Over the Line Part 23

"What!" Cateye's concern was extremely realistic. "Drowned!"

"Shss!" warned Benz, glancing about nervously, "Don't wake the whole dorm! Step in your room here and I'll tell you the whole story."

Cateye backed in and sat down, turning on the light. Benz seated himself on the edge of the bed and clutched the bed sheets despairingly.

"Great heavens, man, don't keep me in suspense!" groaned Cateye, "Judd drowned! How'd it happen?"

"Well, ..." began Benz, "It all came out of a little joke!"

"So it was one of your pranks, eh? Drowning a man!" Cateye's voice was hard and cruel.

"I didn't mean it, Cateye, honest! I mean, ... the joke to go so far,"

Benz hastened to add, realizing that he had almost confessed. "We broke up a celebration the second team was having; captured Rube and McCabe and planned on giving 'em a good scare. So we carried 'em down to the bridge an' held Rube over the rail. I, ... we never meant to drop him, _honest_, but, ..."

"Why did you tie his feet?" As soon as Cateye asked the question he realized that he had pulled "a bone."

"Why did I? ... Did I tell you that?" Benz asked, wild-eyed.

"You sure did!" insisted Cateye, seeing a way out.

"Well, ... he put up such a fight we had to do something," explained Benz, weepingly, "And I just said we never meant to drop him!"

"Is anybody down at the river now?"

"Yes, the whole bunch. They're going to keep up the search till morning. I sent Bartz down to Tarlton to see the sheriff and get help.

We're goin' to drag the river for his body in the morning, ..." Here Benz broke down completely.

Cateye heard Judd choking a laugh and realized he had to say something or the jig was up.

"And what are you doing here?" he demanded, savagely, "You, ... you who are probably more to blame for this, ... this murder than anyone else!

Why aren't you out doing something to help recover his body?"

"I, ... I, ... oh Cateye, don't rub it in so! I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to come away. Oh, it's all a terrible nightmare to me.

He can't be dead, ... he must be alive! Let me go, ... I've got to be by myself!"

Cateye did not try to restrain Benz. In fact he was mighty glad to have him go!

As soon as Benz had disappeared up the hall Judd stepped softly from the closet, the towel stuffed in his mouth, and fell upon the bed, shaking with laughter.

"How's that for real acting?" grinned Cateye.

"Gee, that's worth getting drowned to listen to!" howled Judd, "They're going to drag the river for me in the mornin'! Did you hear that?

Well, ... I wish 'em luck. I hope they find me. I reckon it's rather awkward for a ghost like me not to know where my body is, ... floatin'

around somewhere on the bottom of the river!"

"Shss! Judd, don't make so much noise! This will be the richest joke on Benz and the fellows for that matter, that ever came off. It'll teach Benz a lesson he'll never forget. You keep out of sight till after breakfast today. The whole college will know about it by that time!"

"Trust me, pal," a.s.sured Judd, "Most people can't see ghosts, anyhow!"

CHAPTER XIV

THE CONFESSION

Benz, after breaking the news to Cateye, hurried to his room where he paced up and down for a whole hour, undecided as to what best to do.

Finally, unable to stand the strain longer, he grabbed his cap and rushed from the dormitory. It was four A.M. and not yet light.

Ten minutes later the good Professor Windell, president of the college, was awakened by a loud thumping on his front door. He stumbled sleepily out of bed and opened the window.

"What's amiss here?" he called down.

"Rube!" gasped Benz, "Oh, Mister Windell, come down an' let me in, quick! I want to confess! I did it! It was all my fault!"

"Just a minute, young man!" Professor Windell was waking fast now. He jerked on his purple bathrobe and jumped his feet into some house slippers and made haste to escort poor Benz into the library.

"Have a chair. Now, compose yourself! What's the trouble?"

Benz did not appear to notice the proffered seat but strode nervously up and down the room.

"Rube's drowned!" he said, suddenly, and seemed to shudder at the very words.

"Drowned!" repeated the president, greatly shocked, "Drowned!"

"Yes, sir ..." Benz pulled himself together with an effort, then began to explain as though it was a relief to get the matter off his mind.

"You see the second team was havin' a celebration at the bend of the river last night because they beat the varsity. Well--I collected a bunch of fellows and we broke up the meeting. We caught Rube and McCabe an' we thought ... er ... er ... that is, I thought I'd like to scare Rube. So, as I was leader, I ordered the guys to carry him down to the old bridge an' hold him over the rail."

"You!" broke in President Windell, excitedly.

"Yes,--me!" cried Benz, bound to make a clean breast of it. "I didn't mean to do what I did but for some reason I ... I grabbed his feet an'

... an' when we held him over the rail ... I ... I let go!"

"What!"

"I don't know why I did it, sir. We only meant to scare him. I never intended that we should drop him in. Honest, I didn't!" Benz's tone turned to pleading. "Oh, it'll just about finish my folks, Mister Windell. What shall I do? ... What _shall_ I do?"

President Windell was a highly strung, very excitable little man, well along in years. The sudden tragic news brought by Benz at such an early hour had done much to upset him.

"How do you know that Judd's actually drowned?" he asked, after a moment of serious deliberation.

"Why I ... we've searched the river ... as far as we could see he never even came up!" Benz answered, then added with conviction, "He's drowned all right!"

"But he could swim, couldn't he?" persisted the professor, hopefully.

"Perhaps he ..."

"That's just it!" interrupted Benz, despairingly. "He might have had a good chance if he could ... but you see ... his feet were tied!"