THEY PACKED AWAY NEARLY EVERY TROPHY THE ROOM CONTAINED.—_Page 249._
_The Putnam Hall Champions._]
THE PUTNAM HALL
CHAMPIONS
_Or, Bound to Win Out_
BY
ARTHUR M. WINFIELD
AUTHOR OF “THE PUTNAM HALL CADETS,” “THE PUTNAM HALL RIVALS,” “THE ROVER
BOYS SERIES,” ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1908, by
EDWARD STRATEMEYER.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A Race on the Lake 1
II. What the Wind Did 11
III. About a Gymnastic Contest 22
IV. Shortcake and Lemonade 32
V. The Interview in the Office 43
VI. Andy Snow’s Victory 54
VII. At the Drug Store 64
VIII. A Scare on the Road 75
IX. The Inspection 85
X. What Happened to Jack 96
XI. A Challenge from Pornell Academy 106
XII. The Bowling Match 116
XIII. Fun with Peleg Snuggers 126
XIV. The Mystery of a Bracelet 136
XV. The Great Bicycle Race 146
XVI. At the Chetwood Cottage 157
XVII. An Interview with George Strong 165
XVIII. Searching the Woods 173
XIX. The Bone and Blood Club 181
XX. The End of the Search 189
XXI. Surprises of a Night 197
XXII. Prisoners on the Sloop 205
XXIII. The Race of the Sloops 213
XXIV. Fred Century Makes a Change 221
XXV. A Cannon and a Flagstaff Disappear 229
XXVI. A Conference of Importance 237
XXVII. In the Trophy Room 245
XXVIII. An Unlooked-for Disappearance 253
XXIX. The Hill Climbing Contest 261
XXX. A Capture—Conclusion 269
INTRODUCTION
My Dear Boys:
This tale is complete in itself, but forms volume three in a line issued
under the general title of “Putnam Hall Series.”
This series was started at the request of many boys and girls who had
read some volumes of the “Rover Boys’ Series,” and who wanted to know
what had taken place at Putnam Hall previous to the arrival there of the
three Rover brothers. When the Rovers came on the scene Putnam Hall had
been flourishing for some time and was filled with bright, go-ahead
cadets, who had been mixed up in innumerable scrapes, and who had gone
through quite a few adventures. My young friends wanted to hear all
about these wideawake lads, and for their benefit I started this series.
In the first volume, called “The Putnam Hall Cadets,” I told just how
the school came to be founded, and related many of the adventures of
Jack Ruddy, Pepper Ditmore, and their chums. In the second volume,
entitled “The Putnam Hall Rivals,” the doings of these cadets were again
followed, and I also told the particulars of a queer balloon ride and of
a remarkable discovery in the woods.
In the present story I have endeavored to show something of what the
Putnam Hall boys could do when it came to contests on the lake, in the
gymnasium, and elsewhere. A large portion of the cadets’ “off time” was
devoted to sports, and the rivalry, both in the academy and against
other schools, was of the keenest. Mixed in with the rivalry was a
generous share of fun, and what some of this hilarity led to I leave the
pages which follow to tell.
Once again I thank my young friends for the interest they have shown in
my stories. I trust the reading of this volume will please you all.
Affectionately and sincerely yours,
Arthur M. Winfield.
THE PUTNAM HALL CHAMPIONS
CHAPTER I
A RACE ON THE LAKE
“Talk about a life on the ocean wave, Pep; isn’t this good enough for
anybody?”
“It certainly is, Jack,” answered Pepper Ditmore. “And I think the
_Alice_ is going to prove a dandy.”
“The _Alice_ a dandy?” came from a third youth aboard the sloop. “How
can you make that out? Girls aren’t dandies.”
“But this girl is a boat,” put in a fourth youth. “Say, has anybody got
an apple he doesn’t want?” he went on, looking from one to another of
his companions.
“What, Stuffer, aren’t you filled up yet?” demanded Jack Ruddy, who had
hold of the tiller of the craft that was speeding up the lake. “To my
certain knowledge you have eaten ten apples already.”
“Ten?” snorted Paul Singleton, who was often called Stuffer because of
his love of eating. “Not a bit of it! I’ve only had four—and two were
very small.”
“Here’s another—my last,” cried Pepper, and threw the apple to his chum.
“By the way, Jack, I want to ask a question,” said Dale Blackmore. “Why
did you call the new sloop the _Alice_?”
“Name of his best girl,” answered Pepper, promptly. “Why do you ask
foolish questions?”
“I haven’t any best girl and you know it,” retorted Jack Ruddy. “I named
the sloop after my cousin, Alice Smith. Her father, my uncle, gave me
the boat. He——”
“Hullo, here comes another sloop!” cried Paul Singleton, looking across
the lake. “Wonder what boat that is?”
“I see a big P on the mainsail,” answered Dale Blackmore. “Must belong
to some of the Pornell Academy fellows.”
“I know that boat—heard about her when I was in town yesterday,” said
Pepper Ditmore. “She belongs to a fellow of Pornell named Fred Century.”
“Gracious, Imp, is he a hundred years old?” queried Dale, with a
grimace.
“Hardly. He’s only a little older than I am. The sloop is named the
_Ajax_, and Century claims she is the swiftest thing that was ever
launched here.”
“She certainly looks as if she could make time,” was Dale Blackmore’s
critical comment, as he gazed at the approaching craft, with her snowy
spread of sails. “I don’t think she is quite as wide as the _Alice_.”
“She is every bit as long,” came from Paul Singleton. “And her sails are
every bit as big.”
“Sloop ahoy!” came a hail from the approaching craft.
“Ahoy, the _Ajax_!” answered Jack Ruddy.
“Is that the new boat from Putnam Hall?”
“Yes.”
“We thought it might be,” went on Fred Century, as he came closer. “This
is the new boat from Pornell Academy.”
“Yes, we know that,” answered Jack. “Fine-looking sloop, too,” he added.
“Do you want to race?” asked another youth aboard the _Ajax_.
“Well, we didn’t come out to race,” answered the young owner of the
_Alice_. “We just came out for a quiet sail. We’ve got to be back to the
Hall by six o’clock.”
“Oh, they are afraid to race you, Fred,” said another boy aboard the
_Ajax_. “They know you can beat them out of their boots.”
“Let us race them, Jack,” whispered Pepper.
“No use of racing if the _Alice_ isn’t in proper condition,” interrupted
Dale.
“Oh, she’s all right—but I like to go over everything before a race,”
said Jack, a bit doubtfully. “Some of the blocks work rather stiffly,
and I haven’t quite got the swing of this tiller yet.”
“Want to race or not?” cried a third boy aboard the _Ajax_.
“Of course, if you are afraid of being beaten——” began Fred Century.
“Did you come out just for the purpose of racing?” demanded Jack.
“Why, hardly,” said the owner of the _Ajax_. “We just saw you, and
thought you’d like a little brush, that’s all.”
“How far do you want to race?”
“As far as you please.”
“Very well, what do you say to Cat Point and from there to Borden’s
Cove? The first sloop to reach the white rock at the cove is to be the
winner.”
“Done!” answered Fred Century, promptly.
“We’ll beat you by half a mile!” sang out one of the boys aboard the
Pornell boat, a lad named Will Carey.
“Better do your blowing after the race is over,” answered Pepper.
“Oh, we’ll beat you all right enough,” said the owner of the Pornell
boat. “This sloop of mine is going to be the queen of this lake, and
don’t you forget it.”
A few words more were spoken—as to how the boats should round Cat
Point—and then the race was started. There was a favorable breeze, and
each craft let out its mainsail to the fullest and likewise the topsail
and the jib.
“We are carrying four passengers while they are only carrying three,”
said Dale, when the race was on in earnest. “We should have made them
take some extra ballast aboard.”
The course mapped out was about two miles in one direction and two miles
in another. At the start of the race the _Alice_ had a little the better
of it, but before half a mile had been covered the _Ajax_ came crawling
up and then passed the Putnam Hall boat.
“Here is where we leave you behind!” sang out Fred Century.
“We’ll show you a clean pair of heels over the whole course,” added Will
Carey.
“As soon as you are ready to give up the race, blow your fog-horn,” said
Bat Sedley, the third member of the party aboard the _Ajax_.
“You’ll hear no fog-horn to-day,” answered Paul.
“Good-bye!” shouted Fred Century, and then his sloop took an extra spurt
and went ahead a distance of a hundred yards or more.
“Oh, Jack, we’ve got to beat them!” murmured Pepper. “If we don’t——”
“They’ll never get done crowing,” finished Paul.
“We’ll do our best,” answered the youthful owner of the _Alice_. “This
race has only started.” And then he moved the tiller a trifle, to bring
his boat on a more direct course for Cat Point.
To those who have read the previous volumes in this “Putnam Hall Series”
the boys aboard the _Alice_ need no special introduction. For the
benefit of those who now meet them for the first time I would state that
they were all pupils at Putnam Hall military academy, a fine institution
of learning, located on the shore of Cayuga Lake, in New York State. Of
the lads Jack Ruddy was a little the oldest. He was a well-built and
handsome boy, and had been chosen as major of the school battalion.
Jack’s bosom companion was Pepper Ditmore, often called Imp, because he
loved to play pranks. Pepper was such a wideawake, jolly youth you could
not help but love him, and he had a host of friends.
Putnam Hall had been built by Captain Victor Putnam, a retired officer
of the United States Army, who had seen strenuous service for Uncle Sam
in the far West. The captain had had considerable money left to him, and
with this he had purchased ten acres of land on the shore of the lake
and erected his school, a handsome structure of brick and stone,
containing many class-rooms, a large number of dormitories, and likewise
a library, mess-room, or dining hall, an office, and other necessary
apartments. There was a beautiful campus in front of the building and a
parade ground to one side. Towards the rear were a gymnasium and several
barns, and also a boathouse, fronting the lake. Beyond, around a curve
of the shore, were fields cultivated for the benefit of the Hall, and
further away were several patches of woods.
As was but natural in the case of an old army officer, Captain Putnam
had organized his school upon military lines, and his students made up a
battalion of two companies, as related in details in the first volume of
this series, called “The Putnam Hall Cadets.” The students had voted for
their own officers, and after a contest that was more or less spirited,
Jack Ruddy was elected major of the battalion, and a youth named Henry
Lee became captain of Company A, and Bart Conners captain of Company B.
Some of the boys wanted Pepper to try for an officer’s position, but he
declined, stating he would just as lief remain “a high private in the
rear rank.”
At the school there was a big youth named Dan Baxter, who was a good
deal of a bully. He had wanted to be an officer, and it made him very
sore to see himself defeated. Together with a crony named Nick Paxton
and a boy called Mumps he plotted to break up a picnic of Jack and his
friends. This plot proved a boomerang, and after that Baxter and his
cohorts did all they could to get Jack and his chums into trouble.
The first assistant teacher at the Hall was Josiah Crabtree, a man of
good education, but one who was decidedly sour in his make-up and who
never knew how to take fun. With him the cadets were continually in “hot
water,” and more than once the boys wished Crabtree would leave Putnam
Hall never to return.
The second assistant teacher was George Strong, and he was as much
beloved as the first assistant was despised. George Strong had not
forgotten the time when he was a boy himself, and he often came out on
the lake or the athletic field, or in the gymnasium, to take part in
their sports and pastimes. Pepper voted him “the prince of good
teachers,” and Jack and the others endorsed this sentiment.
During the first session of Putnam Hall, George Strong had mysteriously
disappeared. Two strange men had been seen around the school, and it was
learned that the strangers had something to do with the missing
instructor. A hunt was instituted by Captain Putnam, and in this he was
joined by Jack, Pepper, Dale, and an acrobatic pupil named Andy Snow.
George Strong was found to be a prisoner in a hut in the woods, and it
was learned that his captors were the two strange men. These men were
related distantly to the teacher and both were insane—their minds having
been affected by the loss of their fortunes.
After the insane men were cared for George Strong told the cadets about
a pot of gold which his ancestors had buried during the Revolutionary
War. One day some of the cadets took a balloon ride, as related in
detail in the second volume of this series, entitled “The Putnam Hall
Rivals,” and this ride brought them to a strange part of the woods near
the lake. Here they came on some landmarks which had been mentioned to
them, and to their joy unearthed the pot of gold coins. For this find
the cadets were rewarded by George Strong, and the teacher became a
closer friend to the boys than ever.
Dan Baxter had been called away from Putnam Hall by his father. He had
had a fierce fight with Pepper and gotten the worst of it, and he was,
consequently, glad enough to disappear for the time being. But he left
behind him many of his cronies, and three of these, Reff Ritter, Gus
Coulter, and Nick Paxton, vowed they would “square accounts” with the
Imp and also with his chums.
“I’ve got a plan to make Pep Ditmore eat humble pie,” said Reff Ritter,
one day. And then he related some of the details to Coulter and Paxton.
“Just the thing!” cried Coulter. “But don’t leave out Jack Ruddy. I’d
rather get square with Ruddy than anybody. He has been down on me ever
since I came to the Hall. I hate him like poison.” And Gus Coulter’s
face took on a dark look.
“Yes, we’ll include Ruddy,” answered Reff Ritter. “I hate him, too. I’d
give most anything if we could drive ’em both from the school.”
“Maybe we can—if we watch our chances,” answered Gus Coulter.