THE INSPECTION
“Battalion, attention! Shoulder arms! Forward march!”
The drums beat, the fifes struck up a lively air, and off marched the
two companies of Putnam Hall cadets, across the campus and back, down
the road a pace, and then formed in a long line fronting the school
building. Every sword shone like silver, every gun was bright, and every
uniform was brushed to its best. At the head of the command was Major
Jack Ruddy, as stiff as a ramrod, looking the equal of any West Point
cadet.
“Battalion, attention! Carry arms! Support arms! Shoulder arms! Right
face! Left face! About face. Load! Aim! Fire!”
One order after another was delivered by Jack, and the cadets of the two
companies obeyed like one big machine. Only two boys were a little slow,
Reff Ritter and Gus Coulter. Paxton wanted to drag, too, but did not
dare.
“Very good! Very good indeed!” cried General Wallack, enthusiastically.
“Captain Putnam, you are to be congratulated on having such a body of
students under you.”
“I did not dream they could drill so well,” added Major Darrowburg.
“Why, you are almost, if not quite, up to our West Point standard.”
“I trust you will do me the honor to inspect them more closely, General
Wallack,” said Captain Putnam.
“With pleasure,” answered the regular army officer. “Major, will you
come?”
“To be sure,” answered Major Darrowburg.
The two United States army officers came down from the piazza of the
school followed by Captain Putnam. They approached Major Ruddy, who
immediately saluted.
“This is Major John Ruddy,” said the master of Putnam Hall. “Ruddy, this
is General Wallack and this is Major Darrowburg.”
“Glad to meet you, young man,” said the army general, and shook hands.
“Some day I presume you’ll be in the regular army,” and he smiled
pleasantly.
“Perhaps,” answered Jack. Then he shook hands with Major Darrowburg, and
after that answered a number of questions put to him. The visitors
praised the drill that had taken place and this made the young major
blush not a little. But he was very happy, and doubly so to think that
he had outwitted Reff Ritter and his cronies. His uniform did not show a
spot and his sword and scabbard were as bright as the polish used could
make them.
An inspection lasting fully half an hour followed, Captain Putnam
showing his visitors along the line of cadets. Nearly everybody was
smiling and happy. Only a few boys looked glum, and those lads were Reff
Ritter and his cohorts.
“A really remarkable showing,” was General Wallack’s comment, after the
inspection was over.
“If we could always do as well as this at the Point we’d have nothing to
worry about,” added Major Darrowburg. “Captain Putnam, you certainly
ought to feel proud of your school.”
“I am proud,” was the reply.
After the inspection the cadets marched around the campus once more.
They were about to be dismissed when Pepper signed to Jack, who in turn
beckoned to Captain Putnam and whispered something into his ear.
“I see no harm in it,” said the master of the Hall.
“Battalion, attention!” called out Jack. “I move we give three cheers
for General Wallack and Major Darrowburg!”
“Hurrah!” cried the cadets, and the cheers were given with a will. Then
the two army officers bowed and made little speeches, and more cheers
followed; and that was the end of the inspection. Soon the visitors were
driven away by Captain Putnam in the Hall carriage, and George Strong
announced that for the rest of the day the cadets might do as they
pleased, so long as they did not leave the Hall grounds.
“It was a perfect success,” said George Strong to the young major.
“I am very glad of it, Mr. Strong.”
“I know Captain Putnam is greatly pleased. I am sure he will have
something to say to the boys when he gets back.” And Mr. Strong was
right, the master of the Hall complimented all on their appearance and
deportment, and said he was sure the visitors had been unusually
impressed.
“I knew you would all do well,” said the captain. “But it has surpassed
my expectations.”
The only fellows who were not happy were Reff Ritter and his cronies.
They could not understand how it was that Jack and his chums had come
forth looking so spotless and bright.
“That druggist must have humbugged you, Reff,” said Gus Coulter. “I
guess he gave you water instead of those chemicals.”
“I don’t understand it at all,” answered Ritter. “But if the druggist
did really humbug me I’ll fix him some time, see if I don’t!”
“Let us look at the stuff left in the bottles,” suggested Coulter. “Must
be a few drops at least.”
The two passed into the school. On the stairs they met Pepper and Dale.
“It was beastly stuff,” said Pepper, in a loud tone. “I’d like to know
who used it. If we hadn’t had that patent preparation to take out the
stains we would have been in a pickle, I can tell you, Jack especially,”
and then the Imp and Dale passed on.
“I see it all,” groaned Ritter, when he and Coulter were alone. “No need
to look for those bottles now. The stuff worked too quickly, and those
chaps got some other preparation and cleaned up with it.”
“Yes, that must be it,” said Coulter. “Well, better luck next time.”
Of course, Pepper had uttered his words merely to throw Ritter and his
crony off the track, and the Imp’s trick had worked to a charm. Ritter
never learned how he had been fooled.
When Pepper went down into the library that evening, to get a book to
read, he was met by Andy and Joe Nelson. Andy was quite excited.
“Pepper, we made a mistake last night,” cried the acrobatic youth.
“A mistake? What do you mean?” and he looked at Joe Nelson.
“Andy tells me that you took me and Harry Blossom for the fellows with
the green masks and the green hoods,” said Joe. “You made a mistake.”
“Joe and Harry saw those fellows, too,” continued Andy.
“You did? Where?”
“At the back of the Hall—just as we came in. We had been down to the
boat-house looking for a gold stickpin Harry lost. We found the pin in a
crack of the floor and then came up to the school. The men came around a
corner. When they saw us, they ran off, across the corn-patch back of
the barns.”
“Then they weren’t some of the students?”
“I don’t think so. But, of course, I am not sure,” answered Joe Nelson.
“You can question Harry about it.”
Harry Blossom was in the music-room, playing on the piano and singing
for the benefit of several of his friends. Later on, however, he came
away and told what he had seen.
“I thought they were strangers, but now you mention it, I think they may
have been some cadets out on a lark.”
“Certainly no men out to rob anybody would act as they did,” said
Pepper, thoughtfully. “Why, they acted, for all the world, as if it was
a huge joke!”
“Well, this is a mystery, true enough,” said Andy, and the others agreed
with him. They concluded to say nothing more about the affair, but to
keep their eyes “peeled,” as Pepper expressed it, for the next
appearance of the two persons in green.
It galled Reff Ritter to see Jack Ruddy triumphant in the matter of the
inspection, and the bully wondered to himself how he could make the
young major “eat humble pie,” as he termed it.
“Don’t you meet Ruddy on the flying-rings tomorrow?” asked Paxton.
“Yes,” was Ritter’s short answer.
“Well, you ought to be able to best him there—you’re such a perfect
gymnast.”
“Ruddy has been taking extra lessons from the gym. teacher. I just heard
of it this morning. That’s the reason he was so ready to take me up,”
responded Reff Ritter, sourly.
“Are you afraid to meet him?” asked Paxton in astonishment.
“Not at all. But it is going to be no walk-over to outdo him, that’s
all.”
“I wish he’d fall and break his neck,” growled Paxton.
“So do I. But he won’t fall—he is too strong and steady.”
Reff Ritter walked down to the gymnasium in a thoughtful mood. Only a
few boys were about and none near the flying-rings.
“I wish I could fix it so Ruddy would get a good tumble,” he muttered.
“It would serve him right.”
He leaped up on the flying-rings and tried one pair after another. He
had a notion to cut some of the ropes half in two, but reflected that
this might bring harm to somebody else instead of the young major.
“Wonder if I could dope him?” mused the bully. “Let me see, how did that
fellow in Paris do that trick? He told me all about it at that boxing
match. Ah, I have it! The question is, can I work the game without being
caught?”
Ritter knew he must go at what was in his mind with extreme caution. He
remembered that Jack was a copious water-drinker, and usually drank one
glass of water at least at every meal.
“That’s my cue,” said the bully to himself. “Now, if I can only get the
stuff out of the Hall medicine closet.” He referred to a medicine closet
located at the back of the main hall of the school. In this were kept a
variety of medicines, to be used in case of emergency.
Once Reff had been sick, and to make him sleep—for he was very
wide-awake and nervous at the time—Captain Putnam had given him some
kind of powder in water. This had lulled his senses to repose in a short
time. He remembered that box with the white powder very well.
It had been arranged that Jack should meet Ritter that evening, shortly
after supper—during the off hour of that part of the day. If Reff could
only get some of that powder into Jack’s drinking-water during the
evening meal he felt certain the young major would soon feel too dull
and sleepy to make much of a showing on the flying-rings.
With the craft of a real criminal, Ritter stole into the main hall of
the school and looked around. Nobody was in sight, and swiftly he
approached the medicine closet and opened it. There were numerous boxes
and bottles there, and the appearance of them somewhat confused the
rascally youth. He read the various inscriptions and at last picked out
a square box containing several spoonfuls of a white powder.
“This is the stuff,” he murmured, and just then he heard somebody coming
down the main stairs. He closed the medicine closet swiftly, tip-toed
his way across the hall and entered one of the class-rooms. Here several
of the windows were open and he dropped from one of these, nobody being
in the room at the time. In a few seconds more he had stepped around the
corner of the building and then he turned to a side door and entered the
mess-room of Putnam Hall.
The mess-room, or dining-hall, was a long, low room, with windows on one
side. There were half a dozen long tables and the chairs at these tables
were numbered. Jack, as the major of the battalion, sat at one end of
one of the tables. At the other end of this table sat Josiah Crabtree
when he was at the school, but just now this seat was not being used.
Watching his opportunity Reff Ritter slipped up to the seat the young
major usually occupied. On the table in front of this seat was a glass
of ice-water, and into this Ritter skillfully dropped a generous portion
of the white powder from the box. Then he glided out of the mess-room
just as the gong sounded for the evening parade.
“Now we’ll see what we will see, Jack Ruddy!” he muttered to himself.
“If you drink that I don’t think your performance on the flying-rings
this evening will amount to much!”