A COUNCIL OF WAR
Almost unable to believe my eyes, I gazed fixedly at the damp, bare
spots of ground where our dear old cannons had rested for so long a
time. Like all the students at Belmont I had grown so accustomed to the
old pieces of artillery, and they had become so intimately associated
with my college life, that I had learned to look upon them as a part of
the institution itself, and I could not get used to the fact that they
were gone――that the two Belmont cannons had actually been moved away,
and that I was simply staring at vacancy. It all seemed so unreal, that
for a moment I wondered whether I was awake or dreaming. As if in echo
to my thoughts, I heard Dick Palmer’s voice beside me.
“The old cannons gone! Why, it doesn’t seem like Belmont College now.”
“No,” answered Tony Larcom, “it isn’t the same place at all. The campus
looks as if it had had two big front teeth pulled out.”
“Then we must set about refilling the cavities,” said some one.
We looked around.
Clinton Edwards was standing with his hand on Ray Wendell’s shoulder.
It was to Ray in particular that he addressed the words. Ray said
nothing.
Edwards shook Ray’s shoulder slightly.
“Well, what do you think of it?” he asked.
“It staggers me,” answered Ray slowly. “Who could have taken them?
Where have they gone?”
“To Park College,” said Edwards.
My heart leaped at these words. Vague suspicions that had been haunting
my mind for days past now suddenly became confirmed.
“How do you know the cannons are there?” questioned Ray as he started
and turned around.
“Isn’t it clear enough?” responded Edwards. “Remember that threatening
letter, and the ‘positive stand’ they said they had determined to take
in the matter. Who would take the cannons but the Park men? If you want
further proof, do as I did an hour ago――follow the deep wheel tracks
down to the dock by the boathouse, and then ask old Jerry Bunce about
the steam tug which he saw coming down from Berkeley night before last.”
“Oh, it is all too clear now,” I burst out. “Everything is
explained――the letter, and those two fellows whom I frightened away
from the cannons the night of the mass meeting. They were undoubtedly a
reconnoitering party from Berkeley――and then that fellow who stared me
out of face on the piazza of the Wyman House――he must have been one of
them, and overheard my words to Slade about the bruise on my forehead.”
There was a silence in the group for a few seconds. Attracted by our
words the greater part of the crowd had by this time gathered closely
about us. From a noisy, clamorous indignation meeting the crowd
gradually shaped itself into a council of war, of which we formed the
center.
Of this council, Clinton Edwards was one of the ruling spirits.
No student in Belmont possessed more college feeling or was more
vigorously patriotic than Edwards. He was an active leader in all that
concerned the best interests of the students.
Another prominent member of our group was Percy Randall, fully as
patriotic a student as Edwards, but more reckless. Randall was a jolly
scamp, nearly always in some scrape or other, very generally liked
and admired on account of his dashing, happy go lucky manner, and the
chosen head of a select set of mischief makers that kept the college
constantly guessing what would happen next. At a moment like this
Randall was in his element, and the contemptible trick that the Park
men had played upon us made the fellows only too eager to accept a
leadership like his.
“Of all the mean, dastardly, cowardly pieces of work this is the
worst,” he exclaimed. “Just think of it, fellows; like a lot of
pusillanimous sneaks they steal over here by night, in vacation time,
while we are away, and drag off our cannons. Oh, I wish a few of us had
been here. It would have taken only about fifteen or twenty of us to
have cleaned out half their college.”
“They wouldn’t have come had there been any of us here. Even proctor
Murray was on his vacation,” said Edwards. “It was a mean piece of
work, but they planned it well, and here we are without our cannons.”
“But we’re not going to sit down and nurse the loss,” exclaimed
Randall. “There is only one thing to do in my mind.”
“And in mine too,” echoed Edwards quietly.
“And that is?” asked Dick Palmer.
“Go and bring them back!” cried Randall.
There was a roar of applause.
“And how shall we do it?” asked one.
“How!” answered Randall boldly. “How! There is only one way. Organize a
party, go over to Berkeley, and take the cannons away from them.”
“And bring the whole college down on us in a mass?” said Edwards.
“Who cares?” exclaimed Randall. “Let them come down, and we will wipe
out the whole gang of them. I’d like nothing better than a chance like
that. We’ll teach them to meddle with Belmont College men.”
“All well enough in spirit, Percy, but it _won’t work_. We can’t get
the cannons that way,” said Edwards.
“Do you mean to say you’re going to sit tamely by and do nothing?”
asked Randall.
“No.”
“Will you go over to Berkeley?”
“Yes, but not in the way you propose,” answered Edwards.
“Any way then, just so we go,” said Randall.
Edwards was looking at Ray Wendell. He knew what an influence Ray’s
voice would exert, and he felt sure of Ray’s feelings in the matter.
“Will you join us?” he asked.
“Join whom and what?”
“I propose that we organize a party of say fifty――it would be hard to
handle more――go over to Berkeley this very night late, search out those
cannons, take them from right under the snoring noses of those Park
men, and bring them back.”
“How shall we carry them?”
“Easily enough; by boat as they did. We can hire Jerry Bunce’s
excursion boat for the night for twenty five or thirty dollars. We will
go down the river to the landing near Park College, search for the
cannons right on their campus, where no doubt they are, and drag them
down to the boat, loose our moorings, and off we’ll go. There, what do
you think of that?”
Ray’s face was flushing with excitement. His anger at the outrage
perpetrated upon us, his feeling of college honor, and his love of
adventure, combined, left him no room for hesitation.
“I will go,” he said promptly. “I only waited for some clearly defined
plan. Your idea is a good one. I believe we can make it a success.”
“Then you’ll join us?” said Edwards quickly.
“Yes, by all means.”
“Good, and you too?” he continued looking at Tony, Dick Palmer, and
myself. We assented at once.
“Who else?” called out Edwards.
A chorus of voices responded eagerly.
“This won’t do,” said Ray. “We can’t go over in a mob, without
discipline. That would spoil our chances. We must pick out and organize
a regular party as Edwards proposed, and fifty would be enough. Who
will make up the company?”
“Let Percy Randall look after that,” suggested Edwards, “and we can
arrange the other details. First let us see Jerry Bunce and obtain
the use of his boat. We will fix the hour of departure at eleven
o’clock to-night――not at our dock, for proctor Murray will be back
this afternoon and he would see us. We will have the boat anchored
around the bend down the river just beyond Packer’s woods, and the
fellows must go through the town by twos and threes so as not to arouse
suspicion. There will be a rowboat at the shore to take us aboard――――”
“Hold on, Edwards,” said I. “Suppose you can’t get the steamer? You
speak as if it was definitely arranged.”
“I do so,” he answered, “in order that we may not have to meet again.
I don’t think there will be any trouble about the steamer, but if
there is any change of plan, Percy Randall can let his men know. Since
we have made up our minds, we had better not linger around here any
more.” Then, turning to Percy, he added: “Pick out fifty or sixty of
the strongest fellows and have them on hand at eleven o’clock sharp.”
“All right,” answered Randall, “and now, fellows, those of you that
don’t happen to be chosen must not be disappointed. You can all see
that this is the best plan, and that a large mob would spoil it. If you
lie awake to-night you’ll probably see some fun when we get back.”
“Come now, fellows, let us disperse,” said Ray. “There is nothing to
be gained by standing around here any longer. We will only betray our
plans.”
At this the crowd quickly broke up, and the campus soon resumed its
usual aspect――with that one marked exception――the absence of the old
cannons, a change more noticeable than ever now that the throng had
dispersed.
“Perhaps we had better satisfy ourselves at once about the boat,” said
Edwards. “Suppose we go down to see old Jerry?”
Accordingly Ray, Tony, Dick, and I accompanied Edwards down to the
small shanty in which Jerry Bunce lived, situated on the shore of the
lake, some distance from the boat house dock.
Jerry Bunce was at home, but at first, to our consternation, would not
listen to our proposition.
“I ain’t a goin’ to hev no wild crowd o’ students a playin’ the
mischief with my boat,” he said emphatically.
It required considerable argument to convince him that we would do the
boat no harm. He feared all manner of trouble from the expedition, and
raised objection after objection. Edwards, however, had set his mind
on having the boat, and he had a persuasive and convincing manner that
eventually overcame old Jerry’s opposition.
“Wall, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” he said at length. “If ye must hev
the boat to-night, and you’ll do it no harm, I’ll let it to ye fer
fifty dollars――not a cent less.”
We closed with him gladly at this figure, and the bargain was soon
completed. The steamer was to be ready at the place arranged that night
at eleven o’clock.