Jack Ranger's Western Trip Part 5

"It's me, Sam," was the reply.

"Say, Sam, excuse me, but I can't let you in," Jack answered. "I'm working on something that I can't leave. I may have a surprise for you in the morning."

"All right," Sam answered. "Here's some mail, that's all. I'll shove it under the door."

There was a rustling of paper and several letters came beneath the portal. Jack laid aside his test tube and gathered them up. One was from his aunts at home, another from Judge Bennetty regarding the payment of certain bills Jack had contracted, while the third was in unfamiliar handwriting.

"I wonder who that's from," said Jack. "The best way to find out is to open it."

He ripped the envelope down, and, as he did so, a piece of paper fluttered to the ground. Picking the missive up, Jack read:

"It's a long lane that has no turns. I'll get even with you for having me suspended and sent away from the Hall. My time will come yet.

"Jerry Chowden."

"Jerry Chowden," murmured Jack. "So he's trying to scare me, eh? Well I guess he'll find I don't scare."

Jack slowly folded the letter and placed it back in the envelope. He glanced at the postmark, and saw it was stamped "Chicago."

"Wonder how he got out there," he mused. "Well, I'm glad he's far away," and he gave little more thought to the matter of the bully, a nephew of Professor Grimm's, whose vain attempt to cast disgrace on Jack, in the matter of painting a pipe on the professor's portrait, had rebounded on his own head. He had been suspended for two months for the escapade, which Jack was accused of, but which our hero managed to prove himself innocent of, and, since leaving the Hall, nothing had been heard of him.

"Maybe I'll meet him if I get out west on that strange hunt of mine,"

thought Jack, as he went on with his chemical tests.

He worked far into the night, and when he put out his light he said to himself:

"I think I've got things just where I want them."

CHAPTER IV

A LESSON IN CHEMISTRY

Jack was awakened next morning by a knock on his door.

"Who's there?" he asked.

"Martin, the monitor," was the reply. "Dr, Mead wishes to see you at once."

"Great Scott! I've overslept!" exclaimed Jack, as he jumped out of bed and saw it was after eight o'clock. "No wonder, being up half the night. Tell Dr. Mead I'm sorry and I'll be right down," he went on.

Jack almost made a record for dressing, and went to Dr. Mead's office, where he found the same gathering that had confronted him the previous morning.

"Well, Ranger," began the head of the school, "the time you asked for has expired. Have you anything to say?"

"I have, sir," replied Jack. "But first I would like to request that this hearing be adjourned to the laboratory. I also request that Sam Chalmers, d.i.c.k Balmore, Fred Kaler, Budge Rankin and Adrian Bagot be summoned."

"Do you accuse all of them?" asked Dr. Mead, in some astonishment.

"I accuse no one," Jack replied. "I want to make a demonstration, and let the facts speak for themselves."

"This is all nonsense!" exclaimed Professor Grimm. "This boy is guilty and he knows it. He is only seeking to delay matters. I demand his expulsion!"

"I think it only fair to grant his request," said Dr. Mead.

"Professor Gales, will you kindly summon the students mentioned.

Professor Hall, please see that the laboratory is opened."

In a few minutes Jack was leading the way to the latter room. He carried several bundles, while Socker, the janitor, bore a rack of test tubes he had taken from Jack's room. The lads mentioned attended, wondering what had happened.

"What's this all about?" demanded Adrian, haughtily. "I haven't had my breakfast yet."

"The time was up an hour ago," said Dr. Mead sharply, glancing at the new student, who seemed disposed to take life as easily as possible.

"May I speak?" asked Jack, of Dr. Mead.

"Since you are the accused it is but fair that you be given a chance to clear yourself," was the reply. "But as you have given a certain publicity to this matter, I shall tell these other students what it is all about."

Dr. Mead then explained the charge against Jack. There was an uneasy movement among the other boys, and Adrian Bagot was seen to s.h.i.+ft about. He even started to walk around as though to leave the room, but the monitor stood at the door and Adrian did not want to make any confusion by forcing past him. So young Bagot remained in the laboratory.

"When Professor Grimm accused me of playing this trick I denied it, as I am innocent," Jack said, when Dr. Mead had finished and looked at him as if inviting him to speak. "Perhaps if the matter has been made public the fellows who took the bell would have come forward and admitted it. As it is I asked twenty-four hours to prove that I did not do it. I believe I have succeeded.

"In the first place," Jack went on, "I wish to exhibit this garment,"

and he held up to view a long linen coat, commonly called a duster.

"You will observe," he went on, "that there are several brown lines on it. I have measured these and they are exactly the shape and size that would be made by the sharp rim of a bell, if it was rested on the garment when some one was wearing it."

"You will have to have better evidence than that," sneered Professor Grimm.

"I think I will have," announced Jack quietly. "Of course those marks might have been made by any sharp, rusty object. Now the bell metal rusts scarcely at all, but the iron clapper of a bell does. The rust from that runs down inside a bell, and gets on the edges. I took some iron rust from the clapper of the stolen bell and placed it in a test tube. I a.s.sumed, for the purpose of experimenting, that I did not know that it was iron rust, but only suspected it. I applied the proper chemical tests, and I got the results that showed me there was iron present in the test tube. Here, I will show you."

Jack mixed a few chemicals and soon the brown mixture in the tube turned red.

"That is from the bell clapper," the young chemist went on. "Here is a solution made from sc.r.a.ping the lines on the duster. I will apply the test and see what happens."

While the others looked on anxiously Jack dropped some of the mixture into the second tube. In an instant it turned red.

"There!" exclaimed Jack, holding up the two tubes, side by side. "The same color coming in both mixtures from the same strength of chemicals that I used, shows that the iron rust on the duster and that on the bell clapper are the same."

"What does that prove, except that you might have worn the duster?"

asked Dr. Mead.

"That is all, as yet," Jack admitted. "But I will prove that the duster is not mine, and that I never wore it. I have something else here," he went on.

From among a pile of things on the laboratory table Jack took a white object, with brown spots. Walking rapidly across the room he handed it to Adrian.

"The rag off my sprained wrist!" exclaimed the sporty student. "Where did--"