AN EARTHQUAKE FOR JOB HASKERS
The door to the hall was cautiously opened, and the boys looked out. The
coast appeared to be clear, and Dave tiptoed his way out, followed by
his chums. A faint light was burning, as required by the school
regulations, and this kept the students from bumping into anything.
All knew the location of the apartment occupied by Job Haskers, and it
did not take them long to reach the door to it. Here they paused to
listen intently.
"He is in there and asleep," whispered Dave.
"Yes, and snoring," added Roger. "That shows he won't wake up very
easily."
"We'll wake him up, don't fear--if my plan works," replied Dave, with
grim humor.
With great caution the door was tried and found to be unlocked. Then,
scarcely daring to breathe, Dave stepped into the apartment, with Roger
and Phil behind him, clutching at his arms. The light in the hallway was
near by, and Dave motioned for it to be turned up, so that he could see
around the room.
Job Haskers's bed had been turned around for this term, so that the head
was next to the wall beside the doorway. It was a new brass bedstead,
ornamental but light.
With deft fingers, Dave doubled the cord provided by Ben, and tied one
end to the head railing of the brass bedstead. The other end of the cord
he carried to the doorway, and threw up through the transom, which swung
upon side pivots.
"Good, I see your plan now!" murmured Phil. "I reckon we'll give him an
awakening all right enough!"
As soon as the boys in the hallway had secured the outer end of the
doubled cord, Dave stepped out of the room again, followed by Roger and
Phil.
"Why not lock the door?" whispered the senator's son. "The key is here."
"Just what I intended to do," answered Dave, in an equally low voice.
The door was closed and locked, and the students all gathered in front
of the portal, each with his hand on the cord.
"I wish we could dump him out of bed," muttered Plum.
"We'll give him a little quiver first," said Dave. "He won't know what
to make of it. I don't think he'll notice the cord. It is just the color
of the wall."
They pulled the cord taut, and then raised the head of the bed an inch
or two. Then they let it drop.
"Oh--er--who is that?" they heard Job Haskers murmur. "Is it time to get
up, Swingly?" He mentioned the name of the school janitor, who had
orders to rouse him when he was over-sleeping.
Of course there was no answer to the teacher's question. He waited for a
moment, and then turned over in bed, as if for another snooze.
"Now we'll give him a sharp jerk," whispered Dave, and the students
caught hold of the cord with vigor. Up came the head of the bed about a
foot and swayed violently towards the door.
"Hi! hi! What's this?" roared Job Haskers, sitting bolt upright, and
gazing about in bewilderment.
"It's the end of the world!" came, in a hollow voice, through the
keyhole. "The end of the world!"
"Mercy on me! It's an earthquake, that's what it is!" burst from the
befuddled teacher, and then as the bed was jerked high in the air once
more, he rolled over in the blankets and slid down to the lower end,
where one foot got caught between the brass bars.
"Get out of the building, Mr. Haskers!" came a cry through the keyhole.
"It is going to shake to the ground!"
"Yes! yes! It must be an earthquake!" groaned the bewildered pedagogue.
"Oh, will I ever get out alive, I wonder!"
The top of the bedstead was bobbing up and down, like a ship on an angry
ocean. In the darkness Job Haskers was completely bewildered, and he
firmly believed that an earthquake had struck Oak Hall and that the
building was in danger of collapsing. With a cry of fright he tumbled
out on the floor, and threw the covers, in which he was wound up, aside.
He tried to find the door, but the top of the bedstead was now in the
way.
"The fire escape--it is the only way out!" he muttered to himself, and
as the boys continued to jerk the bedstead around, he ran to the window
and threw out a rope, fastened to a ring in the floor. Then out of the
window he bounced and slid down the rope with a speed that blistered his
hands.
"He has gone out of the window!" cried Roger, who had his eye glued to
the keyhole. "Wait a minute, fellows!"
"Quick! We must take away the cord," said Dave, and in a trice the door
of the bedroom was unlocked, the bed shoved into place, and the cord
removed. Then the students scampered away, turning down the light as
before.
Once on the ground Job Haskers lost no time in getting away from the
building. Each instant he expected another quake that would bring that
noble pile of bricks, stone, and mortar to the ground. But the quake did
not come.
"Queer!" he murmured, presently. "Didn't anybody else feel that awful
shock?"
"Hi, you, throw up your hands, or I'll fill ye full o' buckshot!"
The cry came from behind him, and it caused Job Haskers to leap with a
new fear. He turned, and in the gloom of the night saw a man approaching
with a gun pointed full at him.
"Don't--don't sho--shoot me!" he gasped.
"Up with yer hands!" came from the man. "I cotches ye that time, didn't
I? Now, wot are ye, a ghost, a burglar, or a student on a lark?"
"Wh--who are yo--you?" stammered Job Haskers. "Did you--er--feel the
earthquake?"
Instead of answering the questions, the man came closer, until the
barrel of his shotgun was within a foot of the teacher's head. Then he
gave a cry of astonishment.
"Why, if it ain't Mr. Haskers! Wot in the world are you a-doin' out this
time o' night, sir?"
"Lemond!" faltered the teacher, as he recognized the driver for the
Hall. "Did you--er--did you feel the earthquake?"
"Earthquake? No, sir."
"It is strange."
"Did you feel any of 'em, sir?" Horsehair had lowered his gun and was
gazing fixedly at the teacher. "Say, you ain't walking in your sleep,
are ye?" he questioned, abruptly.
"No, no--I--er--I am sure I am not," stammered Job Haskers, yet in
secret he pinched himself to make certain. "I was--er--in bed, and I
thought I felt an earthquake--the bed swayed, and I heard a cry----" The
teacher stopped suddenly. "Perhaps it was those rascally boys!" he
cried, abruptly.
"Boys! Did they play a joke on yer? They wouldn't be above it, sir--they
are as full of 'em this term as ever, sir. How did you git out o' the
building--down that rope?"
"Ye-as. You see, the bed moved--or I thought it did--and blocked the
doorway, and I----But never mind, Lemond, don't say anything about this.
I'll go in." And the teacher started rapidly across the campus. He was,
of course, in his bare feet, and was finding his pajamas anything but
warm in this frosty fall air.
"You can't get in that way, 'less you have a key!" called out
Horsehair.
"I have no key," and Job Haskers stopped abruptly.
"I can let ye in the back way."
"That will do. Come, let us hurry--I am getting cold."
The back door was gained, and Job Haskers entered and felt his way up
the semi-dark stairs. As he reached the upper hallway he found himself
confronted by Doctor Clay, who had come in rather late, and who had been
on the point of retiring when certain strange sounds had disturbed him
and caused him to start an investigation.
"Why, Mr. Haskers, where have you been?" asked the doctor in
astonishment. "I heard a noise, but I did not know you were stirring."
"I--er--I imagined some of the students were skylarking," faltered the
assistant.
"Did you catch anybody?"
"No, sir,--they were too slick for me."
"This skylarking after hours must cease. Have you any idea who they
were?"
"Not--er--exactly. I had some trouble early in the evening with Porter,
Lawrence, and Morr, and they may be the ones. If you please, I'll take a
look in their room."
"Do so, and if anything is wrong, have them report to me in the
morning," said Doctor Clay, and retired once more to his room.
Moving swiftly through the hallway, Job Haskers reached his own room
and threw open the door. He made a light, and gazed around in great
perplexity. Everything was in perfect order excepting the bedclothes,
which were just as he had left them. He walked slowly to the window and
drew in the rope that was used for a fire escape.
"Strange! Strange!" he murmured to himself, as he scratched his head. "I
was sure the bed moved. Can I have been dreaming after all? I ate a
rather heavy supper, and my digestion is not as good as it used to be."
He put on his slippers and donned a dressing gown, and thus arrayed
sallied forth once more, this time in the direction of the dormitory
occupied by Dave and his chums. He approached on tip-toe and opened the
door quickly and noiselessly.
But the students had had ample time in which to get to bed, and every
one was under covers and apparently sleeping soundly. To make sure they
were not shamming, the teacher came in and gazed at one after another
closely. Then, with a face that was a study, he left the dormitory again
and walked slowly to his own room.
"Is he gone?" asked a voice in the dormitory, after a full minute of
silence.
"Yes, Phil," answered Dave. "But don't make any noise--he may come
back."
"Say, that was the richest joke yet!" chuckled Ben.
"How he must have looked, sliding down that rope in his pajamas!"
exclaimed Sam.
"If I dared, I'd really send in a theme to-morrow on 'Earthquakes,'"
piped up Polly Vane.
"Do it, Polly; I dare you!" cried Macklin.
"I will--if you'll let me sign your name to it," answered the girlish
student, but at this Chip shook his head vigorously.
"I'll bet old Haskers is as mad as a hornet," was Phil's comment. "Well,
it served him right, for the way he treated us," he added.
"I guess we needn't go to the doctor to-morrow with any complaint," said
the senator's son. "We have squared up."
"I'd like to know what Haskers really thinks of the shaking up," said
Dave. And then he turned over to go to sleep, and the others did
likewise.
The feast and the fun had tired the boys out, and the majority of them
slept soundly until the rising bell rang out. Dave was the first to kick
the covers aside and get up, but Ben followed immediately.
"Grand day, Dave!" cried Ben, running to the window to gaze out. "What a
fine day to go nutting, if we could get away."
"Nothing but lessons to-day, Ben," answered Dave. He was bending down,
looking under the bed. "Has anybody seen my shoes?" he continued,
looking from one to another.
"I haven't seen them," answered Roger. He bent down to get out his own
foot coverings. "Hello, my shoes are gone, too!" he cried.
"So are mine!" exclaimed Plum.
"And mine!" came quickly from several of the other boys.
"Did anybody put them in the closets?" asked Dave.
"If they did, they are not here now," answered Ben, who had entered one
of the closets to look.
A hasty search was made, the boys looking into every place they could
think of,--but all to no purpose. Every shoe, every boot, and every
slipper belonging to them had disappeared.