The Putnam Hall Rivals

CHAPTER XXIV

AN ATTACK AND A FIGHT

“What’s doing, Andy?”

“Wait and see. You won’t have to wait long.”

The bully of Putnam Hall and his cronies were sleepy and soon tumbled on their cots. They had scarcely gotten under the blankets when a general cry arose.

“Oh, my! I’m stuck full of pins!”

“Ouch! Something is sticking me in the middle of the back!”

“Ker-chew! Who – ker-chew! – put this – ker-chew! – pepper on my – ker-chew! – cot?”

“My cot is full of burrs!”

“There are thistles in mine!”

Groans and muttered imprecations followed. Dan Baxter and his cronies were wild with rage. They had to light a lantern and clean their cots and blankets with care. The boys outside sneaked to their own quarters, laughing heartily to themselves.

“When did you do it, Andy?” asked Dale.

“While the shooting was going on. I got the burrs and thistles while I was out walking this afternoon.”

“They won’t forget this encampment in a hurry,” said Pepper, with a grin.

“Look out that they don’t pay us back.”

There was other fun afloat that night, but our friends did not hear of it until morning. Then Jack brought the news.

“We are in a pickle now,” announced the young major.

“What’s up, Jack?” questioned Pepper.

“Every boat is gone.”

“The boats gone!” cried Harry Blossom. “Where did they go to?”

“Nobody seems to know.”

“Did they drift away?”

“I think not. Mr. Strong and myself saw that they were tied up last evening.”

“Some of the fellows must have used them,” said Andy.

“And forgot to tie them fast afterwards,” suggested Dale.

“Or else they hid the boats just for fun,” said Pepper.

Jack looked at his friends questioningly.

“See here, boys, please remember that I am the major at this encampment,” he began, seriously.

“We know it, Jack,” said Andy, quickly. “I, for one, know nothing of the boats.”

“And neither do I,” came from each of the others.

“Maybe it is the work of the Baxter crowd,” said Dale.

Two hours were spent in looking for the boats. Then a farmer was seen approaching the island in a small scow which had seen better days.

“Say, did you folks lose any boats?” he asked.

“Yes,” said George Strong, who was near. “All we had.”

“Well, they drifted down to my farm. Shall I bring ’em up?”

“If you will.”

“What is it worth, mister?” asked the farmer, who did not believe in working gratuitously.

Captain Putnam was called, and he told the farmer he would give two dollars to have the boats brought back.

“Can I go along and help, Captain?” asked Andy.

“Yes, you can go, and Conners can go with you,” answered Captain Putnam.

The boys were soon in the scow, and the farmer took them to the extreme end of the lake. Here they found all of the boats the school had used, drifted under some overhanging bushes.

“They are all tied together,” said Andy. “That looks as if they were taken away from the island on purpose.”

“You didn’t take them away, did you?” asked Bart Conners, of the farmer.

“Me? Not much. I was asleep last night,” was the answer. “I heard you shootin’ over to the island, but I didn’t git up.”

Andy leaped into one of the boats and picked up a cigarette butt and then another.

“I guess I know the crowd who did this,” said the acrobatic youth.

“Perhaps I do too,” said Bart, pointedly. “The same crowd that set the old boathouse on fire, eh?”

“Exactly.”

The cadets and the farmer took the boats back to the island. George Strong came down to inspect the craft and pay the farmer off.

“Humph!” said the teacher, as he saw the remains of the cigarettes. He said no more, but later on talked the matter over with Captain Putnam.

Saturday night found the cadets back at Putnam Hall, safe and sound. The march back to the school had been without special incident. The walk told on some of the students, and on Sunday many of them were content to do little but rest and eat their meals. By the majority the outing was voted a complete success. Baxter and his cronies did not appreciate it so much and wanted to “get square” with somebody for the tricks that had been played.

Once more the boys settled down to the regular routine. Many of them wanted to make a good showing when it came to the examinations and so applied themselves diligently to their studies. But some, including Reff Ritter and Dan Baxter, cared very little if they came out near the head or not.

“I expect to take a trip with my father before long,” said Dan Baxter. “I hope he takes me out of the school before the examinations come off.”

“Wish I was going away,” grumbled Ritter. “It’s mighty dull these days.”

For some reason Dan Baxter got it into his head that Pepper was responsible for all the troubles he had had, and one afternoon, when in a particularly ugly mood, he followed the Imp to the end of the campus.

“Say, Ditmore, you are getting pretty fresh, ain’t you?” he blustered.

“Thanks, Baxter, but I certainly shouldn’t wish to grow stale,” answered Pepper, coolly.

“I don’t like the way you are talking about me.”

“I don’t know as I have talked about you – at least, not lately.”

“Oh, you needn’t try to crawl out of it,” went on the bully in a loud tone, while a crowd began to collect.

“I am not crawling out of anything.”

“Maybe you’d like me to give you a good licking, eh?” went on Baxter, working himself up into a rage.

“I have no desire to fight. But if you – ”

“Bah! Take that!” cried the bully, and without warning hit Pepper a stinging blow on the chin. The Imp was not prepared for the attack and went flat on his back on the grass.

“For shame, Baxter!” cried Harry Blossom, who had just come up. “That wasn’t fair at all!”

“You keep your oar out!” snarled the bully. “I know what I am doing.”

Slowly Pepper rose to his feet, a good deal dazed.

“Have you had enough?” demanded the bully, striding up with clenched fists.

“Do you call that fighting fair?” asked Pepper, slowly.

“Oh, I don’t want any gas!”

“Baxter you are a bully and a brute!”

The big cadet glared at the speaker in amazement. Then he made another lunge forward, but his fist met only the empty air, for Pepper ducked just in time.

“I’ll fix you!” roared Baxter, as he staggered forward and then recovered himself.

“I didn’t want to fight, but since you force me to defend myself, why – take that!”

As Pepper finished he let out with his right fist and took the bully fairly and squarely in the ear. Then the Imp swung around his left fist and it came in contact with Baxter’s nose and made the blood spurt. The bully staggered, but before he went down there came another blow that loosened one of his teeth.

“Now have you had enough?” asked Pepper, standing over the fallen form of the bully.

“No!” snarled Baxter, and as quickly as he could he got on his feet. But the instant he was up again, Pepper knocked him down.

“I am going to give you a dose of your own medicine, Baxter,” said the Imp. “If you try to get up again, down you go once more.”

“Boys! boys! what does this mean?” came in a stern voice, and looking up they saw Captain Putnam approaching.

CHAPTER XXV

JACK MAKES A DISCOVERY

Dan Baxter was evidently much chagrined. Pepper stood his ground and looked the master of Putnam Hall squarely in the face.

“Don’t you know that fighting is against the rules of this institution?” said Captain Putnam.

“Captain Putnam, I have not been fighting,” answered Pepper, as coolly as he could.

“Not fighting? Do you deny that you just knocked Baxter down?”

“No, sir, I do not deny it. I knocked him down twice.”

“And yet you do not call that fighting?”

“I do not, sir.”

“Well, what is it then?”

“I was walking out here when Baxter came up. He began to pick a quarrel, and without warning, as some of these boys can testify, he struck me in the chin and knocked me flat on my back. That made me angry and when I got up he struck at me again. Then I sailed in and knocked him down twice.”

“It ain’t so,” muttered Dan Baxter. “He started the quarrel.”

“No! no!” came from several.

“It started just as Pepper says,” put in Harry. “It was a mean thing for Baxter to attack Pepper without warning.”

“That’s what it was,” said another student standing by.

“You fellows shut up!” roared Dan Baxter. “If you don’t I’ll – ” He stopped short in confusion.

“Why did you attack him, Baxter?” asked the master of the school.

“Oh, he’s getting too airish,” said the bully, not stopping to think twice.

“Then you admit that you did attack him first?”

At this the bully grew red in the face.

“Well – er – I had good cause.”

“Both of you come to my office,” said the captain, and he also asked half a dozen of the others to come along. At the office the matter was carefully investigated.

“Ditmore, you may go,” said the master of Putnam Hall. “It was not just right for you to do as you did, yet I do not blame you for defending yourself. Baxter, you can remain.” And then all left the office but the bully. After the others had gone Captain Putnam read the bully a stern lecture. The captain had found out about the smoking and drinking at the old boathouse, and told the bully in very plain words that such practices would not be permitted around the academy.

“I presume the boathouse caught fire by accident,” said Captain Putnam.

“I – I guess it did,” said Baxter, meekly.

“It was a mean piece of business all the way through – and doubly mean to try to throw suspicion on some other cadets.”

“They did mean things to me, too,” grumbled the bully, and then he was glad to make his escape from the office.

It made Dan Baxter feel sick to face the school after his encounter with Pepper. Everybody was talking of how the Imp had polished off the bully. Baxter was glad enough when he received a telegram from his father asking him to leave Putnam Hall.

“I’m going on a trip and I shan’t be back for some time,” said Baxter to his cronies.

“You’re in luck,” answered Reff Ritter. “Wish I was going.”

“If you can, square up with Pepper Ditmore and his crowd,” went on the bully.

“We’ll do that,” put in Gus Coulter.

On the very day that Dan Baxter left Putnam Hall to go on a trip with his father, Pepper, Jack, and Andy received an invitation from the Fords to visit their summer home at Point View Lodge, not many miles away. The day was bright, and the roads seeming fine they went over on their bicycles.

“Here is where the Bock crowd once held us up,” said Jack, as they were riding through the woods. “Do you remember?”

“We are not likely to forget it,” said Andy. “Nor to forget how we shot the tiger that had escaped from the circus.”

“Which puts me in mind of something,” said Pepper. “Do you remember about that balloon that came down on us?”

“Of course.”

“Well, the balloonist, Professor Aireo, is going to give an exhibition next Saturday at Datport, in connection with some sort of soldiers’ reunion. I’d like to ride over and see him.”

“Let us do it – if we can get off,” returned Andy; and so it was agreed.

When the boys arrived at the Ford mansion they found all of the family there to greet them. Refreshments were served, and then the young people went out in the garden to play croquet and lawn tennis. The girls wanted to know about their life in camp, and smiled when told of the tricks that had been played.

“You certainly do have good times,” said Laura.

“Do you ever see any more of Roy Bock and his crowd?” asked Pepper.

“No, and we don’t wish to see them,” answered Flossie, with a toss of her curly head.

After the games there was music on the piano and singing, and then some more refreshments, and all too quickly it was time for the boys to return to the Hall. All said they had had a splendid time.

“I am glad to hear it,” said Mrs. Ford. “And do not forget to come again.”

It was still light when the boys leaped on their bicycles and started along the forest road for Putnam Hall. All were in high spirits, and Andy, in front, set a pace which the others followed with difficulty.

“Be careful,” sang out Jack. “This road is none of the best.”

“Oh, it’s all right,” answered the acrobatic youth. “Come on!” And he pushed ahead as hard as ever.

“I think this road is better than it used to be,” said Pepper, after a mile and a half had been covered. “They must have – ”

A crash ahead caused him to cut his speech short. They saw Andy fly over the handle-bars of his machine and land in some thick bushes. The bicycle spun around in the roadway and then fell, with the front wheel completely wrecked.

“Are you hurt, Andy?” asked Jack, slackening his pace just in time.

“I – I don’t think I am,” was the slow reply, as the acrobatic youth climbed out of the brushwood. “Gosh! but that was a header, wasn’t it?”

“How did it happen?” asked Pepper, who had gone ahead and now came back.

“I got in a rut and that threw me against yonder rock. I suppose I can be thankful that I didn’t break my neck.”

“The front wheel is done for,” said Jack, examining the bicycle. “The spokes and the rim are both smashed.”

“Then I reckon I’ll have to walk home,” said Andy, ruefully. “I reckon the old saying is true, ‘The more haste the less speed.’”

“We can take turns at carrying you,” said Jack. “One can carry you and the other the broken wheel.”

“Can you do it – on such a road as this?”

“We can try it, anyway.”

Andy got on the rear of Pepper’s bicycle and went on ahead, and Jack placed the broken wheel on his shoulder and followed on his own machine. Progress was slow, and long before the Hall was reached it was dark.

“Let us rest awhile,” said Pepper. “This is hard work.”

“I’ll work one of the wheels for awhile,” said Andy – “that is, when we start again.”

The boys sat down by the side of the forest road to rest. Near by a tiny brook of cold water was trickling.

“There must be a spring near by,” said Jack. “If there is, I’m going to have a drink.”

“Ditto myself,” said Pepper.

Jack walked off to look for the spring. He was gone only a few minutes when he came back in high excitement.

“I’ve made a discovery!” he cried, softly.

“What kind of a discovery?” asked Andy.

“I followed up the brook until I came to the spring, under a big overhanging rock. I was stooping down for a drink, when I caught the gleam of a campfire, through the trees. After I had my fill, I walked closer to the campfire to investigate. There I saw those two crazy relatives of Mr. Strong, Paul Shaff and Bart Callax!”

CHAPTER XXVI

THE MEN IN THE WOODS

Jack’s announcement filled Andy and Pepper with surprise. They had not dreamed that the two missing men could be anywhere in that vicinity.

“You didn’t make any mistake?” said Pepper.

“No, you can go and see for yourself. They have a regular camp located there.”

The other boys were curious, and followed the young major along the brook and to the campfire beyond. True enough, Shaff and Callax were there, taking it easy beside the campfire. They had built themselves a rude shelter of tree-boughs and brushwood, in front of which was a beautiful rug. In front of a tree hung a looking-glass and on a bench rested a washbowl and a shoe-blacking outfit.

“Lay low – we don’t want them to spot us,” whispered Jack.

“What are they talking about?” whispered Andy.

“Everything in general. They are certainly crazy.”

“We ought to let Mr. Strong know of this,” said Pepper.

The boys watched the two men for some time and saw that it was probable they would remain in the camp that night.

“I have an idea,” said Pepper. “Andy can ride to the school and tell Mr. Strong, while Jack and I watch the men. If they go away we can follow and see where they go to.”

So it was arranged, and a little later Andy rode off on Jack’s wheel. Jack and Pepper kept well out of sight, but made certain that Shaff and Callax should not slip them in the darkness which was now settling down upon all sides.

Andy took care that he should have no more accidents, and as a consequence it took him quite a while to reach Putnam Hall. Once there he asked at once for George Strong. The assistant teacher was in the library.

“I wish to see you in private, Mr. Strong,” said the cadet, and having walked outside with the instructor, the acrobatic youth told his tale.

“This is indeed news,” said George Strong. “We must capture them by all means. It is criminal to leave such dangerous characters at large.”

Captain Putnam was informed of the affair, and he told Peleg Snuggers and another man around the place to go with George Strong and Andy. The carryall was brought out, with a pair of good horses, and away they started on a good gait for the camp in the woods.

They had just reached the spot where the bicycles had been left when they heard a blood-curdling cry. Then came a shout in Jack’s voice.