ABOUT SOME NEW STUDENTS
"Hi! hi! what's the meaning of this outrage!" roared the individual in
the buggy, as he brought his horse to a standstill. "Do you want to kill
me?"
"Who is it? Is he hurt?" questioned Dave, quickly.
"I don't know," answered Ben. "The rod took off his hat, but whether it
struck his head or not remains to be seen."
"Wot's the trouble back there?" demanded Jackson Lemond, as he succeeded
in bringing his team to a halt.
"Trouble is, we hit that man with the rod," answered Buster.
"Humph! I told you to be careful," grumbled the carryall driver. "It
don't pay to act like a passel o' wildcats, nohow!"
"It's too bad it happened," said Dave, and leaped to the ground and ran
back to where the buggy stood, with the driver glaring at them savagely.
The other students followed.
"Are you hurt?" asked Dave, anxiously. The man in the buggy was a total
stranger to him.
"Hurt? I don't know whether I am or not. What do you mean by knocking
off my hat with that stick?"
"It was an accident, sir. We had our school colors on the fishing rod
and were waving them in the air. We didn't expect to hit anybody."
"Bah! you are a lot of rowdies!" growled the man. "Give me my hat!" And
he pointed to where the head covering rested on some bushes.
"There you are," said Ben, restoring the hat to its owner. "But we are
not rowdies--it was purely an accident," he added, with a little flash
out of his clear eyes.
"Bah, I know schoolboys! They think it smart to be tough!" The man
looked his silk hat over. "I ought to make you buy me a new hat."
"That doesn't seem to be damaged any," said Buster, as he looked the
tile over. "If it is, of course we'll make it right," he added, hastily.
He and Luke were holding the fishing rod at the time of the accident.
"Do you boys belong at Oak Hall?" demanded the man, smoothing down the
roughed-up silk hat with his forearm.
"Yes," answered Dave.
"I thought so. Well, if this hat is cracked or anything like that I'll
notify the master of the school, and make you get me a new hat. Maybe it
will be a lesson to you, to be more careful."
"Let me see the hat, please," said Luke.
"What for?"
"I wish to see if it is really damaged."
"If it is, I'll let you know quick enough, don't fear."
"I want to see it now. I am not going to pay for a new hat if this one
is all right."
"Ha! so you don't want to take my word for it, eh?" roared the man.
"I want to look the hat over," answered Luke, stubbornly.
"So do I," added Buster.
"I'll not give you the hat--to play more tricks with. I shall take it to
a hat dealer, and if he says it is injured, I'll call at the school
about it." And having thus delivered himself the man in the buggy put
the silk hat on his head, spoke to his horse, and whirled on down the
road in the direction of Rockville.
"Talk about a peppery individual!" cried Ben. "He certainly is one."
"I don't think the hat was damaged at all," said Dave. "It will simply
be a hold-up--if he tries to get a new one out of us. That hat is quite
old and rusty-looking."
"He was a rusty-looking fellow all the way through," commented Buster.
"Wonder who he is?"
"He's some kind of a doctor," answered the carryall driver, who had left
his turnout to join the boys. "He came to Oakdale and Rockville this
summer, and he gives lectures on how to git well and strong, an' then he
sells medicine. I know a feller got a bottle from him, but it didn't do
him no good. He calls himself Doctor Montgomery,--but I reckon he ain't
no real doctor at all."
"Must be one of these quacks who go around the country trying to rope
people in," said Dave. "If he is, he ought to be run out of the
neighborhood."
"Maybe we'll never hear from him again," said Luke. But the boys were
destined to hear from Hooker Montgomery again, and in a manner to
surprise them.
Returning to the carryall, the boys took in the colors, so that they
might do no further damage, and then the journey to Oak Hall was
resumed. The encounter on the road had sobered them a little, and this
did not wear away until they came in sight of the school buildings.
"Hurrah! I see Phil and Roger!" cried Dave, as the carryall swung in
between the large oak trees that gave the place its name. "Hello!" he
shouted. "Here we are again!"
"Dave!" returned the senator's son, running forward, while Phil did the
same. "How are you all?" he added, waving his hand to the crowd in
general.
A number of other boys were present, and soon Dave was surrounded by his
old friends, all eager to shake hands. They wanted to know all about his
trip, and he in return wanted to know what they had been doing. So there
was a perfect babble of voices as the crowd walked into the main school
building, where good old Doctor Hasmer Clay, the head of the
institution, stood to welcome each new arrival.
"Glad to see you back, Porter," he said, kindly. "And I must thank you
in person for the skin you sent from the ranch. We have placed it on the
floor of the reception room. I am quite proud to think one of my pupils
is such a good shot."
"Roger and Phil are good shots, too," answered Dave, anxious that his
chums should have all the credit due them.
"So I understand." Doctor Clay paused for a moment. "I believe you met
Lincoln Merwell out West." He eyed Dave curiously as he mentioned the
fact.
"Yes, I met him--and we had some trouble--but it is all over now. But,
Doctor Clay----" Dave motioned the master of the school to one side and
lowered his voice. "Do you know that Merwell and Nick Jasniff are going
to Rockville Military Academy?"
"Is it possible!"
"That is what they say. It seems to me that the authorities of Rockville
ought to know what sort they are."
"That is true, Porter, but--ahem!--I don't know what I can do. You see,
to tell you the truth, the management of the military academy has
changed hands, and the new master and I are not on speaking terms. He
wished to obtain certain pupils, and they came to this school instead,
and that made him very angry. He claimed that I treated him unfairly,
but I did not. Even if I were to warn him against Jasniff and Merwell it
is not likely that he would take the warning in good part. Besides, the
military academy is not in a prosperous condition financially, and I
rather think the owners will take almost any pupils they can get."
"I see, sir. Well, if that's the case, why we might as well drop the
matter," answered Dave.
"I will think it over, and perhaps I'll send a letter to the master of
Rockville," returned Doctor Clay, seriously. "I don't want even an enemy
to harbor such lads as Jasniff and Merwell without knowing what they
are, although it would be to Rockville's credit if it took those boys
and made real men out of them."
As my old readers know, Oak Hall was a large building of brick and
stone, shaped in the form of a cross, with the classrooms, the private
office, the dining-room, and the kitchen on the ground floor. On the
second floor were the majority of the school dormitories, furnished to
accommodate from four to eight pupils each. The school was surrounded by
a broad campus, sloping in the rear to the Leming River, on the bank of
which was located the school boathouse. At one side of the campus was a
neat gymnasium, and at the other were some stables and sheds, and also a
newly-built garage for automobiles and motor-cycles.
Dave and his chums had their quarters in dormitories Nos. 11 and 12, two
large and well-lighted apartments, having a connecting door between. Not
far away was dormitory No. 13, occupied by Nat Poole and his cronies.
Merwell and Jasniff had had beds in that room, but now those places were
given to others.
Roger and Phil had arrived the day before, and were already settled, and
now they did what they could to make Dave at home, assisting him in
unpacking his trunk and his suit-case, and putting the things away in
the bureau and the clothes closet. Of course Dave had brought along some
pictures and banners, and these were hung up or set on the bureau--that
is, all but one photograph--one of Jessie she had given him the day
before. That he kept to himself, in his private drawer with a few other
treasures, under lock and key.
"Hello, Dave; can I help you?" came a voice from the doorway, and Gus
Plum appeared. The former bully of the Hall was a trifle thin and pale,
but his eyes were clear and his voice pleasant to hear.
"Why, Gus, how are you!" cried Dave, and shook hands warmly. "Did you
have a good time this summer?"
"Quite good," answered Plum. "You know I went up to Maine with Mr. Dale.
He took up half a dozen fellows, and we went in for botany and geology
while we were camping out."
"Well, I guess Mr. Dale is good company," answered Dave. He referred to
Andrew Dale, the first assistant teacher of the school, a man well
beloved by nearly all the students. Every summer this teacher took out
some of the boys, and there was always a rivalry as to who should go
along.
"It was better than just--er--knocking around," stammered Gus Plum. He
meant carousing around with fellows of the Merwell and Jasniff sort, and
Dave understood. He hesitated for a moment and looked around, to see if
anybody but Phil and Roger were in the rooms. "Of course, you know Nat
Poole is back," he continued, in a low voice.
"Yes,--I saw him leave Crumville."
"Dave, you want to beware of him." Gus Plum uttered the words very
earnestly.
"Oh, I am not afraid of Nat--never was."
"Yes, but this is different, Dave. I suppose you know there are a lot of
new fellows at Oak Hall this year."
"There are new fellows every year--the seniors go and the freshies come
in."
"Yes, but this year we have more new fellows than ever. A school in
Laverport broke up, and sixteen of the students were transferred to Oak
Hall--sophs, juniors, and seniors. So those fellows, added to the
freshies, make quite a bunch."
"What has that got to do with Poole and me?"
"Nat Poole and one of the fellows from Laverport, a chap named Guy
Frapley, are very good friends--in fact, I think they are related. This
Frapley was a sort of leader at Laverport, and he has got a number of
the other newcomers under his thumb. Last night I was down by the
boathouse, and I heard Nat and Frapley talking about you. Nat was very
anxious to do something to 'make you take a back seat,' as he termed it,
and after a while Frapley consented to take the matter up with him."
"What do you suppose they'll do?" questioned Phil, who had listened to
Plum's words with interest.
"I don't know exactly, but they'll do something, you can be sure of
that. More than likely it will be something underhanded."
"I am not afraid of Nat Poole--nor of this Guy Frapley, either," said
Dave.
"Dave has so many friends here, why should he be afraid?" asked Roger.
"Well, I only thought I'd warn you, that's all," answered the former
bully, meekly. "I don't want Dave to have any more trouble if I can help
it."
"It's kind of you, Gus, to tell me of this," answered Dave, heartily.
"And I'll be on my guard. But I really don't think Nat Poole will cut
much of a figure during this term of school. He has lost too many of his
old friends."
But, for once, Dave was mistaken. Nat Poole did "cut a figure," although
not quite in the manner expected, and what he and his cronies did caused
Dave not a little trouble.