The theft of the medal was of course the all-absorbing topic at all places where students came together. Hal’s explanation of his intended flight and the causes which made him want to know where the pawnshop was, brought to an end the clew which the authorities had thought would quickly locate the thief. There seemed to be absolutely no way to trace the culprit.

A week passed and Hal’s foot became better and he was able to resume his practice with the team.

On Friday evening Hal was in his room doing his studies, in order to have them out of the way, so that he could enjoy himself fully on Saturday and Sunday, without having to think of college work, when he received a note from Mr. Williams, the treasurer of the University, asking him if he could come down for a few minutes. The note was delivered by a blue-coated messenger boy. After reading it, he said he would go and the messenger left.

Hal went into Hans’ room to tell where he was going, found that he was not in his room and as they had planned to do some studying together later in the evening he started to write a note on the pad on the writing desk. Then he thought Hans would understand better what was up if he left the treasurer’s note on Hans’ desk. He did this and went on down to see Mr. Williams.

When he arrived there he found Mr. Williams, Dr. Lawrence, the president, and Mr. Smith, the secretary, waiting for him. There was nothing that Hal need be nervous about, and he could think of nothing they could want him for, unless perhaps they wanted to “call him down” for leaving the University without explanation.

On second thought he made up his mind that if that were the idea, they surely wouldn’t have the president of the University on hand. Then he thought that perhaps the president wanted to hear his story about the pawnshop, etc., and he wished Hans were with him to verify it. All this passed through his mind in the few seconds he had to wait until they noticed his arrival.

“Oh, Case,” said Mr. Williams, “we have asked you down here to-night to tell you some important news. First, the medal has been found, and——”

“I am very glad it has turned up,” broke in Hal, relieved, “and I appreciate your telling me in this way, Mr. Williams, because I suppose you know I have——”

“Yes, that is one reason, Case,” now broke in Mr. Williams, “but there are certain circumstances in connection with the finding of the medal, which I regret to say will need a little further explanation on your part.”

“Why, what do you mean?” asked Hal, growing a little nervous at the tone used by Mr. Williams.

“I hope,” went on Mr. Williams, “that you have an explanation which is satisfactory. I cannot quite bring myself to believe, after the straightforward talk you made to me last week, that you had anything to do with the theft of the medal, but the circumstances of recovery demand an explanation from you. When you told me your story the other day you gave me the address of the pawnshop in Boston where you went to inquire about the value of your watch. You were so frank about asking us to go there and verify your story that I didn’t think it worth while to do so.

“Among the methods used, however, by us in our efforts to recover the medal we asked the Boston police to visit all the pawnshops and see what they could find. This morning we had word by long distance phone from Boston, saying the medal had been found in one of the pawnshops there and suggesting that we send some one in authority to bring it back and to go over some facts in connection with the case, which might aid them in locating the culprit. I was going up anyhow and I said I would attend to the matter myself. When I arrived at police headquarters, the chief took me into his private office. He went to his safe and when he returned he handed me the medal which I now show you (he held up the beautiful medal in his right hand) and he also handed me this.” Then with his left hand he picked up an envelope which was lying on his desk and handed it to Hal.

Hal was puzzled because he didn’t know what that could have to do with him. He looked up and noticed all three of the officers of the University watching his face closely. He couldn’t understand it and naturally became paler. It looked to him like a trap. Then he reached over with his right hand and took the envelope which Mr. Williams held out for him.

He felt that something terrible was going to happen and his hand shook. He took the envelope, looked at it, turned it over, looked at the other side, and gave a jump. What he saw would make most young fellows jump even higher than Hal did, for on the address side of the envelope was written

“HAROLD CASE,
————
California.”

Hal noticed at once that it was his own writing. It was some seconds before anyone in the room spoke. To Hal it seemed hours. Finally, it was he himself who broke the silence.

“Where did you get this?” he asked.

“The police found it with the medal in the shop where it was pawned, and the broker said it was handed to him by the fellow who pawned the medal.” This was said slowly in order to give the others a chance to notice what effect the words had on Hal. “It looks something like your writing,” said Mr. Williams.

“It is my handwriting,” said Hal.

“How do you explain it?” asked Mr. Williams.

“I can’t explain it,” answered Hal. “I know absolutely nothing about it.”

“The medal and this envelope,” went on Mr. Williams, “were found in the pawnshop which you said you had visited that night in Boston. After I saw the Chief of Police and he gave me the medal and the envelope he went with me to the pawnshop and when I got there I recognized the address which you had given me. Then we rode back to the police department to interview the pawnbroker who has been arrested for receiving stolen property, and he told me this story.

“‘About five o’clock on Thursday evening of the previous week, a young man wearing a blue cloth hat and a mixed gray suit of clothes came into my place and asked me how much I would loan him on a watch which he laid down on the show case. I picked it up and saw two good-sized diamonds in the case. I was attracted by the stones and next examined them with my magnifying glass. They were exactly alike and I saw at once they were valuable, particularly to me as I had been asked that day by a customer to find him two perfectly matched white stones.

“‘Then I examined the watch inside and out and saw that it was also very valuable, and I said, thinking to get the watch cheap, since most people who pawn things do not redeem them, “I will let you have four hundred and fifty dollars on it.” The young fellow hesitated and then asked: “How much is it worth?” and I said, “a thousand dollars,” and he said, hesitating again, “Thank you, I just wanted to find out how much it is worth,” and hurried out. I didn’t think any more of it, except to guess to myself that the watch didn’t belong to the young man. About five minutes later he came back and I said, “Well, you have decided to let me have the watch anyhow for a while haven’t you?” He looked at me rather queerly and said after hesitating as he did before, “No, I won’t pawn that.” I noticed then he had on blue eyeglasses, but couldn’t say whether he had them on the first time he called because I paid more attention to the watch than to him.

“‘Finally he pulled out the medal, a very beautiful piece, and said, “I can spare this better for a while than the watch if you can let me have as much on it.” I took it in my hand, and noticing the inscription on it, said: “Is it yours?” “Of course,” he replied, and as it might easily be so from the inscription, and as very few people would take a chance on trying to pawn that kind of a medal if it didn’t belong to them, I took it and gave him four hundred and fifty dollars and the ticket. “I may not be able to come for this myself,” he said, “and I might lose the ticket, so make a note that it is not to be delivered to anyone, even if he has the ticket unless it is accompanied by an envelope like this one with this name on it and in his handwriting.” Then he handed me the envelope which I put in the safe with the medal, and which I turned over to the police this morning.’”

Hal was dumfounded. What could he say? He thought awfully hard. Finally he was able to say, “But I was with Hagner or with Hagner and Delvin all of the time I was in Boston, excepting during the five minutes it took me to call at the pawnshop about the watch. Besides, I haven’t any blue glasses. I didn’t have any and wouldn’t have had time to buy any while there.”

“Are you sure you were only away from Hagner for five minutes? The pawnbroker said both visits took place within ten or fifteen minutes all told. The glasses might have been bought before you took the train. We are not trying to accuse you, Case, we are trying to keep from having to,” said Mr. Williams.

“I am not sure that it was exactly five minutes,” said Hal. “I am not sure of anything except that I had nothing to do with the theft of the medal. And yet I can’t blame you gentlemen very much, because it certainly does look bad, especially when I was on my way to leave the University for good.”

Hal had somewhat recovered his balance because he knew, of course, that it must come out all right somehow, although he had no idea what or how they were going to do him. He knew he was innocent yet here were a lot of circumstances that looked like evidence to them and until he could clear them up he would be under great suspicion.

If they should decide that the evidence warranted action they could even have him locked up, and he began to think of the books he had read of people—men, women, and boys who had been unjustly accused of different crimes and had been locked up for years, many of them never having their innocence proved. It was a terrible fix for him. All this went through his mind while the others were consulting.

Finally Dr. Lawrence, the president, turned to Hal and said:

“Mr. Case, it is a terrible thing for all of us to have to consider a matter of this kind. It is one of the few occasions in my life when I would rather be anyone else than the President of Lowell University. Whoever it was who performed this theft may have to answer finally for the conviction of an innocent young man. We are loath to accuse you of this crime. In fact, I wish you to understand thoroughly that we do not accuse you now. At the same time the circumstances are such that we cannot, we regret to say, exonerate you until the matter is fully cleared up. You yourself admit that it looks bad for you. It does. But we will not permit ourselves to believe you guilty until every effort has been made to clear it up. Meantime, however, not as a punishment for the matter, but to put it on a basis which while not justifiable is nevertheless explainable, as the result of your intention to absent yourself from the University without leave, we have decided that you must consider yourself off the Varsity for the period of one week. We rely on you not to leave the University pending the investigation. I am sorry.”

He shook Hal’s hand warmly after this dignified speech and expressed the hope that the matter could be cleared up soon. He assured Hal that no expense or labor would be saved in that direction.

Then they let him go home and it was the saddest trip Hal ever took in the direction of Mrs. Malcolm’s home. Whether they considered him guilty of the greater crime or not, he was disgraced anyhow. Surely it was a hard punishment to give an impetuous young fellow for simply wanting to go home and for the reason that Hal thought he had.

He went up the stairs to his room with a heavy heart—a heart that ached in every way. He felt that he was done for.

Hans’ door was open and he heard Hal come in.

“Been up on the green carpet?” asked Hans. “That’s what they say, isn’t it when they send for you like that?”

“Yes,” said Hal, dejected.

“What’s the matter now? Nothing about the medal or our trip to Boston, was it?” went on Hans. But before he could answer, Hal broke down and went all to pieces. “I’m disgraced,” he almost shouted in his agony.

“Tell me what happened,” said Hans when he had quieted him down somewhat. Then Hal told him all that had taken place and what had been said, the pawnbroker’s story and everything, winding up by repeating the president’s speech which he could recite almost word for word, so forcibly had every syllable sunk into his brain.

“I’m disgraced,” he concluded.

Hans was thunderstruck. Did they connect him with it in any way? Was his name mentioned? Why didn’t they? It was preposterous. He had Hal go over different parts of the story again and again. They didn’t believe Hal guilty, yet they put him off the team for a week.

“We must clear this up,” said he, finally, when he had a little time to think. “We must clear it up within a week. How I don’t know, but it must be done. Don’t worry about being suspended for a week. No one but Hughie need know. You can fix it up with him that your foot is paining you again from Crossley’s spikes and carry your cane and limp a little. Hughie will protect you. He likes you well enough for that. At the end of the week you can get well again. We don’t need to worry about that end of it. We’ve got to go over this thing step by step and account for everything that happened to you and me from the time you left this house that day until you got back. Now let’s get busy,” and they started in on the hardest proposition they had ever tackled.

Item by item they went over the day’s happenings again and again. They started in with Hal’s leaving Mrs. Malcolm’s house on the way to the station.

“Did you walk or did you take the car? Who took your trunk! Did you talk to anybody? Whom?”

These were the kind of questions Hans fired at Hal like shots out of a gun. For once this phlegmatic young man was thoroughly aroused and excited. Whenever he asked a question that Hal couldn’t answer he would say “Think! Think!”

They went over everything up to the time Hal took the train, and they found no clew of any kind. Hal had talked to no one except the ticket agent, the policeman at the corner, and yes! he did ask another man whom he met as he ran out of the station about the location of a pawnshop but the other fellow was hurrying too and he guessed he hadn’t heard his question because he didn’t stop. Hal hadn’t either.

Then they went all over the incidents of the ride to Boston, meeting with Delvin, waiting in the station for him, Hal’s visit to the pawnshop, the dinner at Delvin’s and the vaudeville show but found nothing that would give them a start.

Then Hans had Hal tell the pawnbroker’s story over again, word for word as near as he could remember it. When Hal came to the part about the envelope Hans stopped him.

“Do you remember where you got that envelope and how you happened to write your name on it?”

“Why yes, I got it off my desk that day when I was packing. I remember I wrote my name and home address on it and put it in my handkerchief pocket intending to leave it at the post office as a forwarding address for my mail.”

“Did you leave it there?”

Hal thought a moment. “No, I’m sure I forgot all about that. I didn’t go to the post office at all.”

“Then it must have been in your pocket on the train. You may have pulled it out of your pocket with your handkerchief on the train,” continued Hans.

“I can’t remember having used my handkerchief on the train,” said Hal, “but I do recollect now that when I came out of the pawnshop I was perspiring freely from slight nervousness and the excitement of knowing the great value of my watch.”

“That might account for its having gotten into the pawnshop,” said Hans eagerly, “if the thief was near there and happened to see it (then in a moment). Sure that’s what happened. Didn’t he show up within five minutes after you left the place? You drop the envelope on the sidewalk without knowing it, he comes along, sees it, picks it up, and as one name is as good to him as another, and as he doesn’t expect to call for the medal again, he fixes up that story for the pawnbroker to show him he doesn’t want to part with the medal forever and that makes the broker loan him the money on it, because they had rather make loans to people who redeem their pledges than not. People who do this have the habit and become steady customers. We’re doing fine.”

By that time it was nearly daylight. They had been up all night without noticing it. They felt they had made a start. At last they decided to get an hour or two of sleep.

Hal went to his bed exhausted but couldn’t sleep, he was so worried. Hans fell asleep promptly or thought he did. As a matter of fact he was only half dozing with the problem going through his mind. He was so intent on it that he was thinking of it unconsciously and as he thought he was asleep he thought he had a dream of getting on a train to go some place. Oh yes, he was trying to find Hal, he was getting on the back end of the train and as he walked into the car he saw Hal sitting on the last seat of the car, blue hat, mixed gray suit and all, and he saw himself going up to speak to him and greet him in true college-boy style, hitting his friend on the back as hard as his right hand would permit him, and just as his hand was about to fall on Hal’s shoulders he looked and, “By George!” said Hans, jumping out of bed and running over to Hal’s room like mad, shouting, “I’ve got him. The fellow with the blue glasses! Blue hat, gray suit, just like yours on the same train.”

Then he told Hal about the fellow on the train whom he had almost forgotten. How he thought he was Hal and was just about to hand him one when he had noticed the blue glasses and then found it wasn’t Hal. He wound up by saying, “Find the other fellow with the blue hat, the mixed gray suit and the blue glasses and we’ve got the medal thief.”