tories; the great day was over; the pleasure that
remained was the pleasure of retrospection, of thinking over each detail
of the victory, of re-living the struggle and of reading the accounts of
the game in the newspapers. In those papers the sons of Ridgley were
destined to find not only the glowing account of the game, which they
knew would greet their eyes, but also news of a startling and unexpected
nature.

CHAPTER XI

MYSTERIES IN PART EXPLAINED

On the morning following the Jefferson game, Ridgley School, somewhat
stiff after the strenuous hours of struggle and victory, but feeling
utterly contented with the world and more than ever convinced that there
was no school quite like the one that stood on the hill among the
maples, awoke and prepared to settle itself leisurely to the enjoyment
of glorious memories. The first person who opened a newspaper intended
to undergo the pleasant experience of allowing the lines of printed
words to recall to mind the deathless moments of Ridgley accomplishment
and triumph. After his eyes had taken in the headlines that announced
the victory of the red, however, they were arrested by heavy type that
announced a tragedy. Two members of the school had been the victims of
an accident and one of them had lost his life. The reporters' story of
the occurrence read as follows:

"On Saturday afternoon while Ridgley was earning its triumph over
Jefferson and while the sounds of cheering echoed across the field,
death came to one member of the school and serious injury to another. No
one witnessed the tragedy. Mr. Osborne Murchie, while driving along the
State road from Greensboro to Springfield yesterday at about three
o'clock, came upon a seven-passenger car which had crashed through the
railing and had rolled down the embankment at the beginning of Hairpin
Turn and lay at the bottom of the gulch in a demolished condition, with
two young men pinned beneath the wreck. With the aid of a friend who
accompanied him, Mr. Murchie pried up the car and removed from beneath
it the dead body of a young man which was later identified as that of J.
M. Bassett, a student at Ridgley, whose home is in Denver, Colorado. The
other young man, Tracey Campbell, son of the prominent leather dealer,
who was unconscious and suffering from severe injuries, was conveyed to
the hospital at Greensboro, where it is said that he has a fair chance
of recovery.

"There are certain matters in regard to t