AT THE DRUG STORE
Andy wanted his gun cleaned and oiled, and as his wrist was in no
condition for use, Pepper volunteered to do the work. In the meantime
Jack went around to several students whom he knew were usually careless
in their appearance and told them they must brush up.
“I want every cadet to appear in first-class form,” said the young
major. “Captain Putnam is depending upon me to have everything perfect.”
“I’m going to make everything shine like a looking-glass,” said Dale,
“even if I have to work all night to do it.”
“Sure, and I want to look foine meself,” put in Hogan. “Mebbe, some day,
I’ll be afther joining the regular army, I dunno.”
“West Point would just suit me,” added Henry Lee.
Having made a tour of the school and set many cadets to work cleaning
up, the young major looked over his own things. A button on his coat
wanted fastening and that was all. His sword and scabbard were as bright
as a new silver dollar, and it must be confessed that he looked at them
with satisfaction.
“Perhaps Captain Putnam will introduce me to those regular army
officers,” he thought, “and if he does I want to look my very best.”
Some time later, having placed his outfit in the closet where it
belonged, Jack joined Pepper and Andy. The former had finished cleaning
the acrobatic cadet’s gun and was now at work on his own.
The three boys were talking among themselves when they noticed a cadet
named Billy Sabine lounging near watching them curiously. It may be
mentioned here that Sabine was an odd sort of youth—sometimes very good
and sometimes very bad. He had been a toady to Dan Baxter and to
Coulter. But when Reff Ritter came on the scene Billy had not been
treated with the consideration he thought was due him, and, as a
consequence, he was rather down on Ritter and his cronies.
“Sabine acts as if he wanted something,” remarked Pepper. “Wonder what
he’s got on his mind?”
“I’ll call him over and find out,” said Jack, and beckoned to the
distant boy. Sabine came up slowly, as though revolving something of
importance in his mind.
“Well, Billy, how goes it?” began the young major, sociably.
“Pretty well,” was Sabine’s short reply. “Going to have a great drill
to-morrow, I suppose.”
“We hope to have. And I trust you’ll polish up for it.”
“Oh, I’m always polished.”
“I know you are, and I am glad of it. I wish I could say as much for
every cadet in the battalion.”
There was a pause, and Billy Sabine rubbed his chin with his hand, a
habit he had when turning something over in his mind. He was rather a
slow thinker at the best.
“Say, are you polished up?” he asked.
“Why, yes, of course.”
“You want to put on your best front, don’t you?”
“To be sure.”
“Then you had better watch out that somebody doesn’t play a trick on
you,” and with this remark Billy Sabine started to walk away.
“Play a trick?” repeated the young major. “What do you mean?”
“Oh—you watch out, that’s all.”
“Billy must know of something,” cried Pepper, his suspicions aroused.
“Call him back,” added Andy, and this was done. The other boy returned
rather unwillingly.
“Who is going to play a trick on me?” demanded Jack.
“Why—er—I didn’t say he was going to play a trick—I only said for you to
watch out.”
“You act as if you knew of something,” said Pepper. “If you do you had
better say so.”
“I—er—I thought I’d warn you, that’s all.”
“But what do you know—come, out with it,” and now Jack caught the cadet
by the arm, so that he could not run away. Billy Sabine looked around
suspiciously.
“If I tell you, you won’t give me away, will you?” he asked, in a low
voice.
“That depends,” answered Jack.
“I shan’t say a word unless you promise. I’m not going to get myself in
a hole on your account.”
“Then you do know something!” cried Pepper. “Well, if you don’t tell us
what it is, and anything happens, we’ll blame you, so there!”
“I’m not going to do anything!” exclaimed Sabine, in fresh alarm.
“What do you know?” said Jack, and now his voice was stern.
“I—er—I was down back of the boat-house awhile ago and I heard Reff
Ritter, Gus Coulter, and Nick Paxton talking. They are all down on your
crowd.”
“We know that,” answered Pepper, briefly.
“They didn’t see me, and I heard most of what they said, although not
all.”
“And what did they say?” questioned Andy.
“First they talked about you”—Sabine nodded to the young major. “Ritter
has a plan to spoil your things—sword and all that—so they won’t show up
good at the inspection. He is going to get something down to the
Cedarville drug store to-night and sprinkle or rub it on everything.
After Ritter unfolded his plan he and the others agreed to fix up your
whole crowd in the same way—so the inspection would be ruined, so far as
you were concerned. They want to put you in disgrace with Captain
Putnam.”
After that Billy Sabine told the particulars as far as he knew them.
Jack and his chums listened with keen interest.
“We ought to report this to the captain!” cried Andy. “It’s the most
outrageous thing I ever heard of!”
“This will bring disgrace to Captain Putnam as well as ourselves,” said
Pepper. “But I don’t believe in carrying tales.”
“Remember, you promised not to get me into trouble,” came hastily and
anxiously from Sabine.
“We promised nothing of the sort,” returned Jack. “But I think we can
attend to this trick ourselves, without alarming Captain Putnam.”
“Shall we go to Ritter and his gang and punch their heads for them?”
demanded Andy. “I guess I can do something, even with this sore wrist of
mine.”
“Say, I’ve got an idea!” cried Pepper, suddenly. “Just the thing—if we
can work it.” He turned to Sabine. “Are you sure Ritter is going to get
those chemicals at Cedarville?”
“So he said.”
“And to-night?”
“Yes.”
“All right—I’ll see what I can do to put a spoke in his wheel when he
least suspects it.”
At that moment Reff Ritter appeared not far away, and at once Billy
Sabine walked off.
“Please don’t say a word about me,” he pleaded, as he departed.
“Now, what is your plan?” asked Jack of Pepper, some time later, when
they and Andy were left alone.
“Why, it is simply this, to go to Cedarville and head off Ritter’s
little game.”
“You mean to stop him from going to the drug store?” queried Andy.
“Not at all. The druggist has a new clerk, a fellow named Charley
Fowler. I know him quite well. If I can see Fowler before Ritter gets
there I think I can get him to play into our hands. Now do you catch the
idea?”
“That’s all right—if you can get away.”
“I ought to have as good a chance as Ritter,” answered Pepper; and then
the bell rang for the parade previous to supper.
It was no easy matter for Pepper to get off that evening, but when he
told Mr. Strong that he wanted to see a friend in Cedarville on
important business he was allowed leave of absence until nine o’clock,
and as the cadets frequently went in pairs, he was allowed to take Andy
with him.
“I’ll keep my eyes on the Ritter crowd,” said Jack, “and make sure they
don’t play some trick of another kind during your absence.”
In a roundabout way Pepper and Andy learned that Reff Ritter and Gus
Coulter were going to Cedarville on their bicycles. As soon as they
heard this the two chums got out their own wheels, pumped up the tires,
and were off.
“We’ve got to do a little spurting,” said Pepper. “Ritter and Coulter
are both fast riders and we want to get to town quite awhile ahead of
them.”
It was still fairly light, so that they did not need lamps. They pedaled
along with vigor, up hill and down, until the lights of the town shone
in the distance. Without slacking speed they took to the main street and
slacked up only when the drug store came into view.
“Now if only the clerk is in charge,” said Pepper. “I don’t know the
proprietor very well.”
“Come, let us take our wheels to the rear,” suggested Andy. “Then if we
want to get out in a hurry we can do it without Ritter and Coulter
seeing us.”
They placed their bicycles in a shed at the back of the drug store and
then hurried around again to the front. As they went in they met the
proprietor coming out. This caused the cadets to breathe a sigh of
relief.
“Well, boys, what can I do for you?” asked the clerk, as he came forward
and nodded pleasantly to Pepper.
“You can do a whole lot for us, Charley,” answered Pepper, and
continued: “Anybody here?”
“No, the boss just went out. I am in sole charge.”
“Will you be in charge for the next hour or so?”
“I’ll be in charge until I shut up. The boss is not coming back.”
“Good. Now I want to explain something,” went on the Imp, and as
speedily as possible related what Billy Sabine had told about the trick
Ritter proposed to play. The drug-store clerk was intensely interested,
and as he had taken quite a fancy to Pepper he readily consented to do
what the other proposed.
“I can fix this Ritter up with a little colored water and alcohol,” he
said. “That mixture won’t harm your outfits in the least.”
“That’s the ticket!” exclaimed Andy, with a grin.
The boys then purchased some root beer to drink, and treated the clerk
to a cigar—for he was fond of smoking. A minute later, looking out of
the doorway, Andy saw Ritter and Coulter coming.
“Here is where we make our escape,” he said, and he and Pepper ran for a
back door. They got out into the yard just as Ritter came into the drug
store by the front door. Out in the yard it was dark, so the boys felt
little fear of detection.
They listened at an open window and heard Ritter ask for several
chemicals in liquid form. The clerk came to the rear, behind the
prescription partition, and filled several bottles as he had promised.
“Some of these are poison,” he said to his customer. “You want to be
careful how you use them.”
“We know all about that,” answered Reff Ritter.
“By law I can’t sell you these without a written doctor’s prescription,”
went on the clerk.
“Oh, that will be all right,” put in Coulter.
“I won’t dare to put our labels on the bottles,” added the clerk.
“Put on any old thing,” answered Ritter. “We are not buying labels—we
are buying chemicals.” And then the clerk pasted plain bits of paper on
the bottles and scribbled on them with a lead pencil.
“We’ll take some packages of cigarettes, too,” said Ritter, after the
bottles were delivered to him.
“Time for us to get out,” whispered Pepper to his chum. “They’ll be on
the way to the Hall in a few minutes more.”
“Oh, they’ll likely stop for a smoke,” answered Andy. “But we might as
well get back—we have accomplished what we came for. Won’t they be mad
when they learn how they have been fooled!”