Quarter of an hour later found the four Rover boys once more on the lake, this time bound for Colby Hall. They had said good-by to Ruth. Mary and Martha were to return by taxicab to Clearwater Hall.
“You boys have got to be careful after this,” said Jack’s sister. “Suppose that flying machine had come down on top of you? You might all have been killed!”
“Yes. But suppose we hadn’t been in that vicinity when it did come down?” returned her brother. “Ruth and all of them might have been drowned!”
“I understand Colby Hall and Longley Academy are going to have some boat races soon,” said Mary to the twins. “Are you going to take part?” She knew that, as officers, Jack and Fred could not participate.
“Gif says he wants us in one of the races,” answered Randy. “I certainly would like to put one over on some of those Longley fellows.”
“I heard one of the Longley cadets bragging that the Colby Hall fellows were deserting as fast as they could and coming over to Longley,” broke in Martha.
“That isn’t true, Martha!” returned Andy. “We’ve lost just five cadets all told, and two of them were fellows we were glad to get rid of—Billy Sands and Paul Halliday.”
“Oh, you mean the cadets who used to travel with Brassy Bangs!”
“Yes. And let me tell you something—Longley Academy has lost over fifteen pupils during the past year; and of those, four are now enrolled at Colby and three more are trying to get in. So I guess all told we have the best of it.”
Jack had had no opportunity to ask Ruth the particulars of her father’s trouble. But he had promised to see the girl a few days later or call her up on the telephone, and then, he knew, she would give him more of the facts.
“Mr. Stevenson certainly looked very haggard,” he mused to himself. “He certainly must have something very serious on his mind. I hope it isn’t something that will affect Ruth. It would be too bad if he lost his money or something like that and Ruth had to give up going to Clearwater Hall.”
The strenuous happenings of the afternoon, along with the unexpected bath of Jack and the twins, made the Rover boys rather weary, and so they took their time at rowing up the lake to the river.
“There is no use of our hurrying,” declared Fred. “We won’t be in time for the evening parade anyway. And Colonel Colby said we could take our own time.”
“Just the same, I want to get there before the mess hall is closed,” declared Andy. “I’m about famished.”
“Don’t say a word about being hungry!” returned his twin. “I wish we had bought some doughnuts, or something like that, before we left town.”
“I’m sure Captain Dale will allow us something to eat even if the mess hall is closed,” declared Jack. Captain Dale was one of their military instructors and the official who took charge of the academy during Colonel Colby’s absence.
The summer day was drawing to a close and the sun was setting behind the hills to the west of Haven Point when the tired cadets reached the mouth of the Rick Rack River. Here there was a small island in the middle of the stream dividing that waterway into two rather narrow channels.
“Here comes a motor-boat!” exclaimed Fred presently, pointing up the river. “I wonder if it’s one of our boats coming to meet us.”
“I hope it is,” returned Randy. “I’d much rather be towed back than do more rowing.”
“It isn’t one of our boats,” said Jack, a few seconds later. “Our boats are all striped white and blue. This one is green and yellow.”
“Green and yellow!” exclaimed Andy. “Why, that’s the color of some of the Longley boats! To my mind they are the ugliest things on the lake.”
It was indeed a motor-boat belonging to Longley Academy, and as it came closer the Rovers noted that it contained four cadets, two in khaki outing uniforms and the other two in the brilliant uniforms used by the Longley cadets when on parade.
“Gee! how those fellows do love to show off those uniforms,” remarked Fred.
“Maybe that’s the only suit of clothes they have to their backs,” chuckled Andy.
The motor-boat coming down the river occupied the middle of the stream. As it reached the vicinity of the little island just mentioned it should have turned to the other channel from that being used by the Rover boys. Instead, however, it came rushing straight towards them.
“Hi, you! Get out of the way there! Look where you’re running!” exclaimed Jack, in alarm.
“Ha-ha! Don’t get scared,” sang out a youth at the wheel of the motor-boat. “We won’t run you down.”
By this time the motor-boat was directly alongside of the rowboat. It came so close that the oars on that side scraped the hull of the heavier craft. There was a tremendous swell from the propeller, and the next instant a small wave hit the gunwale and dashed over the Rover boys’ feet. The rowboat bobbed up and down in the narrow channel like a cork, the water foaming and churning all around it. In the meanwhile the motor-boat darted ahead and was soon out on the broad bosom of Clearwater Lake.
“Well, of all the gall!” burst out Andy, as soon as he could recover from his astonishment.
“They did that on purpose!” burst out Jack. “Did you see who was at the wheel?”
“It was Tommy Flanders!” cried Randy.
“He’s sore over the way he was batted out of the box in those baseball games,” remarked Fred. “Just the same, he had no business to endanger our lives in this narrow passage. I wish we could get hold of him,” and he shook his head angrily.
“We can’t follow a motor-boat in a rowboat,” answered Jack. “Just the same, we ought to let him hear from us about this.”
“If we only had one of our own new motor-boats,” groaned Fred, “I bet we could catch that old tub!”
“Did you notice who the fellows in the gaudy uniforms were?” questioned Andy. “Our beloved friends, Halliday and Sands!”
“Yes, I noticed that,” returned Jack. “They must be so stuck on those new gaudy uniforms they can’t bear to go out without them. Who was the fourth fellow?”
No one could answer that question, and after gazing at the motor-boat until it was almost lost in the distance the Rover boys resumed their rowing and presently reached the military academy dock. A crowd was there to meet them, for Gif and the other cadets had spread the news of what had happened out on the lake.
“Here come the real heroes!” cried Gif good-naturedly. “Here are the ones who did the real rescue act!”
“Cut it out, Gif!” returned Jack. “What we want is to get into some dry clothing and get something to eat.”
“Yes, and after that we’ve got something to tell you about Tommy Flanders and Sands and Halliday,” added Randy.
The four boys hastened to report to Captain Dale and then hurried up to the rooms they occupied. They had four rooms in a row on the second floor. Jack occupied a small one and Fred another, while a third was used by the twins. The fourth room was a general sitting room and a place for study. This had been a meeting place many times for the Rover boys and their chums.
It did not take Jack and the twins long to change their clothing nor Fred to brush up a bit. This done, all hurried down to the mess room, a corner of which had been kept open for them. They found both Colonel Colby and Captain Dale on hand, anxious to learn a few particulars concerning the accident on the lake.
“It was a fortunate thing that you were on hand to aid those in the flying machine,” remarked the master of the school, when he had heard their story. “I trust Mr. Stevenson is not seriously hurt.”
After the meal the Rovers retired to their rooms and were there joined by Gif and Spouter. To their chums they related what had occurred at the entrance to the river.
“That’s just like Flanders,” remarked Gif, in disgust. “He always was the most overbearing fellow I ever met.”
“Well, I can’t say quite as much as that,” answered Jack. “You mustn’t forget Gabe Werner and Slugger Brown,” he added, mentioning the names of two school bullies who for various reasons had had to leave the military academy.
“Yes, and don’t forget Bill Glutts, Werner’s crony,” put in Fred. “How I used to despise that butcher boy!”
“Now he has made something of a fizzle of his pitching, I understand Flanders is going in for rowing this summer,” came from Spouter.
“Well, if he makes as much of a failure of his rowing as he did of his pitching he won’t amount to a great deal,” was Andy’s comment.
“Don’t be so sure of that, Andy,” returned Jack. “Flanders wasn’t a half-bad pitcher. The only trouble with him was that when he got into a real tight place he was apt to lose his head. If he could have kept cool, he would have been one of the best pitchers in these parts.”
“We ought to get square with him for almost running us down,” came from Fred. “Gee! that big motor-boat might have cut us right in two!”
“It’s too bad he didn’t run her on the rocks in that channel,” was Randy’s comment.
“We’ll get square with Flanders some day. Just wait and see!” declared the young major.
The boys continued the discussion for a quarter of an hour longer, and then the Rovers intimated that they would have to get at some of their studies for the next day. Taking this hint, Gif and Spouter took their departure.
“I wouldn’t interfere with your learning for the world,” said Spouter softly, as he stood in the doorway. “Learning is the very foundation of all knowledge. Were it not for learning, man would still be in the primitive state of a savage. Were it not for learning, man would still be groping in darkness wondering whither he was going and what his existence really meant. Were it not for learning, such a noble institution as Colby Hall would not exist. Were it not for learning—wow!”
Spouter’s flowery oration came to a sudden termination as Andy threw a book which took the tall youth directly in the stomach. Picking the book up from the floor, Spouter hurled it at the fun-loving Rover’s head and then fled precipitately down the corridor with Gif laughingly following him.
“Why don’t you give Spouter a chance?” said Jack to his cousin. “For all you know, he may not have had a chance to talk to any one all day.”
“Give him a chance!” snorted Andy. “Not when he goes off in that style! Why, when Spouter gets a spouting streak on him, he’s like a regular cataract, a cyclone and a tornado rolled in one. You’ve got to cut him off at the beginning or you can’t hold him in,” and at this rather mixed-up explanation all the others laughed.
A few minutes later the four Rover boys were deep in their studies. Jack had an essay to write on “Great Discoverers” and Fred an essay on “The Wonders of the Sky,” while the twins had to wrestle with several problems in geometry. All were seated in their sitting room, as they termed it, with heads bent somewhat closely together over a round center table.
“Say, Jack, how do you spell Jupiter?” questioned the stoutest Rover boy. “Is it Ju-p-e- or Ju-p-i-?”
“What kind of Jew is that you’re talking about?” put in Andy slyly, looking up with a pencil at his grinning lips.
“It’s J-u-p-i-t-e-r,” declared Jack.
“What in Jupiter are you writing about now, Fred?” questioned Randy.
“‘Wonders of the Sky,’” answered his cousin. “If I don’t have this essay done by noon to-morrow I’ll be sure to get into hot water with Professor Duke.”
“I’ve got to hand in my essay by ten o’clock,” put in the young major. “We’d all better be getting on the job—it’s getting late.”
After that there was silence for several minutes. Almost unconsciously the four boys heard a slight noise in the corridor. But to this they paid no attention, for cadets were continually going or coming in one direction or another. Then, of a sudden, came a most unexpected interruption. The door which had been left unlocked was suddenly opened and a masked figure appeared holding in one hand a well-filled paper bag. The next instant the paper bag was hurled through the air, landing directly on the center of the table. Then the door banged shut, hiding the masked figure from view.
But the Rover boys could not have seen the figure even if the door had been left open. As the paper bag crashed down on the table it flew apart and the next instant the four Rover boys found themselves covered with black soot from head to foot.