ON A FORAGING EXPEDITION
The announcement that Andy made was received with keen interest by all.
Every cadet crowded around to get some of the food brought in and to
learn the particulars of his foraging and exploring expedition.
“Getting down the back stairs was easy,” said the acrobatic youth. “But
once I was in the lower entryway I had to keep my eyes open, to escape
the cook and the waiters. I found the bags on a hook behind the door and
I got the grub from the pantry when nobody was near. I was careful what
I took, for I didn’t want anybody to discover what had been done. I may
want to go back for dinner, you know,” and Andy grinned broadly.
“Andy, you have saved my life!” cried Stuffer, with his mouth full of
bread and cheese. “I shall remember you in my will.”
“Leave some for me,” was the reply. “I am just as hungry as anybody. All
I had in the pantry was one cold sausage and a cracker.”
“Here, we’ll divide the stuff equally,” said Jack, and this was done.
Fortunately the paper bags held quite some food, so there was more than
enough for all.
“It’s a pity we can’t get some of this stuff to the fellows in the next
dormitory,” said Pepper. “I suppose they are as hungry as we are.”
“I’ve got an idea!” cried Dale. “Put all your contributions for the next
room into this bag,” and he held up the receptacle as he spoke.
“How are you going to get it to them?” questioned Henry Lee.
“I have a brand new, patented and copyrighted way,” went on Dale. “Just
fork over, everybody, for the benefit of the heathens in Hungry Land.”
The bag was soon filled with bread, cheese, crackers and chipped beef,
and then Dale tied it fast to the end of a hockey stick. This done, he
went to one of the windows and looked out cautiously. Not one of the
guards below was looking up. He shoved the bag outside and swung it to
the left as far as possible—directly in front of another window.
“Hello, what’s this?” a voice cried, and then the bag was caught and
taken in. Then the head of a cadet appeared. “Much obliged,” he said to
Dale. “Just what we were wishing for. How did you get it?”
“That’s a secret,” answered Dale. “Maybe, if you keep mum, there will be
more coming later.” “Are you fellows going to give in?” went on the
cadet from the next dormitory.
“Never!”
“Just what we’ve decided. We’ve got a plan.”
“What’s that?”
“If we are kept here until to-night we are going to run away.”
“Perhaps we’ll be with you,” answered Dale, and then, as a guard looked
up, he drew in his head.
“That’s a great idea, Dale,” said Jack. “By means of the windows we can
communicate with every dormitory on this side of the building. Queer we
didn’t think of it before.”
“We were too much upset by the talk with Cuddle and Crabtree,” answered
Stuffer.
“Let us pass along some notes and see how the different rooms feel over
this affair,” continued the young major.
Soon the notes were written, each having on it the number of the
dormitory for which it was intended. Then the communications were pinned
to the hockey stick, and by this means passed from one room window to
the next. Thus five rooms were reached, and soon notes began to come
back.
“We are certainly of one mind,” said Jack, after the various
communications had been read. “Everybody says, ‘No surrender!’ That’s
plain enough.”
“Barringer’s room is giving out apples,” said Bart. “That’s not so bad.
I shouldn’t mind an apple myself.”
“They are all waiting for food, and I suppose it is up to us to supply
them with some,” continued Jack. “I have half a mind to go down myself
and look around.”
“I’ll go with you,” put in Pepper. “I am tired of being boxed in here.”
“Well, be careful, or you’ll give the snap away,” cautioned Andy. “Some
of the steps of the back stairs squeak terribly. I left my shoes in the
trunk room when I went down.”
“We’ll leave them here,” answered The Imp, and took off the footwear
then and there, and Jack did likewise.
It was no easy thing to climb through the ceiling opening into the trunk
room, and once above they had to feel their way through the darkness to
the door. Pepper stubbed his toe on a trunk and drew a sharp breath of
pain.
“Hurt?” whispered Jack.
“No, but I put an awful dent in the trunk,” was the joking reply. “Let
us get a candle when we go down. I hate this darkness.”
With bated breath the two cadets walked out into the deserted hall and
then down the back stairs. Once they heard somebody close at hand slam a
door and their hearts leaped into their throats.
“If anybody sees us, run like mad for the trunk room and fasten the door
somehow,” said Jack. “We don’t want a soul to know what we are up to. If
we can get food we can stand Cuddle and Crabtree off indefinitely.”
At last the boys reached the back entryway, and through a crack of the
door peered into the kitchen. Nobody was present, and the big pantry was
also deserted, and so was the mess hall.
“We’ve got it all to ourselves!” whispered Pepper joyfully. “Jack, this
is a cinch, a picnic! Let us take up all the food we can carry!”
“Here is just what we want,” replied the major, and took from a hook two
big waiters’ aprons. “We can bundle up a lot of stuff in these.”
“And here are two fresh tins of crackers, ten pounds in each tin. We
must take these by all means—and that fresh chunk of cheese!”
“You take what you can carry to the trunk room,” answered Jack. “I’ll
hunt up something a little more appetizing.”
While Pepper was on his errand the young major made a careful survey of
the pantry, and into a wooden box he found there placed a freshly-boiled
ham, some cold roast beef, several loaves of bread, some butter, three
bottles of pickles, some cans of sardines and some bottles of milk.
Then, from a barrel, he filled a wash basin with apples.
“This will do for the present, I’m thinking,” he said, as he surveyed
the stuff. “Now for a candle and some matches,” and he procured them.
He carried the wooden box on his shoulder and Pepper came down and got
the apples, and also two loaf cakes which had been baked the day before,
and some knives, forks and several glasses and tin plates.
“You’d think we were getting ready for the annual encampment,” said The
Imp, while he and Jack were on the way upstairs with the last of the
things.
“Listen!” exclaimed the young major, suddenly. “Somebody is coming!”
“It’s the cook!” gasped Pepper, as he caught sight of a well-known
figure coming along the upper hallway. “Jack, what shall we do?”
“I—I don’t know! We’ll have to run past her, I guess.”
“We can’t do it—the hall is too narrow.”
The cook came closer, and the two cadets turned back and tried to crouch
out of sight in a doorway. The boys’ hearts were, figuratively speaking,
in their throats.
But just as the cook was almost on them she paused and turned back.
“Oh dear, I meant to bring that clean apron down!” the cadets heard her
murmur, and then she passed out of sight.
“What a lucky escape,” gasped Pepper.
“Don’t stop any longer—get up to the trunk room before it is too late,”
urged his chum, and together they sped on as if a ghost was at their
heels. Having arrived there they shut the door and pulled a trunk in
front of it, first, however, lighting the candle, that they might not
break anything.
It took some time to transfer all the food to the dormitory below. The
quantity made all the boys smile, and Stuffer’s eyes fairly glistened.
“This is the best yet,” said the youth who loved to eat. “Say, isn’t it
most dinner time?”
“I wish Bob Grenwood was in this room,” said Jack. “I’d appoint him
quartermaster once more—to divide the rations.”
“Make me quartermaster,” pleaded Stuffer.
“He’ll be sure to look out for No. 1!” said Fred, with a laugh.
“This food is to be divided among all the rooms we can reach,” said
Jack. “And it is to be a fair division, too.”
The division then commenced, and for the best part of an hour the cadets
were busy, passing stuff from one window to another. They had to do this
with care, so that none of the guards on the campus might discover what
was going on.
“And now for dinner!” cried Pepper, as he looked at his watch and saw
that it was twelve o’clock. “Boys, I think we can all be truly thankful
for the good things provided.”
“So we can,” answered Dale.
At that moment there sounded footsteps in the hallway and then came a
knock on the door.