"You're a brick," said Chub. "All right; I'll keep mum as long as you want me to. But if you change your mind all you've got to do is to say so and I'll do all I can with Emmy. Promise to tell me if you change your mind?" "Honor bright; but I sha'n't change it; I don't mind, Chub, as long as we win." "Win! Thunder, we aren't going to win! We're going to get everlastingly walloped!" "No, we're not," answered Roy hopefully. "We're going to win; you see." "Look here," said Chub after a moment's silence, "you didn't poach on Mercer and I didn't. Who the dickens did?" "I can't imagine. I dare say it was some fellow from the village." "With a crimson sweater on? Not likely. I suppose it couldn't have been your sweater, eh?" Roy shook his head. "How do you know?" pursued Chub. "'Cause mine was locked in my trunk." "Sure?" "Certain." "Someone might have had a key that fitted the lock, though." "They might have, but--" Roy paused and scowled thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, Chub, my trunk wasn't locked yesterday afternoon. I remember now. I locked it after we got back." "Was the sweater there?" "I didn't look." Chub whistled softly. "Bet you anything some fellow swiped it and wore it," he declared. "Let's go see if he put it back." They hurried up to the dormitory and Roy unlocked his trunk, threw back the lid and opened the till. "I thought I left it here on top," he muttered, diving through the contents of the till. "Maybe I put it underneath, though." Out came the till and out came most of the contents of the trunk. But there was no crimson sweater. Roy turned to Chub in distress. "I don't care if they took it," he said, "but I hope they'll bring it back! I wouldn't lose that sweater for anything!" "Lock your trunk again," said Chub, "and let's get out of here. Some one's coming. Let's go somewhere and think it over." "If we only knew who was away from school yesterday afternoon," said Roy when they were once more under the trees. "We know that Ferris and Burlen were," answered Chub suggestively. "They said so." "And Ferris saw you borrow that pole from Tom!" said Roy. Chub sat up suddenly. "I'll bet that was Tom's pole that old Mercer brought with him!" he cried. "But you left it at Deep Hole, and I didn't leave there until long after four, I guess." "But you said you didn't see it when you left!" "That's so; I'm pretty sure it wasn't there," answered Roy, thinking hard. "But how could anyone have got it?" "Don't know, but I'll bet someone did. They might have sneaked up while you were asleep. Horace Burlen could do it." They looked at each other a moment in silence. Then, "If he took the sweater I'll bet he's thrown it away," said Roy sorrowfully. "He wouldn't be likely to bring it back again."