to Teeny-bits one
afternoon on the way back to the campus.

"Keep it up, Snubby," said Teeny-bits. "You're putting life into the
scrub."

"If I'll come up to your room to-night, will you give me a few pointers
about running with the ball?" asked Snubby as the two approached the
Gannett Hall steps.

"Come up right after supper and we'll talk for half an hour; then I'll
have to study," said Teeny-bits.

Snubby Turner came--but not to talk about football. He closed the door
softly behind him and looked at his friend with such a strange
expression on his freckled face that Teeny-bits said:

"What in the name of mud is the matter, Snubby?"

"Do you suppose there's any one in this school mean enough to steal?"
asked Turner. "When I went down to football practice to-day I left my
gold watch and a purse with twelve dollars in it in the top drawer of my
chiffonier. They're both gone!"

"Are you sure?" asked Teeny-bits.

"Yes, I am," declared Snubby. "Absolutely sure."

CHAPTER V

TEENY-BITS' CHANCE

Snubby Turner was not the only member of Ridgley School who lost
property during the days that preceded the game with Jefferson. His gold
watch and the twelve dollars that had mysteriously disappeared from his
chiffonier were the first to vanish, but they were quickly followed by
other bits of jewelry and money--not only from the Ridgleyites in
Gannett Hall but also from those in other dormitories.

Ned Stillson, over in Ames Hall, lost six dollars and a small
gold-handled penknife that a maiden aunt had given him; Fred Harper
reported the disappearance of a silver trophy of which he was
inordinately proud,--a graceful little model of a sailing boat which he
and his brother had won during a season of boat racing with their
twenty-footer. The actual value of the trophy, aside from its
sentimental value, was said to be thirty-six dollars.

In the case of Harper's loss there was an additional interest because of
the fact that Fred nearly succeeded--unwittingly--in discovering the
identity of the thief. His room was on the first floor of Gannett Hall,
and he remembered that on the Wednesday night when the theft occurred he
had left the window wide open at the time he went over to Lincoln Hall
for supper. He had gone from the table early and on arriving at the
dormitory had immediately entered his room. As he opened the door he saw
a dark form outlined in the window and it occurred to him that perhaps
one of his