“Yes, and I had my hand on it, too,” was the reply. “I suppose it’s at the bottom of the lake now,” added Will Carey. His face showed a look of positive worry. “How deep is it where the Ajax went over?”
“Must be ten or twelve feet at least,” answered Dale.
“Did you think you might go fishing for it?” questioned Fred.
“Yes—but not now.” And that was all Will Carey said about the blue, tin box. But that he was very much worried was plainly evident. And he had good cause to worry, as we shall learn later.
The point of land mentioned having been gained, the Ajax was towed around as Fred Century desired, and then the young owner was loaned a number of ropes and a pail for bailing.
“If I can’t right her I’ll tie her fast and send some boat builder after her,” he announced. “I am much obliged for what you’ve done. Some day I’ll race you again.”
“Willingly!” cried Jack.
“I still think the Ajax a better boat than the Alice.”
“She certainly isn’t a bad boat,” put in Pepper. “A real race to a finish will have to decide which is the better of the two.”
“Oh, we’ll beat you out of your boots,” said Bat Sedley. Will Carey said nothing. He was still thinking about the loss of his blue, tin box.
As it was getting late, the Putnam Hall cadets lost no time in steering as straight a course as possible for the school dock. But the breeze was against them, so they were not able to reach the dock until nearly half-past six.
“It’s fortunate old Crabtree is away on business,” was Pepper’s comment. “He’d be sure to haul us over the coals for being late, even if we did meet with an accident.”
“Late again, eh?” cried a voice from the boathouse, and Peleg Snuggers, the general utility man around the Hall, stepped into view. “The captain don’t allow sech doin’s, and you young gents know it.”
“Couldn’t be helped, Peleg,” answered Pepper. “Blew so hard the wind turned our sails inside out.”
“You don’t tell me?” The hired man looked perplexed for a moment. “Inside out? How could that be? I reckon you’re joking. Oh, Major Jack, you’re all wet!”
“He wanted a swim and was too lazy to take off his clothes,” put in Dale.
“The uniform will be ruined. Better take it off now.”
“Oh, Jack wants to go to bed in it,” said Pepper, lightly. He loved to tease Peleg.
“Ha! ha! you must have your joke. I reckon he won’t go to bed in no wet clothes, ’less he wants to git rheumatism an’ lumbago, an’ a few other things,” answered Peleg Snuggers, and walked away.
Without loss of time Jack slipped up to his dormitory and changed his wet uniform for a dry suit. Then the wet clothing was sent to the laundry to be dried and pressed. In the meantime the other lads hastened to the mess-room for supper. There they told Captain Putnam of what had occurred.
“You must be more careful in the future,” said the master of the school. “A squall is a nasty thing to be out in—I know that from personal experience. I must see Major Ruddy and have a talk with him,” and he hastened off to Jack’s room. He could not help but praise the young major for his heroism.
It soon became noised about the Hall that the new sloop from Pornell Academy had met Jack’s craft, and more of the cadets were interested in the outcome of the race than they were in the rescue that had taken place.
“Of course it was a great thing to pull those chaps out of the water,” was Andy Snow’s comment. “But I do wish you had beaten them by about a mile, Pep.”
“Well, when the squall came we simply had to call it off—with the other sloop capsized.”
“Oh, I know that.”
“By the way, Andy,” went on Pepper. “I understand that you have a little contest of your own coming off at the gym.”
“So I have,” answered the acrobatic youth of Putnam Hall.
“Who are you going to meet this time?”
“Gus Coulter.”
“What, that bully! I thought you were done with Coulter, Ritter, and that crowd.”
“I thought I was,” said Andy. “But Coulter said I was afraid to meet him in a hand-walking and chinning-the-bar contest, and bragged to all the others what he could do, so I had to take him up.”
“Is he so good at lifting his own weight?”
“I don’t know. Henry Lee told me he saw him chinning the bar nine times.”
“Well, I hope you can do better than that.”
“Perhaps I can. But we are to do some walking on our hands first,” went on Andy. “I’d rather do some stunts on the bars and rings—it is more in my line,” he added. “I wish he would challenge me to do the giant’s swing against him—then I’d feel sure I could beat him.”
It was a jolly crowd that gathered that evening in the dormitory occupied by Jack, Pepper, and their chums. Besides Dale and Stuffer there were Andy, big Bart Conners, the captain of Company B, Joe Nelson, Henry Lee, and Joseph Hogan, an Irish youth who was the soul of good humor and wit.
Of course Jack and the others had to tell every detail of the adventure on the lake and tell all they could about the Pornell Academy sloop.
“Did those chaps say anything about Roy Bock?” asked Andy. He referred to a student of Pornell who had on several occasions caused our friends considerable trouble.
“Not a word,” answered Pepper.
“Maybe they are not friends of Bock and his crowd?” put in Dale.
“Carey and Sedley are that,” answered Hogan. “Didn’t I see them all at Cedarville a couple of Sunday nights ago.”
“On Sunday?” queried Jack. “I didn’t know they were allowed out on Sunday.”
“And how did you come to be out, Emerald?” questioned Pepper.
“I went to see me uncle, who was sthoppin’ at the hotel till Monday marnin’. Coming home I passed that new tavern on the shore road. I met Roy Bock comin’ out, and he had Sedley, Carey, and four or five others wid him. They was all smokin’ and cuttin’ up in a lively fashion.”
“I don’t believe Doctor Pornell approves of that,” came from Joe Nelson. He himself rarely did anything against the rules and was a good deal of a model for the other boys.
“I don’t believe that new tavern is a very good place, either,” said Jack. “Last week they arrested three men there, for getting into a quarrel over a game of cards. They said the men were drinking heavily and gambling. That kind of a resort is no place for any students to visit.”
“Roy Bock is sore on us,” was Andy’s comment. “Every time I meet him he glares at me as if he’d like to chew me up.”
“I know he is down on us,” answered Pepper.
“That’s because Pepper is sweet on those Ford girls,” said Bart Conners. “Say, Imp, which are you going to choose when you grow up?”
“Pep has got to stand aside for Jack and Andy,” put in Dale. “Ever since——”
“Oh, change the subject!” cried Andy, growing red in the face.
“That’s what I say,” added Pepper. “By the way,” he continued. “Somebody said there was to be a surprise to-night.”
“Exactly—at ten-thirty,” answered Henry Lee.
“What is it?” questioned several.
“Well, if you must know, my cousin from Boston was in town to-day, and just for the fun of it he had the Cedarville baker make two big strawberry shortcakes for me. He told me to treat my friends. The baker is to leave them in a box at the apple-tree on the corner of the campus. He had a party to cater to, and he said he would leave the cakes at just ten o’clock.”
“Hurrah for the shortberry strawcakes!” cried Pepper. “Hen, your cousin is a fellow after my own heart.”
“I wanted to keep it a little quiet,” continued Henry Lee. “For I didn’t want to invite too many to the spread. I don’t really know how big the cakes will be—although I know my cousin Dick doesn’t do things by halves.”
“It is half-past nine now,” said Jack, consulting the time-piece he carried.
“I’d like one of you to go out with me, after the cakes,” said Henry. “Each may be in a separate box, you know.”
All volunteered at once, for all loved strawberry shortcake. At last it was decided that Pepper should go with Henry.
“What’s the matter with making some lemonade to go with the cake?” ventured Andy. “I know there is a basket of lemons in the storeroom downstairs, and there is plenty of sugar there, too—and water costs nothing.”
This plan met with instant approval, and Andy and Dale were appointed a committee of two to provide the lemonade. By this time the monitor was coming around, and they had to put out lights. The Hall became very quiet, for all the cadets were supposed to be in bed.
The four boys slipped downstairs by a back way, and while Andy and Dale tiptoed to the store-room, Pepper and Henry slipped out of a side-door. Once outside, the latter put on their shoes, which they had carried in their hands, and hurried across the broad campus in the direction of the apple-tree where the baker was to leave the cakes.
“Perhaps he hasn’t arrived yet,” said Pepper. “If not, I suppose all we can do is to wait.”
When they got to the tree no boxes were there, and they sat down on a small grassy bank to wait. Beside the bank grew a clump of bushes, which screened them from the Hall. It was a fairly clear night, with bright stars shining in the heavens overhead.
“That baker is certainly late,” mused Henry, after a good ten minutes had passed.
“Getting hungry?” asked Pepper, good-naturedly. “He may have been delayed on account of the party.”
“I hope he doesn’t forget about the cakes. Perhaps—what’s that?”
The two cadets became silent, as they heard a door close rather sharply. Looking through the clump of bushes, they saw two figures stealing from the school building towards them.
“Some of the other fellows are coming,” cried Pepper.
“Why should they bother, Pep?”
“I don’t know, I’m sure. But I think—Well, I never! It is Gus Coulter and Reff Ritter! What can they be doing out here to-night?”
“Let us get out of sight and find out,” answered Henry, and dragged his chum to a clump of bushes still farther back from the campus. He had hardly done this when Gus Coulter and Reff Ritter came up.
“Anybody here yet?” asked Coulter.
“I don’t see anybody,” answered Ritter.
“Good enough! I was afraid they’d get here before us. Where do you suppose the baker put the cakes?”
“Mumps heard Lee say under this apple-tree.”
“I don’t see them.”
After that the two cadets became silent as they moved around in the vicinity of the apple-tree. In the meantime Pepper pinched Henry’s arm.
“They are after your strawberry shortcakes,” he whispered. “What a nerve!”
“Yes, and Mumps, the sneak, told them,” murmured Henry.
“Did you tell Mumps you were to have the cakes?”
“Tell Mumps? Not much! I have no use for that sneak! I suppose he must have been listening at the door of your dormitory—it’s just like him. If I ever get the chance, I’ll——”
“Hush! They are coming this way!” interrupted Pepper. “Crouch low, or they’ll see us!”
The two cadets got down in the deepest shadows they could find. Coulter and Ritter came quite close, but did not discover the pair. The two bullies looked up and down the road.
“That baker must have left the cakes and they must have got ’em,” said Coulter. “Mumps didn’t tell us soon enough. Too bad! I thought sure we’d be able to spoil their little feast!”
“Maybe we can spoil it yet,” answered Reff Ritter. “Let us go in again and see what can be done,” and then he and his crony moved once again toward Putnam Hall and were lost to sight in the darkness.
“That shows what sort of fellows Coulter and Ritter are,” said Pepper, when they were gone. “And it shows what a sneak Mumps is, too.” As my old readers know, he, of course, referred to John Fenwick, who had, on more than one occasion, proved himself to be a sneak of the first water. Fenwick was a great toady to Dan Baxter, but during that individual’s absence from the Hall had attached himself to Coulter and Ritter, and was willing to do almost anything to curry favor with them.
“I am certainly mighty glad they didn’t get the cakes,” was Henry’s comment. “Wouldn’t they have had the laugh on us!”
“They’ll have the laugh on us, anyway, if we don’t get the cakes. But I think I hear a wagon coming now.”
Pepper was right—a wagon was coming along the main road at a good rate of speed. It was the baker’s turnout, and soon he came to a halt near the apple-tree and leaped out with two flat pasteboard boxes in his hands.
“Sorry I am late, but that party delayed me,” he said. “There you are—and you’ll find them the best strawberry shortcakes you ever ate.” And having delivered the delicacies he hopped into his wagon again and drove off.
“Well, we’ve got the goods, anyway,” said Pepper, with a sigh of relief. “Now to get back into the Hall without being discovered.”
“Let us send the cakes up by way of the window,” suggested Henry. “It won’t do to be caught with them in our possession—if Coulter and Ritter have squealed.”
The boys ran across the campus, stooping at the roadway to pick up some pebbles. These they threw up to the window of one of the dormitories. It was a well-known signal, and the sash was immediately raised and Jack’s head appeared, followed by the head of Dale.
“What’s wrong?”
“Lower a line and haul up these two boxes,” answered Henry.
“Coulter and Ritter are onto our game,” said Pepper. “Mumps gave us away.”
No more was said just then. A strong fishing line was let down from above, and one pasteboard box after another was raised up. Then the two cadets on the campus ran around to the side door of the Hall.
“As I suspected, they locked it,” said Pepper, rather bitterly.
“Well, we’ve got to get in somehow. Wonder if they can’t let down a rope of some kind?”
“They might let down the rope in the bath-room,” answered Pepper. He referred to a rope which was tied to a ring in the bath-room floor. This had been placed there in case of fire, even though the school was provided with regular fire escapes.
Once more they summoned Jack and the others, and Jack ran to the bath-room and let the rope down. Then those below came up hand over hand, bracing their feet against the wall of the building as they did so.
As the boys came from the bath-room they heard light footsteps on the back stairs. Andy and Dale were coming up, each with a big pitcher of lemonade. Both were snickering.
“Where does the fun come in?” asked Jack, as all hurried to his dormitory.
“A joke on Coulter and Ritter,” cried Andy, merrily. “We caught them nosing around downstairs and I called them into the store-room in the dark. Then I slipped past them and locked them in. They can’t get out excepting by the window, and then they’ll have to get back into the Hall.”
“It serves ’em right,” answered Pepper, and then told of what had been heard by himself and Henry down by the apple-tree. “We ought to pay Mumps back for spying on us, too,” he added.
It was voted to dispose of the strawberry shortcake and the lemonade at once. The cakes were cut up and passed around, and voted “the best ever.” The lemonade was also good, and the cadets drank their fill of it.
“What are you going to do with the two pitchers?” asked Joe Nelson.
“Sure an’ I have an idea, so I have,” came from Emerald. “Phy not leave ’em in Mumps’s room?”
“That’s the talk,” cried Pepper. “And we’ll leave this chunk of ice, too,” and he rattled the piece in the pitcher as he spoke.
Taking the two pitchers, the Irish student and Pepper approached the dormitory in which John Fenwick slept, along with Ritter, Coulter, Nick Paxton and Dan Baxter. They found the door unlocked and pushed it open. To their astonishment they met Mumps face to face. He was waiting for the return of Ritter and Coulter.
“Say, what do you want?” he began, but got no further, for without ceremony both boys thrust the empty pitchers into his arms. Then Pepper rammed the piece of ice down Mumps’s neck, and he and Emerald ran off swiftly and silently.
“Hi, you—er—you let me alone!” sputtered Mumps. “Oh, my back! What did you want to put ice down my back for? Oh, dear, I’ll be all froze up!” And he danced around and let the two pitchers fall to the floor with a crash.
“That’s the time we paid him back for his sneaking tricks,” whispered Pepper, as he sped for his dormitory.
“Sure, he’s makin’ noise enough to wake the dead, so he is!” was Hogan’s comment. “If that don’t wake Captain Putnam up he must be slapin’ wid cotton in his ears an’ ear mufflers on!”
“The best thing we can do is to get in bed and lose no time about it,” answered the Imp, and began to undress before his bedroom was gained.
The others were speedily acquainted with the turn of affairs, and in less than three minutes every cadet was undressed and in bed. The pasteboard boxes had been thrown out of a window and all the crumbs of the little feast swept up.
Hogan was right, the noise soon awakened Captain Putnam, and the master of the Hall arose, donned a dressing gown, and sallied forth to see what was the matter. Then from an upper bed-chamber Mrs. Green, the matron of the school, appeared. She was a good-natured woman, but any alarm at night scared her.
“What is the trouble, Captain Putnam?” she asked, in a trembling voice. “Have burglars gotten into the school?”
“If they have they are making a big noise about it,” answered Captain Putnam. “I rather think some of the cadets are up to pranks.”
“Perhaps the school is on fire?”
“Is the school on fire?” demanded a student, who just then stuck his head out of a dormitory doorway.
“If the school is on fire I’m going to get out!” exclaimed another cadet.
“No! no! There is no fire!” cried the master of the Hall, hastily. “I believe it is nothing but some boys cutting-up. Listen!”
The sound in Mumps’s dormitory had ceased, but now came another sound from downstairs—the overturning of a chair, followed by the crash of glassware.
“That is in the dining-room, or the store-room!” shrieked Mrs. Green. “Oh, they must be burglars, sir! The boys would not make such a dreadful noise.”
“I’ll soon get at the bottom of this,” said Captain Putnam, sternly, and ran down the back stairs as rapidly as his dressing gown would permit. In the meantime many boys came out into the corridors, and George Strong, the assistant teacher, appeared.
When Captain Putnam reached the store-room he found the door locked. But the key was in the lock, and he speedily turned it and let himself in. It was almost totally dark in the room, and he had not taken two steps before he felt some broken glass under his feet. The window was open and he darted to it, to behold two students on the campus outside.
“Stop!” he called out. But instead of obeying the command the students kept on running, and disappeared from sight around an angle of the building.
“I will get at the bottom of this—I must get at the bottom of it,” the master of the Hall told himself, and lost no time in lighting up. A glance around showed him that a small stand containing some water-glasses had been tipped over and several glasses were broken.
“That stand was in the way in the dining-room, so we had it removed to here,” explained Mrs. Green. “Oh, what a mess! Be careful, sir, or you’ll cut your feet.”
“Mr. Strong, two students just leaped from this window and are outside,” said the captain, as his assistant appeared at the store-room door. “Find out who they are and bring them to my office.”
“Yes, sir,” answered George Strong, and ran for a door opening onto the campus. Once outside he saw Coulter and Ritter in the act of sneaking off towards the barns and ran after them.
“It will do you no good to run away,” he cried, as he came up and caught each by the arm. “Ah, so it is you, Coulter, and you, Ritter. You will report at once at Captain Putnam’s office.”
“We weren’t doing anything,” growled Gus Coulter.
“You can tell the captain your story.”
Meekly Ritter and Coulter marched into the Hall and to the office. They knew not what to say. They had not dreamed of being locked in the store-room, and the table with the glassware had been knocked over by Ritter in an endeavor to get the window open in the dark.
“Well, young men, what have you to say for yourselves?” demanded Captain Putnam, sternly, as he confronted the pair.
“We broke the glassware by mistake, sir,” answered Reff Ritter. “I will pay for the damage done.”
“But what were you doing in the store-room at this time of night?”
“We—er—we came down to get—er—to get some lemons,” faltered Coulter. “I—er—I had a pain in the stomach, and I thought sucking on a lemon would cure it.”
“Humph! Did you have a pain, too?” and the master of the Hall turned to Ritter.
“No, sir, but—er—Gus was so sick I thought I had best come down with him,” answered Ritter.
“Are you still sick, Coulter?”
“Why—er—the pain seems better now, sir. I guess I scared it away!” And the guilty cadet smiled faintly.
“Indeed! Well, why did you leave the store-room by way of the window?”
“Because while we were inside somebody came and locked the door on us.”
“Oh! Some other students, I presume.”
“Yes, sir. It was too dark for us to see who they were.”
“And you went down for nothing but lemons, eh?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, you go straight to bed, and after this, if you want any lemons you call one of the servants or teachers; do you hear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Wait just a moment. What was that noise upstairs?”
“Where?”
“In the neighborhood of your dormitory.”
“I don’t know,” said Coulter.
“Maybe it was made by the boys who locked us in,” was Reff Ritter’s comment.
“I see. Well, go to bed. If I hear any more noise, or learn of any more prowling around in the dark, I’ll make an example of somebody,” added Captain Putnam, and with that the two cadets were dismissed, and they lost no time in making for their dormitory. There they learned from Mumps how the sneak had been treated by Pepper and Hogan.
“That chunk of ice was as cold as—as Greenland!” said the sneak, dismally. “It melted right on my backbone, so how could I help but make a noise. There are the two pitchers. I wish I could fire them at somebody’s head!”
“Put them out in the hall—away from our door,” ordered Ritter. “If they are found here they will make more trouble—and we’ve had enough for one night.”
“Jack Ruddy’s crowd put this up our back,” was Coulter’s comment. “Oh, how I wish I could get square with them!”
“I am glad I didn’t go downstairs,” came from Nick Paxton.
“Then you didn’t get hold of the strawberry shortcakes at all,” said Mumps.
“No, and we don’t know if they got ’em, either,” answered Coulter. “Maybe you were mistaken, Mumpsy.”
“No, I wasn’t mistaken.”
“Well, we made a fizzle of getting the cakes anyway,” growled Ritter. “I am going to bed,” and in a thoroughly bad humor he turned in, and his cronies followed his example.
The joke on Coulter, Ritter, and Mumps could not be kept, and by the next day many students were laughing at the two bullies and the sneak. This made the three very angry, but they did not dare to say anything in public, for fear of getting into trouble with Captain Putnam.
The contest between Coulter and Andy Snow was to come off in the gymnasium that afternoon after school and, as a consequence, quite a number of students assembled to witness what was to take place. A large number thought Andy would win out, yet Gus Coulter had quite a few supporters, for he was known to be not only large but strong.
When Andy came in Coulter had not yet arrived. At once Andy began to practice. As soon as he did this Nick Paxton came up to him.
“Do you want to swing against me?” demanded Paxton.
“No, I have a contest with Coulter to-day,” answered Andy shortly. He had no use for Paxton, and was not above letting the latter know it.
“Afraid, eh?” sneered the other cadet.
“No, I am not afraid of you, Paxton, and you know it,” answered Andy, promptly.
“Yes, you are afraid,” growled the other boy, and moved off. In a minute, however, he came back, and seizing hold of a long rope suspended from the gymnasium ceiling, commenced to swing upon it.
Jack and Pepper came in, and they stood talking to Andy as Paxton continued to swing back and forth, close at hand. Then Paxton changed his course, so that his feet struck Jack on the arm.
“Stop that, Paxton!” cried the young major, but before he could say more the cadet on the rope launched himself forward again, with feet extended, and caught Andy in the left wrist. The blow was so strong that the acrobatic youth was bowled over on the polished floor.
“Ouch, my wrist!” cried Andy, as he scrambled up. Then he gazed sharply at Paxton. “What did you do that for?” he demanded.
“Excuse me, I didn’t mean to touch you,” was the short answer, and Paxton dropped from the rope and started for the other end of the gymnasium.
“Hold on there!” cried Pepper, and ran after Paxton.
“What do you want, Pep Ditmore?”
“You struck Andy on purpose!”
“I did not!”
“And I say you did! It was a mean thing to do.”
“Oh, you make me tired,” grunted Nick Paxton, but his tone betrayed his uneasiness.
“I believe you struck Andy so as to injure him,” said Jack. To this Paxton made no answer. Instead he moved on, and soon lost himself in a crowd of boys in another part of the gymnasium.
“Andy, does your wrist hurt much?” questioned Pepper, turning to his acrobatic chum.
“Yes, it does,” was the answer. “See, he scraped part of the skin off.”
“He ought to be hammered for it,” was Pepper’s emphatic declaration.
Andy walked over to a sink and there allowed the water to run over his wrist. Soon there was a small swelling, which pained considerably. Jack helped to tie a handkerchief around the bruised member.
“Well, Snow, are you ready for the contest?” demanded Gus Coulter, walking up. He had just passed Nick Paxton, and the latter had winked at him suggestively.
“Andy has been hurt,” explained Jack. “Paxton kicked him in the wrist.”
“Huh! Is this a trick to get out of meeting me?” grumbled Gus Coulter.
“No, it is no trick!” exclaimed Andy.
“Andy, you can’t meet him with your wrist in such bad shape,” expostulated Pepper.
“Postpone it until to-morrow,” suggested Dale, who was present.
“If he is to meet me at all it must be to-day,” said Coulter, flatly. “That bruise doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. I’ve got a hurt myself,” and he showed the back of his left hand, which had been slightly scratched by a playful kitten several days before.
“That is nothing to Andy’s bruise,” said Pepper. “See, his wrist is quite swelled.”
“Never mind, I’ll meet him, anyway—and beat him, too,” declared Andy. “Come on—I am ready if you are!”
The crowd surrounding Andy were both pleased and astonished by his show of grit. It was easy to see that his wrist was in bad shape.
“Andy, you can’t do it to-day,” pleaded Pepper. “Make him meet you some other time.”
“It is to-day or never,” said Gus Coulter, bluntly.
In a few minutes the necessary space was cleared and the contest commenced. It had been agreed that the trial was to consist of the following: Each boy was to walk the length of the gymnasium on his hands and then rise up and “chin the bar,” that is, draw himself up to his chin on a turning bar. The contestant to “chin the bar” the greatest number of times was to be the winner.
Harry Blossom had been chosen umpire of the contest, and at a word of command from him the two students fell upon their hands and started across the floor. At once Nick Paxton and Reff Ritter began to crowd Andy.
“You keep back there!” cried Jack, and shoved Paxton out of the way. Then he and Pepper elbowed their way to Reff Ritter. “Give Andy a show,” both said.
“Oh, don’t bother me,” growled Ritter, giving Jack a black look.
“Then get out of Andy’s way,” answered the young major.
“That’s right—keep the course clear, or I’ll call the contest off,” called out Harry Blossom, and Ritter and Paxton had to fall back. Mumps was also present and wanted to hinder Andy, but he had not the courage to do anything.
Andy’s wrist pained him greatly, and long before he reached the end of the gymnasium he felt like giving up the contest. But he kept on, and finished walking on his hands as quickly as did Coulter. Then he pulled himself up on one bar while his opponent did the same on another.
“Three for Andy Snow!”
“Four for Gus Coulter!”
“Four for Andy!”
“Five for Gus! Stick to it, Gus, and you’ll win!”
“Andy should not have tried it with that sore wrist!”
Amid encouraging cries and various criticisms, the “chinning” went on until Gus Coulter had pulled himself up twelve times. Andy had gone up ten times. Gus was trying his best to get up the thirteenth time, but seemed unable to make it.
Andy’s wrist felt as if it was on fire, and he had to grit his teeth to keep from crying out with pain. But he clung to the bar and slowly but surely went up the eleventh time, and then the twelfth. Then he went up the thirteenth—just as Coulter did likewise.
“A tie!” was the cry.
Again the two boys tried to rise. But Gus Coulter’s total strength was gone, and all he could do was to raise himself a few inches. He hung from the bar and glared at Andy.
“Want to call it a tie?” he gasped.
“No!” answered Andy, shortly, and then went up again. Gus could do no more, and he dropped to the floor. Then with a quick movement Andy raised himself up once again, and again, and then a third time—and then let go.
“Hurrah! Andy Snow wins!”
“He went up seventeen times to Coulter’s thirteen.”
“I can tell you, Andy Snow is a wonder! And he did it with that hurt wrist, too!”
So the cries ran on, while Gus Coulter sneaked away and out of sight. Pepper, Jack, and the others surrounded Andy. They saw he was very pale.
“It was too much for you, Andy,” said the young major. “Come on out in the fresh air,” and he led the way. On the campus he ran into Reff Ritter once more.
“Ritter, what do you mean by bumping into me,” he said, sharply.
“I wasn’t bumping into you,” was the sharp reply. “Say, maybe you’d like to meet me in the gym. some day,” went on the bully.
“At chinning?” asked Jack.
“No, on the bars, or the flying-rings.”
“I am not afraid to meet you on the flying-rings,” answered Jack, for that form of gymnastics appealed to him.
“All right, when do you want to meet me?”
“Any time you say.”
“Done.” And then and there, with the aid of several outsiders, the contest on the flying-rings was arranged.
“Jack, I am afraid you’ll get the worst of it,” said Pepper, for he remembered that Reff Ritter had travelled a good deal and had had several high-class instructors give him lessons in gymnastics.
“Perhaps,” returned the young major. “But I wasn’t going to show the white feather when he called on me to meet him.”
Further discussion of the subject was cut short by the unexpected ringing of the school bell. At first the cadets thought this must be some joke, but soon learned otherwise. They were requested to meet in the assembly room, and were there addressed by Captain Putnam.
“I have an announcement of considerable importance to make,” said the master of the Hall. “To-morrow afternoon this school will be visited by two of my old army friends, General Wallack and Major Darrowburg. General Wallack has been on duty on the Pacific coast and Major Darrowburg is one of the instructors at West Point. I shall ask these two old army friends of mine to inspect the school battalion and witness a drill. It is perhaps needless for me to say that I wish you all to appear at your best. I want every uniform carefully brushed, every shoe polished, and every gun and sword in the pink of condition. These gentlemen are deeply interested in our school, and I want them to see for themselves that we are close to the standard set by our government at West Point. To-morrow we will have dinner an hour earlier than usual, and that will give all ample time in which to make themselves presentable. I trust that every officer and every private will take a proper pride in this exhibition. And I wish to add, that any neglect on the part of an officer or a private to turn out in a fitting manner will be severely punished. Now you can go, and I trust you will, every one of you, add to the honor of Putnam Hall.”
The cadets filed out of the assembly room and scattered in various directions. The announcement made by Captain Putnam created a keen interest.
“It will certainly be great to be inspected by two regular United States Army officers,” observed Pepper. “Gosh! but we’ll have to shine up for keeps! Guess I’ll begin on my brass buttons right away!” And he said this so drolly all who heard him laughed.
“I’ve got to clean my gun,” said Stuffer. “I meant to clean it last week, but it slipped my mind.”
“Sure, an’ it’s meself must have a new braid on me coat,” put in Emerald. “I’ll go an’ see about it to wanct!” And he hurried off.
“I don’t believe you’ve got much to do, Jack,” said Pepper. “You always look as if you had stepped out of a bandbox. I don’t see how you manage it.”
“Well, you know I have to set the rest of the battalion an example, being major,” was the reply. “If the major isn’t up to the scratch how can he expect his men to be?”
“Yes, I know that’s the way to look at it, but I really don’t see how you keep your sword looking so fine, and your scabbard.”
“I polish it pretty often—then it doesn’t come hard, Pep. The whole secret is in not letting things slip too long. When I find a button getting loose I don’t wait for it to fall off—I tighten it up right away.”
While Jack and his chums were talking matters over on the campus Coulter, Ritter, and Paxton had walked off toward the boat-house. They took but little interest in the inspection, until an idea regarding it entered Ritter’s head.
“I did what I could to lame Snow,” said Paxton to Coulter. “I kicked his wrist as hard as I could.”
“I was not in condition—my stomach has been weak for two days,” was Coulter’s explanation. “Another time I’ll beat him all to pieces.”
“Say, Reff, you had a run-in with Jack Ruddy, didn’t you?” asked Paxton, turning to Ritter.
“Yes.” Ritter was clicking his teeth together—something he was in the habit of doing when out of sorts. “Say, I wonder——” He stopped short.
“What do you wonder?” asked Coulter.
“I was thinking of that exhibition drill.”
“Oh, pshaw! I am not going to worry about that. Why, if we make a fine showing who will get the credit? Captain Putnam, Jack Ruddy, and the other officers.”
“I am not going to make a good showing for Jack Ruddy’s benefit,” growled Paxton.
“I was thinking of something,” resumed Reff Ritter, slowly. “I wonder if we could manage it.”
“Manage what?” asked the two others.
“Manage to make a whole lot of trouble for Jack Ruddy and his crowd. It falls in with the first idea I had.”
“I’d like to do it!” declared Paxton.
“Same here,” added Coulter. “Only show us a safe and sure way.”
“You know how Ruddy keeps himself in the very best of condition all the time.”
“We couldn’t help but know that.”
“Well, supposing we spoilt that condition for him? Supposing we made his sword and its scabbard look rusty, his buttons dull, and his uniform full of spots? How would that strike those officers and Captain Putnam when that inspection came off?”