removed only that the en- 
 graving might be completed, again showed, soft 
 and brown, against the golden lining. 
 
 The phoebes never knew how kind the child 
 meant to be to them. But they have returned to 
 the old bridge, and have a new nest of their own 
 this spring. 
 

The prize 
 
 cup 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY