A GERMAN-FRENCH ALLIANCE
"Oh, fellows, please let go! Don't throw me in the lake! I--I can't
swim!"
It was Will's final appeal.
"Well, it's time you learned," exclaimed Snaith with a laugh. "Come on
now, boys, take it on the run!"
But at that moment Jack Ranger fairly leaped from behind the clump of
trees where he and Nat Anderson stood, and running after the three mean
lads who were carrying the struggling Will, our hero planted himself in
front of them.
"Here--drop him!" he cried, barring their way.
Surprise at Jack's sudden appearance, no less than at his words and
bearing, brought the hazers to a stop.
"What--what's that you said?" asked Snaith, as if disbelieving the
evidence of his ears.
"I said to drop this, and let Williams go."
"What for?" demanded Pud.
"For several reasons. He can't swim, and he has a nervous dread of the
water, as I happen to know. Besides, it's too chilly to throw any one
in the lake now."
"Are those all your reasons?" asked Snaith with a sneer.
"No!" cried Jack. "If you want another, it's because I tell you to
stop!"
"S'posing we don't?"
"Then I'll make you."
"Oh, you will, eh? Well, I guess we three can take care of you, all
right, even if you are Jack Ranger."
Snaith had a tight hold on Will's arm. The timid lad had been set down
by his captors, but they still had hold of him.
"Please let me go," pleaded Williams.
"We will--after you've had your dip in the lake," said Glen.
"Yes, come on," added Snaith. "Get out of the way, Ranger, if you don't
want to get bumped."
"You let Williams go!" demanded Jack, still barring the way.
"We'll not! Stand aside or I'll hit you!" snapped Snaith.
He and his cronies again picked Williams up, and were advancing with him
toward the lake. Snaith had one hand free, and as he approached Jack,
who had not moved, the bully struck out at him. The blow landed lightly
on Jack's chest, but the next instant his fist shot out, catching
Snaith under the ear, and the bully suddenly toppled over backward,
measuring his length on the ground.
[Illustration: "JACK'S FIST SHOT OUT, CATCHING SNAITH UNDER THE EAR."]
He was up again in a second, however, and spluttered out:
"Wha--what do you mean? I'll fix you for this! I'll make you pay for
that, Jack Ranger!"
"Whenever you like," replied Jack coolly, as he stood waiting the
attack.
"Come on, fellows, let's do him up!" cried Pud. "We're three to one, and
I owe him something on my own account."
"Shall we let the freshman go?" asked Glen.
"Sure!" exclaimed Snaith. "We can catch him again. We'll do up Ranger
now!"
The bully and his cronies advanced toward Jack. Will, hardly
understanding that he was released, stood still, though Jack called to
him:
"Better run, youngster. I can look out for myself."
"Oh, you can, eh?" sneered Snaith. "Well, I guess you'll have your hands
full. Come on, now, fellows! Give it to him!"
The three advanced with the intention of administering a sound drubbing
to our hero, and it is more than likely that they would have succeeded,
for Jack could not tackle three at once very well. But something
happened.
This "something" was a lad who came bounding up from the rear, with a
roar like a small, maddened bull, and then with a cry Nat Anderson
flung himself on the back of Pud Armstrong.
"Flabgastered punching-bags!" he cried. "Three to one, eh? Well, I guess
not! Acrimonious Abercrombie! But I'll take a hand in this game!"
"Here! Quit that! Let me go! Stop! That's no way to fight! Get off my
back!" yelled the startled Pud.
"I'm not fighting yet," said Nat coolly, as he skillfully locked his
legs in those of Pud and sent him to the ground with a wrestler's trick.
"I'm only getting ready to wallop you!"
Snaith, who had rushed at Jack with raised fists, was met by another
left-hander that again sent him to the ground. And then, to the surprise
of the rescuers, no less than that of the would-be hazers, Will, who had
seemed so timid in the hands of his captors, rushed at Glen Forker, and
before that bully could get out of the way, had dealt him a blow on the
chest.
"There!" cried Will. "I guess we're three to three now!"
"Good for you, youngster!" cried Jack heartily. "You've got more spunk
than I gave you credit for. Hit him again!"
"Now, Pud, if you'll get up, you and I will have our innings," announced
Nat to the lad he had thrown. "Suffering snufflebugs! but I guess the
game isn't so one-sided now."
But, though Pud got up, he evinced no desire to come to close quarters
with Nat. Instead, he sneaked to one side, muttering:
"You wait--that's all! You just wait!"
"Well, I'm a pretty good waiter. I used to work in a hash foundry and a
beanery," said Nat with a smile.
Snaith, too, seemed to have had enough, for he sat on the ground rubbing
a lump on his head, while as for Glen, he was in full retreat.
"I hope I didn't hurt you, Snaith," said Jack politely.
"Don't you speak to me!" snarled the bully.
"All right," said Jack. "I'll not."
"I'll get square with you for this," went on Snaith as he arose and
began to retreat, followed by Pud. "You wait!"
"That's what Pud said," interjected Nat. "It's getting tiresome."
The two bullies hurried off in the direction taken by Glen, leaving
Jack, Nat and Will masters of the field.
"I--I'm ever so much obliged to you," said Will to Jack after a pause.
"That's all right. Glad I happened along."
"I--I don't mind being hazed," went on the timid lad. "I expected it,
but I have a weak heart, and the doctor said a sudden shock would be
bad for me. I'm very much afraid of water, and I can't swim, or I
wouldn't have minded being thrown into the lake. I--I hope you don't
think I'm a coward."
"Not a bit of it."
"And I--I hope the fellows won't make fun of me."
"They won't," said Jack very positively, for, somehow, his heart went
out to the queer lad. "If they do, just send them to me. As for Snaith
and his crowd, I guess they won't bother you after this. Say, but you
went right up to Glen, all right."
"I took boxing lessons--once," went on Will timidly. "I'm not afraid in
a fair fight."
"Glad to hear it, but I fancy they'll not bother you any more. Do you
know Nat Anderson?" and Jack nodded at his chum.
"I'm glad to meet you," spoke Will, holding out his hand.
"Same here," responded Nat. "Unified uppercuts! but you went at Glen
good and proper!"
"You mustn't mind Nat's queer expressions," said Jack with a smile, as
he saw Will looking in rather a puzzled way at Nat. "They were
vaccinated in him, and he can't get rid of them."
"You get out!" exclaimed Jack's chum.
"Going anywhere in particular?" asked Jack of Will, as he straightened
out a cuff that had become disarranged in the scrimmage.
"No, I guess not."
"Then come on and take a walk with us."
The lad appeared to hesitate. Then he said slowly.
"No--no, thank you. I--I don't believe I will. I think I'll go back to
my room."
He turned aside and walked away.
Jack and Nat stared after him in silence.
"Well, he certainly is a queer case," remarked Nat in a low voice. "I
don't know what to make of him."
"I, either," admitted Jack. "He showed some spunk when he went at Glen,
but now it appears to have oozed away."
The two chums continued their walk, discussing the recent happening.
"Do you know, I think something is about due to happen, fellows,"
announced Fred Kaler that night, when he and some of Jack's and Nat's
chums were in the latters' room.
"Why, what's up, you animated jewsharp?" asked Nat.
"I don't know, but it's been so quiet in the sacred precincts of our
school lately that it's about time for something to arrive. Do you know
that Socrat and Garlach haven't spoken to each other this term yet?"
"What's the trouble now?" asked Jack, for the French and German
teachers, with the characteristics of their race, were generally at
swords' points for some reason or other.
"Why, you know their classrooms are next to each other, and one day, the
first week of the term, Professor Socrat, in giving the French lesson,
touched on history, and gave an instance of where frog-eaters with a
small army had downed the troops from der Vaterland. He spoke so loud
that Professor Garlach heard him, his German blood boiled over, and
since then neither has spoken to the other."
"Well, that often happens," remarked Nat.
"Sure," added Bony Balmore, cracking his finger knuckles by way of
practice.
"Yes," admitted Fred, as he took out his mouth-organ, preparatory to
rendering a tune, "but this time it has lasted longer than usual, and
it's about time something was done about it."
Fred began softly to play "On the Banks of the Wabash Far Away."
"Cheese it," advised Nat. "Martin will hear."
"He's gone to the village on an errand for the doctor," said Fred as he
continued to play. Then he stopped long enough to remark: "I'd like to
hear from our fellow member, Jack Ranger."
"That's it," exclaimed Sam Chalmers. "I wonder Jack hasn't suggested
something before this."
"Say!" exclaimed Jack, "have I got to do everything around this school?
Why don't some of the rest of you think up something? I haven't any
monopoly."
"No, but you've got the nerve," said Bony. "Say, Jack, can't you think
of some scheme for getting Garlach and Socrat to speak? Once they are on
talking terms we can have some fun."
Jack seemed lost in thought. Then he began to pace the room.
"Our noble leader has his thinking apparatus in working order,"
announced Nat.
"Hum!" mused Jack. "You say the trouble occurred over something in
history, eh?"
"Sure," replied Fred.
"Then I guess I've got it!" cried Jack. "Wait a minute, now, until I
work out all the details."
He sat down to the table, took out pencil and paper, and began to write.
The others watched him interestedly.
"Here we are!" Jack cried at length. "Now to carry out the scheme and
bring about a German-French alliance!"
"What are you going to do?" asked Nat.
"Here are two notes," said Jack, holding aloft two envelopes.
"We'll take your word for it," remarked Bob Movel.
"One is addressed to Professor Garlach," went on Jack, "and in it he is
advised that if he proceeds in the proper manner he can obtain
information of a certain incident in history, not generally known, but
in which is related how Frederic II, with a small squad of Germans, put
a whole army of French to flight. It is even more wonderful than the
incident which Professor Socrat related to his class, and if he speaks
loudly enough in the classroom, Professor Socrat can't help but hear
it."
"What are you going to do with the note?" asked Fred.
"Send it to Garlach."
"And then?"
"Ah, yes--then," said Jack. "Well, what will happen next will surprise
some folks, I think. The information which Garlach will be sure to want
to obtain can only be had by going to a certain hollow tree, on the
shore of the lake, and he must go there just at midnight."
"Well?" asked Dick Balmore as Jack paused, while the silence in the room
was broken by Bony's performance on his finger battery.
"Well," repeated Jack, "what happens then will be continued in our next,
as the novelists say. Now come on and help me fix it up," and he
motioned for his chums to draw more closely around the table, while he
imparted something to them in guarded whispers.