FOILING A PLOT
"Save me! Save me!" yelled Adrian Bagot.
"I'm drowning!" screamed Ed Simpson.
"I'm sinking!" shouted John Higley.
The three conspirators were floundering about in the water. Because
of the rope nooses about their feet their efforts to stand upright
were not entirely successful.
"Who did this?" inquired Bagot angrily, as he tried to get rid of a
mouthful of water.
"If--if I-I die they'll hang for this!" spluttered Ed Simpson.
"No danger of your drowning, you're too mean," said Jack. "Besides
it's only up to your knees. Stand up and wade out."
By this time the three lads, their clothing dripping with water, had
managed to stand upright. They reached down under the dancing
wavelets and loosened the nooses.
"You'll pay for this, Jack Ranger," shouted Adrian, shaking his fist
at our hero.
"All right, I'm ready whenever you are," was the cool answer. "Come
on, fellows, we don't want to be late for the lecture," and he
started from the water, followed by his chums.
"I'll have you arrested for damaging my clothes," exclaimed Ed.
"And I suppose you'd tell on the witness stand about what you
intended to do to ours," went on Jack. "I guess you'll cry 'quits,'
that's what you'll do. You tried to play a trick on us, but you got
left. So long. Don't miss the lecture."
He scrambled ashore, his comrades doing likewise, while the three
lads who had taken such an unexpected bath waded out as best they
could. They were sorry looking sights.
"But I don't exactly un-d-d-d-erstand how it it h-h-h-appened?"
stuttered Will, who had not had hold of one of the ropes.
"I just made slip nooses, and placed them where they'd have to step
into them before they could lay hands on the clothes," explained
Jack. "Budge gave me the signal when they were inside the ropes."
"And then we just pulled," put in Nat. "Wow! It was a corker, Jack!
How did you think of it?"
"It just happened to come to me. Say didn't they come down off that
bank sailing, though?"
"I pulled as if I was landing a ten pound pickerel," said Fred. "I
wonder who I had."
"Didn't stop to notice," Jack said, as he slipped on his coat. "They
all came together. What a splash they made!"
By this time the three conspirators had crawled up the bank. They
were so soaking wet that it was hard to walk. Their shoes "squashed"
out water at every step. They sat down on the grass, took them off,
and removed some of their garments, which they proceeded to wring
out.
"Better hurry up," advised Jack, as he finished dressing. "Lecture
begins in about two hours, and you're quite a way from home."
"I'll--" began Ed Simpson, when Adrian stopped him with a gesture.
"Sorry we have to leave you," Sam went on. "If you'd sent your cards
we would have had the water warmed for you. Hope you didn't find it
too chilly."
The three cronies did not reply, but went on trying to get as much
water as possible from their garments. Leaving them sitting on the
grass, as the afternoon waned into evening, the swimmers hurried back
to the academy.
When the roll was called at the evening lecture, which was at an
early hour, Jack and his friends replied "here!"
For a week or more after the episode at the lake, matters at the
academy went on in a rather more even tenor than was usual. One night
Sam, who finished his studying early went to Jack's room.
"Boning away?" he asked.
"Just finishing my Caesar," was the reply. "Why, anything on?"
"Nothing special," replied Sam. "Do you feel anything queer in your
bones?"
"Not so much as a touch of fever and ague," replied Jack with a
laugh. "Do you need quinine?"
"Quit your fooling. I mean don't you feel as if you wanted to do
something?"
"Oh I'm always that way, more or less," Jack admitted. "I'm not
taking anything for it, though."
"I'd like to take a stroll," said Sam. "I think that would quiet me
down. I feel just as if something was going to happen."
"Probably something will, if we go out at this hour," Jack said.
"It's against the rules."
"I know it is, but it wouldn't be the first time you or I did it.
Come on, let's go out. Down the trellis, the way you did when you
discovered Grimm smoking."
"I don't know," began Jack.
"Of course you don't," interrupted Sam. "I'll attend to all that.
Come on."
Needing no more urging, Jack laid aside his book, turned his light
low, and soon he and Sam were cautiously making their way from Jack's
window, along a trellis and drain pipe to the ground.
"There!" exclaimed Sam, as he dropped lightly to the earth. "I feel
better already. Some of the restlessness has gone."
"Keep shady," muttered Jack. "Some of the teachers have rooms near
here."
They walked along under the shadow of the Hall until they came to a
window from which a brilliant light streamed forth. It came from a
crack between the lowered shade and the casement. It was impossible
to pass it without seeing what was going on inside the apartment. At
the same time they could hear the murmur of voices.
"Adrian Bagot, and his two cronies up to some trick!" whispered Jack,
as he grasped Sam by the arm.
The two friends saw the three new students bending over a table,
containing a pot of something, which they seemed to be stirring with
a long stick.
"What are they up to?" whispered Sam.
"Experimenting with chemicals, perhaps," said Jack.
"Don't you believe it," retorted Sam. "They're up to some game, you
can bet. I wonder if we can't get wise to what it is."
Cautiously they drew nearer to the window. They found it was open a
crack.
"Will it make much of an explosion?" asked Ed Simpson.
"Hardly any," replied Higley. "Only a puff and lots of smoke, but it
will leave its mark all right, and I guess those fresh friends of
Jack Ranger's will laugh on the other corner of their mouths."
"I'd like to get even with them before the term closes," put in
Adrian.
"We'll do it all right," went on Ed.
"Don't be too sure of that," whispered Jack.
It did not require much effort on the part of Jack and Sam to
understand what the three conspirators were up to. Their
conversation, which floated through the opened window, and their
references to certain localities put the two listeners in possession
of the whole scheme.
"Well, if that isn't the limit," said Jack in a whisper. "I wouldn't
believe they'd dare to do it."
"How can we foil their plans?" asked Sam.
"Hark, some one is coming," said Jack, dropping down on his hands and
knees, an example which Sam followed. Then came a cautious signal, a
whistle.
"It's John Smith, my Indian friend!" exclaimed Jack. "He must have
just got back," for the half-breed had been away for a few weeks, as
one of his relatives was ill. Jack sounded a cautious whistle in
reply, and soon the Indian student was at his side. There were
hurried greetings, and Jack soon explained the situation.
"Let me think it over a minute," said John Smith. "It takes me rather
suddenly."
For a few seconds John remained in deep thought. Then he exclaimed:
"I think I have it. Have you any chemicals in your room, Jack?"
"Plenty," was the answer. "I've been boning on that lately, and I got
a fresh supply from the laboratory the other day to experiment with."
"Then I think we'll make these chaps open their eyes."
The three friends hurried to Jack's room, where they were busy for
some time, behind carefully drawn shades. At the end of about two
hours, Jack, who had been keeping watch from a window, exclaimed:
"There they go with the stuff. It's time we got a move on."
"They'll not set it off until midnight," spoke Sam, "That's what they
said. We'll have time enough to do what we are going to."
The three friends worked hurriedly. When they had finished they had
several packages. Down the trellis they went and out on the campus,
which was shrouded in darkness.
They made their way to the foot of a statue of George Washington,
which stood on a broad base in front of the school. There stood the
Father of His Country, with outstretched arms, as if warning invaders
away from the precincts of learning.
"They've been here!" said Sam in a whisper.
He pointed to some straggling black lines at the base of the figure,
and to a thin thing like a string: which led over the grass toward
the room of Adrian Bagot.
"They've put our initials in powder here," said Jack. "Trying to
throw the blame on us when it goes off."
"We'll soon fix that," replied Sam. The three boys made some rapid
movements around the statue, and then cut the thin thing which led to
the room of young Bagot.
"I guess when he touches off that fuse he'll wonder what has
happened," observed John Smith.
"Have you enough of the other fuse?" asked Jack.
"Plenty," replied the Indian student. "Have you changed the
initials?"
"Every one," said Sam.
"Then I think we can go back," said John. "Take care of my fuse.
Don't get tangled up in it."
The boys made their way quietly to a spot just under the window of
Bagot's room. There they placed what seemed to be a piece of board.
"Now back to your room, and wait until they start the fun," said
John.
The three friends had not long to wait. A little after midnight they
heard Bagot's window cautiously open. There was the sound of a match
striking, and then Sam called to Jack:
"Let her go!"
A second later a thin trail of fire spurted along
the ground from the sporty student's room. It was followed by a
larger one from the foot of the trellis by which Jack had descended.
A few seconds later it seemed as if a Fourth of July celebration was
in progress.
Sparks of fire ran along to the statue of the first President. Then
there was a puff of smoke, and in front of the hero of the Revolution
there shot up dancing flames.
At the same time there sounded several sharp explosions, as though
the British were firing on the Minute Men at Lexington, and the
latter were replying as fast as they could load and discharge their
flintlocks.
Windows began to go up here and there, and heads were thrust forth.
"What is it?" "What's the matter?" "Are there burglars?" were some of
the cries.
Brighter now burned the fire at the foot of the statue, which was
enveloped in a cloud of flame and smoke, and, had the original been
alive he must have delighted in the baptism of gunpowder.
Then there came a louder explosion. It was followed by a shower of
sparks, and a trail of sparks began running along the ground, toward
the college.
An instant later there blazed forth on a board as on an illuminated
sign, in front of the room of Adrian Bagot the words in letters of
fire:
WE DID IT.
Underneath, in smaller characters were the initials;
"A.B. E.S. J.H."
"Wait until Dr. Mead sees that," said Jack, as he looked out on the
campus, which was now a scene of brilliancy.