A MIX-UP ON THE ROAD
As luck would have it, Reff Ritter’s party and the crowd from Pornell
Academy had become free at the same time, each working out of the ropes
and bags in a manner known only to themselves. Each had brushed up as
much as possible and started hurriedly for the place where the lawn
party was in progress. The two crowds had come together on the road not
over two hundred yards from the ice house. Each accused the other of
being guilty of the trick, and in less than five minutes blows were
being freely exchanged.
“I’ll show you what it means to treat me like a pig!” cried Roy Bock,
and he struck Ritter a blow in the nose that drew blood.
“Oh, you can’t bluff me!” retorted the Putnam Hall bully, and hit the
lad from Pornell in the left eye. Then the pair clinched and rolled over
and over in the dirt of the road.
In the meantime Grimes struck Coulter and Paxton hit Gussic. Then
everybody struck out, and inside of a minute the three Putnam Hall boys
were down and the enemy were on top of them. Clothing was torn, collars
and ties pulled off, and the general melée was something awful to
behold.
It was in the midst of this excitement that Jack and his chums arrived.
“Whow!” cried Andy. “Say, but they are going at each other for keeps,
aren’t they?”
“Sure, an’ it’s fightin’ like cats an’ dogs they are,” was Hogan’s
comment. “’Tis a bit av Donnybrook Fair,” he added. “Oh, for a
shillalah!”
“The Pornell crowd isn’t fighting fair,” said Jack. “They outnumber our
fellows.”
“What of it?” demanded Dale. “I reckon Ritter, Coulter and Paxton are
getting all they deserve.”
“Ge—get off of m—me!” came in a groan from Paxton. “Yo—you are crushing
in my ribs!”
“Don’t hit me with that stone!” they heard Coulter scream.
“They are certainly going too far,” said Pepper. “Enough is enough. Let
us scare the Pornell fellows off.”
This was agreed to, and picking up sticks and stones Jack’s crowd set up
a sudden wild yelling that made the Pornellites stop fighting and glance
around in fear.
“Come on!” cried Pepper. “Putnam Hall to the rescue! Down with Pornell
Academy!” And he looked over his shoulder, as if urging others behind
him. Then Jack and the others took up the cue, and they made it appear
as if a big party was approaching. Andy even ran behind some bushes and
called out in as many different tones of voice as he could master.
The ruse worked to perfection, and Roy Bock and his cohorts lost no time
in leaping to their feet and retreating a few paces.
“I guess the whole school is coming!” said the bully of Pornell Academy.
“Charge them! Charge them!” yelled Jack, and ran forward brandishing a
big stick. Pepper was at his side, and flung a big stone over Bock’s
head. This was too much for the Pornell students, and turning, they ran
along the road for a short distance and then took to the woods. They did
not stop running until they had covered a good quarter of a mile and
were sure the pursuit had come to an end.
“It was a put-up job!” growled Roy Bock, as he leaned against a tree to
rest and catch his breath. “That was Ruddy came to help Ritter and the
others. It was a put-up job and nothing else!”
“Yes, and we walked into the trap like a lot of mice after cheese,”
grunted Gussic, with his hand on his windpipe, where he had been hit.
“Just look at these duds!” came from another lad. “About fit for the
ragbag!” And he mournfully surveyed a torn sleeve and a hole in his
trouser leg.
“My collar is gone, and so is that new dollar tie I bought for the
party,” said Bock. “I ought to make somebody buy me another tie.”
“Speaking of the party,” said another. “Are you going?”
“Going?” stormed the bully. “Are you crazy? If we went the girls would
take us for scarecrows!”
“It’s funny that other crowd didn’t go to the party,” remarked Grimes.
“Oh, I guess they’d rather play a trick on us than go to any party,” was
Gussic’s comment. “I am of the firm opinion that Ritter, Ruddy and the
whole bunch was in the plot against us.”
“Sure thing,” answered Roy Bock. And then he and his cronies walked
slowly in the direction of Pornell Academy, wondering what they should
say when they got there, and what sort of excuse they should send to the
girls who had been waiting for them.
In the meantime Reff Ritter and his cronies had gotten up and brushed
themselves off. They were considerably astonished to find that Jack and
his chums had come to their rescue.
“Huh! So it’s you!” growled Ritter, with a far from pleasant look on his
face.
“Yes,” said the young major cheerily. “I guess we got here just in the
nick of time, didn’t we?”
“Maybe you did.”
“What’s the row about?” questioned Pepper innocently, but with a side
wink at Andy and Dale.
“About? They tied us up in bags, and——” began Paxton, when a cold look
from Reff Ritter stopped him. “I mean—er—they——”
“Never mind what it was about,” growled Ritter.
“Tied you up in bags, did they?” said Andy. “That was hard luck sure.
How did you escape?”
“I cut my way from the bag with my pocketknife,” said Coulter, ignoring
Ritter’s look. “Those fellows——”
“Say, can’t you keep it to yourself?” demanded the bully of the Hall
sourly. He was afraid Jack and his chums would laugh at him and those
who had suffered with him.
“Ritter, you needn’t tell us anything,” said the young major, drawing
himself up, stiffly. “We did what we could for you, but we don’t expect
either your confidence or your thanks.” He turned to his chums. “Come,
fellows, I fancy we are not wanted here,” and he turned and walked in
the direction of Putnam Hall, with Pepper and the rest at his heels.
Each boy wanted to laugh but each managed to keep a straight face until
a safe distance was covered. Then Pepper had to roll on the ground and
roar, and Andy did the same.
“Oh, Jack!” panted The Imp, when he felt able to speak. “That was the
richest yet—what you said—‘We did what we could for you, but we don’t
expect your thanks!’ Gracious, I thought I’d die when you said it!”
“We’ve got ’em guessing,” said Dale.
“Yes, and I reckon Bock and his gang and Ritter and his cronies will be
enemies for life now,” said Andy.
“Boys, in honor of this occasion, I move we celebrate to-night,” said
Pepper.
“Second the motion,” answered Andy, promptly. “But how is it to be
done?”
“Might each do an extra example in geometry, in honor of the event,”
suggested Jack, with a smile.
“Geometry!” snorted Stuffer. “Not much! Let’s have something to eat!”
“Stuffer’s one idea of celebrating is something to eat,” cried Andy.
“Well, a feast isn’t so bad,” said another cadet.
“Where are we going to get anything?” asked Pepper. “We can’t go to
Cedarville—it’s too late.”
“I have it!” cried Andy. “Let us have an ice-cream festival.”
“That’s easy enough to say, Andy, but where are you going to get the
cream?” asked the young major.
“If some of you will make excuses for me after supper I’ll get the
cream,” answered the acrobatic youth. “I can go to Cedarville and back
in no time on my wheel. But I want some money,” he added, suddenly.
“Poser, the ice-cream man, doesn’t tick anybody.”
“An ice-cream party it is,” said Emerald. “Sure, an’ I could eat some
now, so I could!” And he smacked his lips.
When the cadets got back to Putnam Hall they washed up hastily and then
some of the others turned over to Andy a portion of their spending
money. Andy got a hasty supper, and then, watching his chance, stole
from the mess hall on the sly. His bicycle was in the wagon house, and
mounting this he spun along the highway leading to the town at
record-breaking speed.
“Where did Snow go?” demanded Pluxton Cuddle, when he noticed the vacant
chair.
“Perhaps he wasn’t feeling well,” suggested Pepper. “I noticed he had
his hand to his stomach.”
“He eats too much,” grumbled the new teacher. “All of you boys eat more
than is good for you. After this I shall have to keep an eye on Snow.”
He glared round the table. “Singleton, what is that you have in your
hand?”
“A piece of cake, sir,” answered Stuffer.
“Didn’t you have a piece before, sir?”
“Yes, sir. But I’m hungry and——”
“One piece of cake is enough, Singleton. Put that down and leave the
table.”
“Do you want me to go hungry?” demanded Stuffer, half angrily. The
strenuous events of the afternoon had made him unusually hungry.
“I will not allow a cadet to stuff himself. I do not wonder that some of
the boys have given you the nickname of Stuffer—although I abhor
nicknames. Leave the room, sir!”
“All right, old cat!” grumbled Paul, under his breath, and he marched
out, with Pluxton Cuddle’s eyes glaring after him. In the meantime
Pepper calmly reached over, took half a dozen slices of cake and rolled
them up in a napkin in his lap. Seeing this, Jack did the same. When
Pluxton Cuddle chanced to look at the plate a minute later he stared in
amazement.
“Who took that cake?” he thundered.
To this question all the cadets remained silent.
“Answer me, who took that cake?” he repeated, and looked at each boy in
turn.
“I didn’t,” answered Dale.
“I ate but one piece, Mr. Cuddle!” said Pepper.
“That is all I ate, too,” added Jack.
“Only Stuffer—I mean Singleton—ate more than one piece,” said Bart
Conners.
“Strange! strange! I thought the plate was full of cake,” murmured
Pluxton Cuddle. He glared again at the cadets. “If I find out that any
of you have deceived me I shall punish you severely. Now finish your
suppers!” And he began to munch away vigorously on the dry toast he was
eating. His theory was that a person should eat very little but
masticate that little well, and he sometimes chewed a mouthful of food
thirty or forty times.
When the meal was over, Pepper and Jack slipped the napkins full of cake
under their jackets and left the mess hall. Then they took the cake
upstairs and hid the dainty in a safe place. This done they strolled
down the highway leading to Cedarville, looking for Andy.
“He ought to be coming soon,” remarked the young major, after a half
hour had passed.
They walked a short distance from the Hall and then sat down on a rock
to rest. Here presently Dale and Stuffer joined them.
“Where is Andy?” called out Stuffer. “I am hungry enough to eat that
ice-cream right now.”
“I think something is wrong,” said Jack. “He ought to be back by this
time.”
“What could be wrong, Jack?” asked Pepper.
“I don’t know, but——” The young major paused. “Somehow, I feel that
something serious has happened to Andy!”