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The Mercer Boys' Mystery Case

BY CAPWELL WYCKOFF

When Cadets Don and Jim Mercer and their friend Terry Mackson were ordered by Colonel Morrell of Woodcrest Military Academy to gather together all the school trophies, they were able to find all except one--the cup awarded to the Class of 1933. What had happened to the cup was a mystery the boys were determined to solve. And little by little Don and Jim uncovered a strange story and unraveled a mystery that had puzzled school authorities for years. The Mercer boys uphold the honor of Woodcrest against a conspiracy of silence and dishonor.

THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY CLEVELAND AND NEW YORK

W 2 COPYRIGHT 1948 BY THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Contents

THE MERCER BOYS' MYSTERY CASE

A group of pleasant-looking young men, neatly dressed in the spruce, gray uniforms of the cadet corps of Woodcrest Military Institute, stood at ease in one of the halls downstairs in Locke Hall. They were representatives from the various classes, ranging from the senior, or first class, to the third or sophomore class. As yet the two representatives from the fourth or freshman class had not arrived, and it was for these two cadets that the others were waiting.

"A special meeting, huh?" spoke up Cadet Don Mercer, one of the representatives from the third class. "Anybody got any idea what Colonel Morell has in mind?"

"I haven't," replied Senior Cadet Captain Bob Hudson. "I guess none of us have. Farley and I got a notice to report to the study room here for a special meeting, and that's all we know."

"Here comes the rest of the party," announced the second class representative, as the two fourth class men hurried up. "Now as soon as the colonel comes we can get down to business."

It was a fall day at the military academy, and Colonel Morrell, the headmaster, had sent word early in the day that he wished to meet the leaders of the various classes briefly after the last lesson period. The boys were waiting now, talking light-heartedly among themselves, for they were all friends of long standing, except for the two men from the fourth class, who were newcomers.

Don and Jim Mercer were both healthy-looking young boys in their late teens, curly-haired, and well-built. Their friend Terry was tall, bony and red-headed, chiefly noted for a cheerful disposition and a wide grin.

A short fat man came rapidly down the hall, a good-humored-looking man who was nearing old age but who was not allowing it to get the better of him. He was clad in the gray uniform of a cadet colonel, the sight of which brought the cadets to instant attention, although the colonel himself, and not the uniform, inspired their respect and sincerity. He was the idol of the school, for his sympathetic understanding had won all of the student body to him, and the young men of the cadet corps would have cheerfully gone to the end of the world for their headmaster. When the colonel approached the cadets, he gestured with his hand and said, "Rest."

"Well, young men, all here I see," remarked Colonel Morrell, as he opened the door of the study room. "Come right in and be seated. Make yourselves at home, as you generally do when you come here to study."

The colonel chuckled at his own joke. He knew that sometimes other things than study went on in the study rooms, but he had always known how to give his lively boys enough rope with which to have a good time, and at the same time just how far to go with them on the point of study. The result had been that the cadets had their fun and still kept up a good average of scholarship. They appreciated the headmaster's sally and entered the room. The colonel sat down in a large chair and they sat on the long window seats facing him.

"All of you are wondering what is in the wind, no doubt. I'll get to the point at once. All of you know that I have planned for some time to turn old Clanhammer Hall into an Alumni Hall. It has outgrown its usefulness as a school building, and yet its associations are so fine that we don't wish to tear the place down." He smiled at Don and continued. "Inasmuch as it once served the part of a prison for Mercer and me, we feel more sentiment for it than the rest of you do! But it is really a fine old place, and it will be the most fitting place in the whole school for our Alumni Hall.

"Now, in order to make that hall live in the memory of the men who will come back here on annual visits we must find all of the trophies that teams in the past have won. What made me think of it was this: I went into an old closet on the top floor of this hall yesterday and down in a corner I found a moth-eaten blue banner which the class of 1893 won in a football championship. I don't know if it is the right of a soldier to be sentimental, boys, but I couldn't help feeling as I saw the faded blue color and the small white letters that some fine young fellows had fought very hard in days gone by for that particular piece of cloth and what it represented, and that the bottom of an obscure closet was not the place for it. Later on, when I thought it all over I realized that we have been mighty careless here at Woodcrest in the matter of our trophies and the glories of the past."

"I have often wondered why we didn't have trophies around the school," smiled Cadet Douglas, Don's brother representative of the class.

"The whole trouble is that we have never had a regular committee to attend to that matter," the colonel explained. "Each class has won some kind of a trophy in years gone by and has cared for it just as they wanted to. Some few of them were hung up in the various study halls, some in the assembly room, and I'm afraid some of them have just been carelessly stowed away somewhere. I want all of you men, as representatives, to scour the halls from end to end and unearth as many of these emblems of victory as can be found. We'll check up against a list until we have all the trophies that Woodcrest ever received."

"Have you a list of all trophies, sir?" asked Hudson.

"When we get them all it is your plan to place them in Clanhammer Hall, isn't it?" Don asked.

"Yes, that is my thought. Early this winter I want to open the old historic hall as the Alumni Hall. At that time I want to have the old graduates come back and see the banners and cups hanging on the walls, showing them that we of today appreciate their struggles, their spirit and their loyalty. Nothing keeps a school up like the spirit of loyalty and the remembrance of past deeds of courage and self-sacrifice. You boys can see how it is. If you won a silver cup for Woodcrest this year by hard, determined struggle you wouldn't want to come here to school ten years from now and find out that no one remembered the first thing about it or even so much as knew where the trophy was. I want all of those old students to come back here and see that the school remembers them and appreciates what they have done in the past to make the institution a place to be proud of."

"That's what I'd like to see," murmured Farley.

"Of course you would, we all would. Well, suppose we meet again on Friday afternoon at the same time and see what we have discovered? If you want to get into any closet or room that is locked up just let me know and I'll gladly give you the key. That will be all, boys."

After the colonel had left the room the cadets gathered to talk the situation over. They were all in favor of his plan and they felt confident that they would succeed in bringing to light all of the trophies of the past. Hudson suggested that they go directly to the assembly hall and make out a list of the things to be found in there. As there was still some time before drill they went in a body to the assembly room.

Douglas had a pad and pencil and noted down the trophies as they were called. In the general assembly room they found four banners, two silver cups, one silver football with a figure of a man running the ball mounted on it, and a wooden shield with two small cups on it, the result of a debating team victory. When these items had been written down they all bent over the pad in Douglas' hand.

"The red banner, the baseball trophy, is dated 1901," remarked Hendon, of the second class. "How far back do we have to go in the search?"

"How old is the school?" asked a fourth class man.

"The date on Clanhammer Hall is 1885," supplied Don.

"Yes, but the school didn't win a trophy every year," grinned Farley. "A good old school and all that, but it didn't win something every year."

"Perhaps not, but pretty nearly," came back Don. "Don't forget, there were baseball, football, basketball, track, debating and tennis teams, to say nothing of swimming teams. I guess we'll find there are quite a few trophies when we come to look for them."

The call for drill sounded and the cadets quickly separated to assemble with their several units. Don was now a lieutenant in the infantry, but Jim was far ahead of him in his particular section, the cavalry unit, the first man in the history of the school to attain that honor who was not in the second or first class. His steady attention to drill and his heroism in saving Cadet Vench on Hill 31 had placed him in that responsible position. Terry was, to use his own expression, "still coaxing the big ladies to speak out in meeting," by which he meant he was still serving in the artillery, around his beloved guns, whose workings fascinated him.

That evening in their room Don told Jim and Terry about the hunt for trophies. He had obtained some copies of the school magazine and together they pored over the early school notes. They found that there had been many trophies in days gone past.

"There must be some up in the storage room in the attic," Jim said.

"Yes, and I saw a battered cup in the locker of the senior study room," Terry said. "Looked like somebody heaved it at somebody else. After it has been repaired it will do very nicely to put on a shelf."

"I'm glad the colonel is going to fix up the old hall and set up the prizes," Don said. "I think every school should take pride in its past history."

In the days that followed the committee of young soldiers were very busy. During their spare hours between study, drill and classes, they scoured the school for trophies. The results were astonishing. From old closets, from lockers, from under window seats and from the storage room they brought cups, flags and banners. For some time they were baffled in their search for a big silver cup, but at last found it in the workshop of a former janitor, down in the cellar of the old school. Some of the flags came from the walls of dormitories, though most of them were in Locke Hall, the main hall of the school.

"We'll have to admit we're licked on that cup," Hudson decided. "The meeting is to be this afternoon and if there is a corner in this school that we haven't peeked into I don't know where it is!"

The colonel met them that afternoon and was pleased with their good work. Hudson explained that fifteen flags and banners, three silver footballs, a number of trophy shields and ten cups had been found.

"These represent victories in every department of work, both athletic and scholastic," the cadet captain said. "The oldest banner is dated 1887 and is for a football championship. The last trophy is a silver cup dated 1947 and brings our list up to date. From now on we can keep a better record of our trophies and set them up in Clanhammer Hall as we get them."

"A total of fifty-five trophies," put in Douglas. "There are quite a number of shields with descriptive plates and small silver cups on them, the prizes of debating teams."

"Are they all in good order?" asked the colonel.

"Most of them are," replied Hudson. "Suppose we take a look at them soon and you may see for yourself. One or two of the cups have been bent and the banners are somewhat dirty and in some cases decidedly moth-eaten. But the lettering is all intact, even on the 1887 banner, and I'm sure we can exhibit them without fear of their falling apart."

"Then you have made a success of the job," began the colonel, but Hudson stopped him.

"I'm afraid we haven't quite done that, sir," he said. "We cannot find the silver cup donated to the class of 1933 anywhere."

The colonel looked puzzled. "I don't remember that cup. What are the details?"

The colonel spoke slowly. "Yes, boys, from the details you have given, I do remember that cup. There is a story connected with it, a story that is by no means pleasant. I do not know where the cup is, but I'll tell you the story of its strange disappearance."

The cadets looked astonished and interested and waited in respectful silence as the headmaster thought for a moment to refresh his memory. Then, with the facts in his mind, he related the story.

"In 1933 there was some talk in the local newspapers about high scholarship among the preparatory and military schools and the idea was expressed that military schools gave so much thought and time to drill and military duties that it was impossible for them to produce a high rate of scholarship," the colonel began. "In the years which have passed since then we have shown here at Woodcrest that such was not the case, that we have turned out scholars as well as gentlemen and soldiers. I ignored it at the time, but one of the trustees, a man who is still trustee, Melvin Gates, became very much incensed over the article in the papers and took steps to challenge it. He conferred with me and I finally agreed to put up at least three cadets whom I thought to be the smartest in their classes, against any three from a preparatory school, and, after an elimination, to allow my brightest scholar to compete against another student from a preparatory school. This was done, and the boy who took the honors in this school was the Arthur Gates you mention, the son of the man who was to donate the cup. He beat the other two boys and won first place.

"A nearby preparatory school, Roxberry, then put forward its best scholar and the examination was held. It embraced every branch of the studies which every scholar is supposed to have had at this stage of preparatory school life, and to the joy of all Woodcrest students, Arthur Gates won it. The questions had been prepared by professors from Roxberry and instructors from this school and the two young men took the examination in a room entirely by themselves. The other student received a marking of ninety-five but Arthur Gates answered every question one hundred per cent. A truly remarkable thing when you think of it, and Woodcrest was mighty proud of him for it."

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