in a chain of circumstantial evidence that had gradually been involving
Campbell and Bassett. Among those persons were Neil Durant and Snubby
Turner.

On the previous evening Teeny-bits Holbrook had not been so absorbed in
the celebration that he had not found time to say to the captain and the
coach what he had in his mind. While the sounds of the revelers still
rose over the campus the three had gone into Neil Durant's room, and
there Teeny-bits had told of the false telephone message, of the
struggle in the road, of how his unknown assailants had carried him away
and kept him prisoner, of his fight to escape, of the strange action of
his Chinese captors when they discovered the mark of the knife, of his
escape and finally of his return to the Holbrook home and his long
sleep.

"It sounds like a pretty wild story, I know," he had said to his two
friends, "but it's true, every word of it, and I don't know why in the
world it all happened or whatever made those Chinamen let me go when
they saw my birthmark."

Coach Murray and Neil Durant had readily admitted that they thought it
was an extraordinary story but the idea did not enter their minds that
it was not true in every detail, for they knew that what Teeny-bits
Holbrook said could be relied upon to the minutest detail. For half an
hour they sat talking it over, suggesting possible motives and trying to
fathom the meaning of the mystery. Two things Teeny-bits did not
mention: the incident of finding Snubby Turner breaking into Campbell's
room and the accusatory letter that had led to the discovery of the
stolen loot. Those things, he felt, were matters not to be discussed
even with two such good friends as Mr. Murray and Neil Durant. There was
one person, however, with whom he wished to discuss that phase of the
strange circumstances in which he had become involved; he had already
made up his mind that very few hours should pass before he would have a
heart-to-heart talk with Snubby Turner. He was weary, however--bone and
muscle and brain weary--and as the sounds of the celebration diminished
he mounted the stairs to his room for a well-earned sleep.

In the morning Teeny-bits went to see Snubby Turner early,--before the
newspapers brought the first information of the tragedy. Snubby, still
in his pyjamas, let the new captain of the Ridgley eleven into his room
and blinked happily at his visitor.

"Oh, what a _day_, and oh, what a _night_!" he said. "It was th