ANDY SNOW’S DISCOVERY
Leaving the windows, the cadets went back to the doors leading to the
hallway. They again called up the man on guard there and asked for
Josiah Crabtree.
“We must speak to him,” said Jack. “And if you won’t call him we’ll all
rush the doors, break them down, and—well, you know what to expect.”
At first the man wanted to argue again, but presently he became
frightened and blew a whistle he carried. Then the cadets heard
footsteps approaching.
“What do you want?” came in Josiah Crabtree’s sharp voice.
“They want to talk to you,” answered the guard doggedly. “Said they’d
break down the doors if I didn’t call you.”
“They’ll not dare to do it!” cried the teacher.
“Yes, we will dare!” shouted several of the boys who heard the remark.
“Mr. Crabtree, what is the meaning of this?” demanded Jack, in a loud,
clear voice.
“It means that I am going to keep you in your rooms until you learn how
to behave yourselves,” was the cold answer.
“What about breakfast?”
“You can have something to eat when you come downstairs.”
“Then let us come down now,” put in Stuffer.
“Not a cadet shall leave these rooms until he has apologized to Mr.
Cuddle and myself and given his word of honor that he will in the future
do precisely as he is told,” said Josiah Crabtree, in the overbearing,
dictatorial tone he so often employed in the classroom.
“Apologize!” gasped a number of the cadets.
“That is what I said.”
“I’ll not apologize!” murmured Fred.
“Not in a year of Mondays,” added Dale. “I don’t know that I did
anything to apologize for. He and Cuddle started the row.”
“Mr. Crabtree, I demand my breakfast!” cried Stuffer. “I am entitled to
it—my folks have paid for it—and I am not going to let you swindle me
out of it.”
“Swindle you!” gasped the teacher, in a rage. “Such language! To me! me!
Ha! boy, wait till I get my hands on you!”
“Mr. Crabtree, I think you’ll find it best to let us out and give us our
breakfast,” continued the young major. “You certainly can’t intend to
starve us.”
“We do intend to starve you, until you come to your senses,” said
another voice in the hallway. It was Pluxton Cuddle who had come up. “As
I have said many times, you eat too much and it has made you saucy,
impudent and unreasonable. An empty stomach may bring you to your
senses.”
“It may make us desperate,” murmured Stuffer. “I am not going to let
anybody starve me!”
During this talk there had been considerable pounding on the doors of
various other dormitories. Evidently the great majority of the cadets
were held prisoners in their rooms. Now Josiah Crabtree went off to talk
at another door, and was followed by the new teacher.
“Boys, I want you to come to order!” called out Jack, to the cadets of
the two rooms that adjoined each other.
“Going to hand around sandwiches?” questioned Stuffer, dolefully. “If
you are, give me about six!”
“Pull up your belt, Stuffer,” was the answer, with a smile. “If you
don’t get breakfast to-day you may get it to-morrow.”
“I’ll have breakfast to-day—or pull down the Hall!” said the youth who
loved to eat.
“The question is, What are we going to do?” said Jack, in a loud voice.
“Mr. Crabtree wants us to apologize and promise to do exactly as we are
told in the future. What have you to say to his proposition?”
“No apologies!” was the cry.
“No promises to do just whatever he wants,” added Dale. “He is too
unreasonable.”
“That’s it!” said Fred.
“Tell him we are willing to return to our lessons and behave ourselves,”
said Bart Conners. “And add that we are willing to leave the question of
punishment for what has happened to Captain Putnam.”
“That’s the talk!” said several.
“And if he won’t give in, sure, we can break down the dures, bedad!”
came from Emerald. “We can have a regular Donnybrook Fair time, so we
can!”
“If possible we ought to keep from further quarrels,” said Jack. “Let us
arbitrate if it can possibly be done.”
So it was finally decided, and again Josiah Crabtree and Pluxton Cuddle
were called to one of the doors of the two rooms. In a calm voice Jack
explained to the teachers and pleaded that the whole matter be allowed
to rest until Captain Putnam’s return. He said he would vouch for it
that the boys would go back to their studies just as if nothing out of
the ordinary had happened. He added, that he thought it was a disgrace
to bring the strange men to the Hall as guards and he asked that they be
dismissed.
It was with difficulty that Josiah Crabtree and Pluxton Cuddle could be
made to listen. The two instructors had talked the matter over between
them, and the unreasonableness of the one was bolstered up by the other.
They refused to listen to any argument, and stuck by the proposition
Josiah Crabtree had first laid down.
“And not a mouthful of food shall any cadet have until he does as we
demand,” said Crabtree.
“And if you try to break out you’ll do it at your peril,” added Pluxton
Cuddle. And then the two teachers gave the guards in the hallways some
instructions in whispers, and went below again.
It would be hard to define the feelings of the cadets when they were
left alone once more. Some wanted to break down the doors at once, while
others spoke of climbing out of the windows, using knotted-together
bedsheets for that purpose. Still others advised waiting to see what
might turn up.
“We can all do without our breakfast,” said Jack. “And we can go without
dinner, too, if we have to.”
“Maybe you can, but I can’t,” groaned Stuffer.
“I think old Crabtree wants us to break down the doors and do as much
damage to the building as possible,” said Andy. “Then he’ll be able to
prove to Captain Putnam what a lot of ruffians we are.”
“Maybe you are right,” answered Dale. “I agree with Jack, let us go slow
and see what happens.”
“I wonder how Reff Ritter and his crowd are taking it,” said Henry Lee.
“Coulter won’t want to go without his breakfast,” answered Andy. “He is
the greatest feeder in the school. He eats even more than Stuffer.”
“Reff Ritter can eat his share, too,” said Bart.
“Ritter is responsible for a good deal of this trouble,” went on Dave
Kearney. “He made old Crabtree boiling mad by throwing the inkwell, and
he started the throwing of things in the mess room.”
It was a dreary wait in the dormitories, and the majority of the boys
did not know what to do with themselves. Joe Nelson started to study but
soon gave it up. One lad had some dominoes and several cadets played a
dozen games or more.
While this was going on Jack walked around the two rooms and looked into
the various clothing closets. Presently an idea struck him and he called
Andy to his side. The two entered one of the closets, and the acrobatic
youth got up on a shelf and pulled loose a board of the ceiling. Then he
wormed his way through the opening made.
“What is Andy doing?” asked Pepper, coming up.
“Why, I remembered the board ceiling in this closet,” answered Jack. “I
wondered what was above it. Andy is such a gymnast I sent him up to
investigate.”
It was so dark beyond the hole that little or nothing could be seen.
Andy was gone over quarter of an hour. Then his head appeared and he
called softly.
“Jack!”
“Well, have you discovered anything?” asked the young major, eagerly.
“Have I discovered anything? Well, I just guess yes!” was the reply.
“I’ve made the greatest discovery of the century!”
“What?”
“Here, take these bags first. I would have brought more, only I couldn’t
carry them.”
And then, to the amazement of the cadets who assembled in the clothing
closet and near the doorway, the acrobatic youth passed down four large
paper bags, each filled with something to eat. Then he came down
himself, closing the opening in the ceiling after him.
“Tell us, Jack, where does the hole lead to?” asked Dale.
“That hole leads to one end of the trunk room,” was the answer. “The
door to the trunk room was unlocked, and from there I passed to a back
hallway and down a back stairs to the kitchen and pantry. Fellows, we’ve
got Crabtree and Cuddle beaten a mile! We can get all the grub we
want—and have our liberty too!”