THE CADETS OF PUTNAM HALL
It was true, the team was running away. One of the horses was a spirited
animal and he now had the bit in his teeth. The boys in the rear of the
turnout looked back, to see Peleg Snuggers still lying in the highway.
The stage belonging to Pornell Academy had turned down a side road.
"Can't you stop them, Andy?" asked Jack Ruddy.
"I don't see how," was the answer from the youth on the front seat. "I
can't get hold of the lines."
"We must stop 'em somehow!" cried Fred Century. "Otherwise we'll have a
smash-up, sure!"
"Whoa! whoa!" yelled half a dozen, but these cries only served to scare
the team more, and away they shot along the country road, sending the
carryall swaying from side to side.
"Look! look!" yelled Andy, suddenly. "The regular road is shut off! They
are repairing it!"
The boys gazed ahead and saw that some wooden horses and planking had
been placed across the highway. This side of the barrier some bars had
been taken from a fence, so that those using the road might drive
around, through an orchard belonging to a farmer named Darrison.
"We are going to strike those planks!" cried Dale Blackmore.
"Maybe the team will try to jump them!" came from Fred.
"If they do, they'll smash the carryall sure!" answered Pepper. "Perhaps
we had better drop out at the rear."
"Look out!" sang out somebody, and just then the carryall left the
highway and turned into the orchard. Then came a scraping, as the top of
the turnout hit the low-hanging branches of some apple trees.
"Whoa! stop that wagon!" yelled a man's voice, and Amos Darrison
appeared from among the trees. He made a leap for the team, but they
swerved to one side. Then came a crash, as one of the wheels caught in a
stump. Over went the carryall, with the boys in it. Andy, quick to act,
used his acrobatic abilities by leaping into the branches of a nearby
tree. Then the farmer caught the team and stopped them.
"Anybody hurt?" was Pepper's question, as he crawled out of the wreck.
"I'm all right," answered Fred.
"I got a twisted ankle, that's all," came from Dale, as he limped out.
"Look at Jack!" cried several. "He's hurt!"
All looked and saw the young major of the school battalion lying flat on
his back in the front of the carryall. He had a nasty cut on the temple
and his eyes were closed.
"He is dead!" murmured Pepper, hoarsely.
"Oh, don't say that!" said Andy, in sudden terror. He had just dropped
to the ground.
"If he ain't dead he's putty badly hurted," said the farmer who owned
the orchard.
Pepper caught his chum in his arms and brought him out and laid him on
the grass.
"He is still breathing!" he cried. "Get some water and we'll bathe his
face. Maybe that will bring him around."
"I'll get the water!" exclaimed Dale, and ran towards a well located at
the side of the orchard.
To those who have read the other volumes in this "Putnam Hall Series,"
the lads already mentioned will need no special introduction. For the
benefit of others, let me state that Jack Ruddy and Pepper Ditmore were
close chums, living, when at home, in the western part of New York
State. Jack was slightly the older of the two and was of rather a
serious turn of mind. Pepper was full of fun, and on that account was
frequently called "The Imp."
As related in my first volume, entitled "The Putnam Hall Cadets," the
lads left home to become cadets at a new institution of learning located
on Cayuga Lake. This new school was presided over by Captain Victor
Putnam, a retired army officer, who had modeled his institution somewhat
after the famous military academy at West Point. It was a large school,
ideally located on the shore of the lake, and had attached to it a
gymnasium, a boathouse, and several other buildings. On the lower floor
of the main building were the classrooms, the mess-hall, and the
offices, and upstairs were the dormitories.
Arriving at the school, Jack and Pepper soon made a host of friends,
including the acrobatic Andy Snow; Dale Blackmore, who was a great
football player; Paul Singleton, who was usually called "Stuffer"
because of his constant desire to eat; Joseph Hogan, commonly addressed
as "Emerald" because of his Irish blood, and Joe Nelson, who was one of
the best scholars the school ever had. They also made some enemies, the
greatest of them being Reff Ritter, the big bully, and Gus Coulter and
Nick Paxton, his cronies.
Not long after the students learned how to drill and to march they were
allowed to ballot for officers. A bitter contest was waged, which
resulted in Jack being chosen major of the Hall battalion. A bully named
Dan Baxter had wanted to be major, and he bribed Gus Coulter and some
others to vote for him, but without avail. It may be added here that
Baxter was now away on a vacation, but had written that he was going to
return to the school before long.
During their first term at Putnam Hall the chums had several adventures,
not the least of which was one in the woods, where they rescued George
Strong, one of the teachers, from two of his relatives who were insane.
Mr. Strong's ancestry dated back to the Revolution, and he told the
cadets about a family treasure buried in the vicinity of the lake. How
the boys went in search of the treasure, and how they had numerous other
adventures, was related in the second volume of this series, called "The
Putnam Hall Rivals."
With the coming of the next summer, the thoughts of the students turned
to various sports, and in the third volume, "The Putnam Hall Champions,"
I told how the chums entered several contests, both on land and on the
lake, and won out. At that time Fred Century was a pupil at Pornell
Academy, but Fred became so disgusted at the actions of Roy Bock, Bat
Sedley, and some others, that he quit the rival institution of learning
and came to Putnam Hall, where he was given a warm welcome.
The encounters that Jack and his chums had with Reff Ritter and his
cronies were numerous, and more than once Ritter did his best to get the
young major into serious trouble. Once he drugged Jack with some French
headache powders, and when he was exposed Captain Putnam would have
expelled him had not Jack very generously asked that he be given another
chance. For this any ordinary youth would have been grateful, but
gratitude did not appear to be a part of Reff Ritter's make-up, and he
soon showed himself to be as mean as ever.
For some time matters ran along smoothly at Putnam Hall, but then came
trouble of an entirely new kind. Once, during the absence of Captain
Putnam and George Strong, the school was left in charge of two other
teachers--Josiah Crabtree and Pluxton Cuddle. Crabtree was dictatorial
to a degree and Cuddle was a man of queer ideas, one being that boys ate
entirely too much.
As told in the volume called "The Putnam Rebellion," the two teachers
sought to subdue the boys by starving them and locking them in their
dormitories. They rebelled, left the school by stealth, and marched
away, to camp in the woods. There the rebels split up, one party under
Major Jack and the other under Ritter. At last Captain Putnam put in an
appearance, and Major Jack explained matters. As a consequence, the
cadets went back to the Hall, and then Josiah Crabtree and Pluxton were
called on to explain. Crabtree was retained, after a stern lecture from
the master of the school, but Cuddle was discharged.
It was Captain Putnam's custom to take his students out once or twice a
year to what was called an encampment--the lads marching to some spot
where they could pitch their tents and go in for a touch of real army
life, with target shooting, sham battles, and the like. In the next
volume of the series, called "The Putnam Hall Encampment," I told how
the cadets left the Hall and marched to a distant lake. Their camping
outfit was sent ahead by wagons, but the wagons got lost, and were
finally found in the possession of Roy Bock and some other students of
Pornell, they having made off with them while the drivers were in a
roadhouse obtaining refreshments. For this trick, Pepper and some of the
others got after the Pornellites and made them prisoners in a cave, from
which they could escape only by going out a back way, through some
water and mud, and thorny bushes.
While they were playing a certain trick in Cedarville, Jack and Pepper
fell in with a youth named Bert Field. He was a queer lad, but did the
chums a good turn, and in return they promised to help him. He was
trying to locate a certain old man who was defrauding him out of some
property. The old man was discovered during a visit to a mysterious mill
said to be haunted, and by the chums' aid Bert Field got what was coming
to him. It was thought best to send Bert to school, and he said he
wanted to go to Putnam Hall.
"We'll be glad to have him with us," said Jack, and so it was settled.
Following the encampment had come the regular summer vacation, and the
cadets had scattered far and wide, Jack and Pepper going for a cruise
around the Great Lakes, and Andy and Dale going to Asbury Park and
Atlantic City. Reff Ritter had started for a summer in the Adirondacks,
but unexpected word from home, of which more will be said later, had
caused him to give up the outing.