ssion that might have caused Mr. Stevens
to add the adjectives happy and harmless to the "amiable murderer."

"I have an idea, Jerry," said Snubby. "You know some one's been getting
away with a lot of valuable truck from the fellows' rooms. It would be
an awfully clever stunt to catch him. Why don't you snoop around and
find out who it is?"

"There's ijeers and ijeers," said Jerry. "I got my ijeers too. I ain't
got no need to snoop around. I got eyes an' ears as are uncommon good,
even though I been usin' the same ones for nigh on to seventy year. I
got my own ijeers as to who's sneak-thieving this school and bime-by
somebody's goin' to get ketched."

"What _are_ your ideas?" asked Snubby. "Do you know who's doing it?"

But old Jerry had no further enlightenment for his friend, even when
Snubby pressed him further. "I got eyes an' ears," said the old man,
"an' I got my ijeers too."

Doctor Wells referred to the mystery indirectly one morning at chapel.
"How foolish it is for any of us to believe that we can commit a wrong
and escape the penalty merely because no one sees us," he said. "Every
evil deed leaves its heaviest mark not on the _victim_ of it but on the
misguided person who performs it. Once in a while something happens at
our school that proves anew that old, old truth."

There was absolute silence in the hall; every one knew to what the head
was referring.

But other incidents of more stirring nature were under way at Ridgley
School. As the impending struggle for football honors with Jefferson
drew nearer, each day seemed to be more strongly charged with suspense
and excitement until the very air that wafted itself among the maples
and elms, which were now dropping their red and yellow leaves on the
campus, seemed electric with possibilities both glorious and disastrous.

Since the game with Wilton, Teeny-bits had practiced regularly with the
first squad and more than once had demonstrated that his ability to run
with the ball was above the average. White, whose place he had taken in
the Wilton game, recovered from his slightly sprained ankle, however,
and resumed his old position as left half-back. Teeny-bits continued to
be a substitute.

Tracey Campbell, who likewise had been promoted to the first team,
seemed to have regained the attention of Coach Murray. On the Saturday
that followed the tie game with Wilton, Ridgley journeyed to Springfield
to play Prescott Academy. Ridgley won the game by th