A NIGHT ON THE ROAD
"This is the life, boys!"
"Ho for a life under canvas!"
"Beats rooming in a school all hollow, doesn't it?"
"Exactly so! And think--we haven't any studying to do. Oh, boy!" and
Andy, who was the speaker, felt so light-hearted that he turned
several cartwheels on the grass.
"Say, you look out, Andy, or somebody will grab you and put you in the
circus," was Spouter's comment.
The Colby Hall cadets had finished their first day's march and were
now in camp on the outskirts of Rackville. They had made the hike
without mishap, stopping at noon for lunch along the roadside.
The encampment consisted of three long lines of tents, one for each
company. As was the usual practice, the cadets had erected the
canvases themselves, doing it with real military precision. They were
in the center of a large, sloping field, one end of which bordered the
road running into Rackville. The field was a pasture lot belonging to
a large farm owned by a man named Oliver Appleby. Appleby owned a
dairy farm, and employed about a dozen hired hands.
"I know one thing we'll get here," remarked Fred, after a look around.
"We'll probably get all the milk we want to drink."
And in this surmise he was correct. Captain Dale had made the
necessary arrangements with Oliver Appleby, and that evening and the
following morning the cadets were furnished with the best of cream and
also all the fresh milk they desired.
After the setting up of the tents came supper, and my readers can rest
assured that none of the boys were "backward about coming forward," as
Randy expressed it. All were as hungry as wolves, and the amount of
food they stored away was simply astonishing. But Captain Dale had
received orders from Colonel Colby that the students should be well
treated, so everybody got all he wanted.
"Gee! this is so different from a school I used to attend," remarked
Fatty Hendry, with a sigh of satisfaction. "At that place we only got
about half enough to eat, and many a time I had to go down to the
village and buy something extra to keep from starvation."
Having spent so many of their vacations at the old Rover homestead at
Valley Brook, the Rovers were much interested in the Appleby place,
and after the evening meal Jack and Fred took a stroll up to the cow
barns to inspect the herd. Oliver Appleby had a number of prize
cattle, of which he was very proud.
"They are certainly beautiful cows," remarked Fred, when they were
walking through the shed which housed the best of the herd. "They must
have cost a mint of money."
The two young officers were on the point of leaving the cow sheds
when, quite unexpectedly, they ran into Jed Kessler.
"Hello! I thought I'd see some of you fellers," cried the old dockman.
"Out for your annual encampment, I understand."
"Yes," answered Jack. "How are you these days? Have you got over the
effects of that explosion?"
"I'm about over it--although I haven't returned to work yet," answered
Kessler. "You see, those awful shocks, and being thrown into the lake
that way, kind of got on my nerves. My folks don't want me to go back
until I'm feelin' stronger."
"Have they resumed work at the shell-loading plant?" questioned Fred.
"They're startin' up to-day. One gang is clearin' up the wreckage,
while a number of the old hands are at work in the places that wasn't
damaged very much. And say! I've got something to tell you that I know
you'll be interested to hear," went on old Jed Kessler.
"What is that?" questioned Jack.
"I saw those two German-lookin' fellers again early this morning, when
I was on my way here to visit my brother who works on this farm."
"You did!" cried the two Rovers simultaneously.
"Where were they?" added Jack.
"They was down on the road that runs to Barlight Bay."
"Walking?" queried Fred.
"No, they was in an old wagon pulled by the sorriest lookin' nag I
ever set eyes on. They had the wagon piled high with packages."
"Were you sure they were the same men?"
"I think they was the same. Of course, I wouldn't like to swear to it
until I got a better look at 'em. They was just goin' past as I came
in from a side road, and as soon as they saw me they whipped up their
horse and started down the road in a cloud of dust."
"You ought to have stopped them," said Jack.
"How could I do that? I wasn't close enough to catch hold of the
horse. And besides that, what chance would an old feller like me have
against two husky men? More than likely, too, they was armed, while I
didn't have anything--not even a cane."
"But you should have notified the authorities," said Fred.
"Oh, I did that, knowing that they was on the lookout for those
fellers. I hurried to Rackville just as fast as I could, and called on
the justice of the peace and the town constable. Then they got busy
and telephoned to the next town and notified the police. They got a
gang of six or eight men lookin' for the men and the wagon, but up to
this afternoon they hadn't got any trace of 'em."
"Well, that certainly is interesting," remarked Jack. "You say you are
pretty sure they are the same fellows who were around the plant just
previous to the explosion?"
"Well, as I said before, I wouldn't like to swear to it until I got a
better look at 'em. But those two fellers on the wagon had the same
bushy black hair and whiskers and the same round faces. More than
that, they wore the same slouch hats that the other fellers had."
"Have you any idea what was in the packages in the wagon?" questioned
the young captain.
"Sounded to me as if it might be iron, or something like that. It
jangled just like hardware."
"It's queer they would be on that back road with such stuff," said
Jack slowly. "Did the folks at Rackville think they might live down
near the bay?"
"They said there wasn't any folks around there so far as they knew
that wore bushy black hair and black beards. They knew about everybody
who lives within several miles of here," answered Jed Kessler.
The two Rovers talked the matter over with the old man for a few
minutes longer, the foreman of the dairy also having his say. Then the
boys had to hurry back to the camp, to fulfill their duties as captain
and lieutenant.
As was to be expected, there was a certain amount of horseplay in camp
that evening to which those in charge turned something of a blind eye.
"We'll have to leave the boys let off steam a little," said Captain
Dale to the professors who had come with him. "I think they'll soon
settle down to regular routine."
But the excitement of getting ready for the encampment, and the long
tramp over the dusty roads, had tired all of the cadets, and it was
not long before the great majority of them were ready to retire. Only
a few, like Andy and Randy, wanted to continue the fun, but Jack and
Fred quickly subdued the twins.
"You'll have plenty of time for your jokes when we get into the
regular camp," said the young captain. "Now you had better get a good
night's rest, for we have a long hike before us for to-morrow--over
the Lookout Hills."
As members of Company C, Gabe Werner and Bill Glutts would have been
under the direct command of Jack and Fred. This was a thorn in the
side of the ex-lieutenant, and as soon as he had received word from
home that he must remain at the school for the period of the annual
encampment, he went to Captain Dale and asked to be transferred to
another company, and requested that Glutts be transferred also.
"I think I can understand your feeling, Werner," said Captain Dale
kindly. "I am very sorry that you refused to run for a lieutenancy
after your defeat. Which company would you like to go in--A or B?"
"If it's all the same to you, Glutts and I would like to go into
Company B."
"Very well. I'll have the necessary shifts made, and you can report to
the captain of that company before we start away." And so it was
arranged.
"The Rovers ain't going to get me under their thumb!" growled Werner
to Glutts. "I know they would like nothing better than to find all
sorts of fault and to get me into trouble."
This, of course, was not true, because both Jack and Fred had decided
to treat the defeated candidate with every consideration.
"But I'm glad they've been transferred," said Fred, when he heard the
news.
"You're not half as glad as I am, Fred," answered the young captain.
Jack and his two lieutenants occupied a tent together, while Andy and
Randy were under canvas with Gif and Spouter. The night was a pleasant
one, neither too hot nor too cold, and it was not long after the young
cadets had turned in before most of them were sound asleep. But not so
Gabe Werner and Bill Glutts.
During the halt at noon for lunch, the cronies had held an animated
conversation, and this talk had been continued after the battalion had
gone into camp for the night. The subject of their discussion had been
the question of getting square with Jack and Fred because of what had
occurred during the election. Werner attributed his downfall entirely
to the Rovers.
"I'll show 'em a thing or two before I get through with 'em!" he
asserted to his crony. "They can't walk all over me and get away with
it!"
"Well, Gabe, you know I'll be on deck to help you in anything you try
to put over on 'em," responded the wholesale butcher's son.
"Of course we'll have to be careful what we do," went on Werner. "We
don't want to run afoul of Captain Dale or any of the professors. If
we did they might set us some awful mean tasks to do while we were in
camp."
"Yes, we'll have to be on our guard and work on the sly."
Neither Werner nor Glutts were particularly brilliant in evolving
their scheme, but finally the ex-lieutenant hit upon something which
he thought would answer. Then he told his crony of what had occurred
to him.
"That's the talk!" cried Bill Glutts, his eyes gleaming wickedly.
"Let's go and do it this very night, just as soon as they are sound
asleep. My, won't there be some rumpus in the morning when they wake
up and find out what has happened!"