THE GENERAL ALARM
Baxter and his chums were just getting to sleep, having grown tired of
waiting for the return of Sabine and Coulter, when the bully awoke with
a start.
“What’s that?” he cried, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
Before him he saw a curious figure jumping up and down. It gave forth a
curious glow of light.
“You can’t fool me!” he cried, and leaped from his cot,—to pitch
headlong over an empty barrel.
“What’s up?” came from Reff Ritter, and he too got up and bumped into a
bag of flour hanging on a level with his head. Down came the bag, and
the flour flew in all directions, nearly smothering Mumps, who was still
sleeping.
“What’s this?” spluttered the bully’s toady. “Who threw flour over me!”
He too arose, and fell into a lot of loose tinware, creating a great
racket. Then came a crash of another sort.
“Look out, the tent is coming down!” called out Ritter, and tried to get
out. But he too fell over the empty barrel, and the next moment down
came the tent, burying all three of the boys and making more noise than
ever.
“Run!” called out Pepper, who had arranged the affair, and he and his
chums ran and were soon out of sight.
The noise awoke Captain Putnam and George Strong, who were sleeping in a
tent close by. Both ran out, and a lantern was lit.
“What’s the trouble here?” demanded the captain.
“A tent is down,” answered George Strong. “Some students’ fun, I
presume.”
Soon Baxter, Ritter, and Mumps crawled from under the collapsed tent,
making a great noise among the tinware as they did so. Then a crowd
began to collect.
“Fenwick! What in the world is the matter with your face?” cried Captain
Putnam.
“It’s flour, sir,” answered Mumps. “Somebody nearly smothered me with
flour.”
“They played a trick on us,” growled Dan Baxter. “There was a noise and
I got up and saw a make-believe ghost—some phosphorus on some dangling
shingles. I started to get up, and then somebody pulled the tent down on
our heads.”
Some of the cadets began to snicker at this. More lanterns were lit, and
while some of those present started to repair the damage that had been
done, Captain Putnam took a lantern and walked around the camp. Seeing
something behind some bushes, he walked thither and came to where
Coulter and Sabine were still standing blindfolded and with their hands
tied behind them.
“What are you doing here?” asked the master of the Hall, in amazement.
“Oh, Captain Putnam, is that you?” asked Sabine. “Will you help us?”
“What is the trouble?”
“We are afraid of the traps,” said Coulter.
“Traps? I see no traps,” and Captain Putnam flashed around the rays of
his lantern. Then he set the light down and untied the prisoners’ hands,
and the cloths over their eyes were also removed.
“Well, I never!” cried Coulter, looking around.
“Not a single trap, or a bayonet!” murmured Sabine. “We have been
fooled.”
“Go back to your tent at once!” cried Captain Putnam, sharply. “I want
no more nonsense this night.”
The balance of the night passed quietly enough, for the cadets were
afraid to prowl around, not knowing who might be on guard. In the
morning there were a good many laughs, but Dan Baxter and his crowd did
not join in.
Down at the general store at the cross-roads Pepper had purchased some
firecrackers and also some seidlitz powders. Watching his chance that
morning he took the white-paper powders and dumped them in the milk the
Baxter crowd was using. Then he dumped the other powders into their
sugar.
“Guess I’ll have some coffee now,” said Baxter, and got himself a cup.
Then he put in some of the doctored milk and followed with some of the
doctored sugar. Several of the others did the same.
An instant later Baxter’s coffee began to bubble and foam and then went
up like a geyser. The bully was so astonished he let the cup fall with a
smash.
“Great Scott! What’s up with the coffee!”
“My coffee is going to explode!” shrieked Mumps, and threw his cup in
some bushes.
“This is awful!” cried Coulter. “Why, what in the world is the matter
with it?”
“Say, Ferris, what did you do to that coffee?” demanded Ritter, striding
up to the cadet who had made the beverage.
“I boiled it, that’s all,” answered Ferris. “It’s good, too,” he added.
“Did you put in some baking powder?” sneered Baxter.
“Not at all,” and now Ferris himself tasted some of the coffee he had in
his pot. “Why, that’s fine.”
“Give me another cup of it,” said Baxter.
It certainly looked good and he put in some milk. Then he added the
sugar as before. At once the coffee bubbled and foamed worse than
before.
“Look there!” he cried, rushing forward with the coffee running over the
cup and on to the ground. “What do you say to that?”
“Hullo, Baxter has got Mount Vesuvius brand of coffee!” cried Andy.
“Why don’t you bottle it for mineral water?” asked Pepper.
“Oh, shut up!” cried the bully.
“I think I’ll try some milk,” said Mumps. “Phew, what a flavor!”
To sweeten it he put in some sugar, and at once he had the milk boiling
and foaming.
“This is what’s the matter!” cried Reff Ritter. “It’s the milk and sugar
that is doctored. Somebody put seidlitz powders in them!”
“Dump the sugar and milk away,” said the bully, and this was done. Then
the crowd had to get a new lot before they could go ahead with their
meal. Pepper and his chums had a hearty laugh over the incident.
That night, when Pepper was on guard duty, he took his package of
firecrackers with him and during his spare time fixed some of the
crackers so that they would have extra long stems, made of nothing but
ordinary cotton cord. Then, when he was off duty, he placed the
firecrackers around the camp, lighting each fuse as he did so.
“Now wait, and you’ll see some fun,” he whispered to Andy, Dale, and the
others.
For a few minutes there was silence, and then one of the crackers went
off. It was of good size and the noise sounded like a gun shot.
“Corporal of the guard!” came the cry.
“What post?” was the question asked by the corporal, as he rushed out of
his tent.
He had scarcely spoken when another firecracker went off with a loud
bang.
“Something must surely be wrong,” murmured Captain Putnam, as he sprang
up and donned part of his clothing. “There goes another shot!”
He ran outside and soon found the bewildered corporal of the guard, who
was running around asking the various pickets who had fired the shots.
“I can’t find where the shots came from,” said the corporal, and just
then came two more explosions, followed by a third.
As it happened, the explosions came from different sides of the camp, so
Captain Putnam was as much bewildered as anybody. By this time all of
the cadets were stirring, for it had been ordered that no shot should be
fired unless something was really wrong.
“Must be thieves in the camp!”
“Maybe some wild beasts!”
“I think it is some bears,” said Andy, in a loud voice.
“Bears!” screamed Mumps, and the cry was taken up on all sides. “Oh, I
don’t want to meet any bears!”
“Nonsense! There are no bears on this island,” said Captain Putnam.
“They must be shooting at something else.”
“Let us go around and investigate,” said George Strong, and brought out
his revolver, while the master of Putnam Hall did the same.
During this time the firecrackers continued to go off, by ones, twos,
and threes. Then came the explosion of a dozen or more.
“My gracious, what can this mean?” ejaculated the captain. “All of the
guards must be firing at once.”
“Perhaps it is a box of cartridges that got on fire,” suggested George
Strong.
The corporal of the guard had been out to one of the posts, when an
explosion took place just behind him, causing him to leap wildly into
the air. He looked back, saw something burning, and picked it up.
“Here you are!” he called, rushing back to Captain Putnam. “I know what
is up now.”
“Humph! A firecracker!” said the master of the school. “Who is setting
them off, Pell?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Ah! nothing but firecrackers,” said Dan Baxter, in disgust. “I am going
to bed again.”
“So am I,” added Reff Ritter.
All waited for a few minutes longer, but no more explosions followed,
and finally Captain Putnam told the cadets to retire, while he and
George Strong took a walk through the camp to make certain that
everything was all right.
“Come with me,” whispered Andy to his chums. “Don’t go to bed yet.” And
he led them to the rear of the tent occupied by Dan Baxter and his
cronies.