BENZ BROODS
News travels fast. Chapel Sunday morning was conspicuous by the
absence of Potts and Benz. But Curns was present with a smiling face
and piece of court plaster attached to his chin. He attracted crowds
of students as a magnet attracts iron filings. The students clung to
him until they heard the last word of the episodes of one Judd Billings
and then, bent almost double with laughter, they rushed off to tell the
news to someone else. Information was freely and cheerfully given. By
Sunday noon everyone in college, even the professors, had learned of
the exploit. Students cheered whenever Judd put in appearance and
questioned him as to Dynamite or how to administer a knockout punch.
To all inquiries Judd turned a deaf ear and his simple modesty was much
in evidence.
Judd, of course, told Cateye everything and Cateye was quick to resent
Benz's attempts at practical jokes.
"I wish I had gone along, now," said Cateye. "All this trouble might
have been averted. Judd, until Benz makes up with you you'd better
stick pretty close to me for there's no telling what he may do to get
even. He's a mighty good fellow to his friends but when he doesn't
take a liking to anyone that person had better watch out."
"I reckon I can take care of myself," Judd replied, firmly.
"I know you can!" assured Cateye, "You don't need any body guard, but
my motto is, 'Keep out of trouble,' and that's why I want you to stick
by me close. Savvy? Come on, let's go down to dinner."
As the two boys entered the dining room everyone at the tables arose as
if by pre-arrangement, while Curns yelled: "Now fellows, let her go!
Rah, rah, rah! Rah, rah, rah! Rube, Rube, Rube!"
Much good natured laughter followed and Judd took his seat awkwardly,
face flushed with embarrassment.
"Do you know my sister Norah?" some student shouted.
"No, I don't, but Dyna-mite!" another replied.
More laughter followed.
Suddenly there was a second commotion. Every head turned toward the
door. Benz was entering.
"Behold, the conquered hero comes!" noised Curns.
All eating stopped. Benz hesitated at the threshold, glowering
defiantly up and down the tables. One eye was still badly swollen and
colored a glossy black. His nose looked sadly mis-shapen. In all he
presented a glorious spectacle.
"Oh you shiner!" cried some student from a far corner of the room.
This exclamation was too much. A roar of laughter went up as Benz
stood hands twitching in anger and humiliation.
"Laugh, you guys, laugh!" he cried hoarsely.
"Don't worry, we will!" somebody assured him.
Benz stood the gaff a moment longer, then turned about, and leaving the
fellows in an uproar, strode off to his room where he remained the rest
of the day.
Two weeks more slipped quickly by, during which time the Bartlett
eleven captured two more victories, one over Everett and the other over
Lawton Academy, by top heavy scores. Both of these schools were
supposed to have fairly strong teams and the results of their games
with Bartlett came as quite a surprise in football circles. Students
began to herald the present team as the greatest in the college's
history, and talked of Thanksgiving day when the big game of the year
was to be played against the rival college, Pennington.
Benz had held aloof from Judd, not even speaking to him when meeting
face to face. Fellows still smiled when passing Benz and Benz resented
those smiles. "I'll get even with Rube some how!" he thought, angrily,
"He's just a rube. The lucky stiff!"
Meanwhile Cateye had written another letter to Bob describing in full
Judd's escapades, and adding: "He's fast developing into some football
man, Bob. You should see him punt! And tackle! Say, I never saw him
miss a man yet,--he's that sure! The bigger they are the harder they
fall. Judd's good enough for the varsity right now and I'm expecting
Coach Phillips to give him a chance any night. Of course Benz is
captain and he'll put up an awful fuss if anything like that happens.
Judd, in my opinion, could make good any where you put him on that
eleven to-day. He's that much better than any of us. But then, this
is his first year and he is green yet, I'll admit. Wish you could come
down for the big game. Your side-kick ... Cateye."
The campus clock had just struck nine one evening late in October when
some one pounded on Cateye's door.
"Let 'em in, Judd," said Cateye, "before they break the door down!"
Judd was quick to respond. The door swung open. Pole and Potts
stepped in.
"Welcome to our city," greeted Cateye, tossing aside a notebook upon
which he had been working, "I'm always glad to entertain callers, for
then I feel that I have a legitimate excuse to quit studying. What
have you got there, Pole?"
"A new guitar. Isn't she a beaut? Dad sent it to me for a birthday
present!" Pole sat down on the bed, struck a few chords, and started a
tune. "This place hasn't been stirred by any real music this year and
I decided to cut loose to-night!"
"Good heavens, Pole, why should you wish any of your discord on us?
Why not rehearse in your own room?"
"I wanted an audience," replied Pole, "Isn't this ditty pretty? I
composed it myself."
Potts, at this juncture, drew forth a Jews harp and added further
discordant vibrations to the atmosphere.
"I can beat you both!" grinned Judd, and diving for his suitcase he
unearthed a mouth organ. In another moment he was reproducing the
familiar strains of, "And When I Die."
The effect was almost instantaneous. Doors swung open on the halls;
students on the lower floors started coming up stairs; everything was
in commotion.
"Now you've done it!" reprimanded Cateye. "We'll have the whole dorm
on us in two minutes! Pole, ring off on that guitar!"
Shouts were already coming from outside.
"Have a heart!"
"What d'ya think this is, a music hall?"
"That guy with the mouth organ is a coward. No one would dare make a
noise like that in public!"
"Let us in before we rip the panels out!"
"Shall we let 'em in?" Pole asked, grinning.
"I suppose we'll have to," Cateye muttered, "Or suffer the
consequences."
Pole slipped the bolt and the fellows packed the room.
"Just as I surmised!" cried Oole, the first man in. "Pole and Potts,
the inseparable noise makers! As a penalty I demand a duet!"
"You bet! A duet!" voiced the rest.
"What'll it be?" Pole queried, with an important air, "I can play
anything you should choose to name, gentlemen."
"Let's hear you render, The Last Rose of Summer."
"In how many pieces do you wish it rendered?" asked Potts sweetly,
striking the key on his Jews harp.
"Makes no difference,--just so it's rendered."
Pole and Potts now assumed a serious air, eyed each other soberly, and
prepared to play.
"One, two, three! One, two, three! One, two, three! Play!" cried
Pole, waving his arms wildly. Potts started in but missed the key by
at least three notes. Pole gave Potts a handicap, then started in to
catch up. The discord was very displeasing.
"Kill it!"
"That's the last rose of summer that I want to hear!"
"Enough!"
Potts was forced to stop through laughing, but Pole kept on until
strong hands compelled him to cease.
"It's a pity you fellows can't appreciate real music," pouted Pole,
"I'm severely wounded. I shall never play for you again."
"Thank heaven!" breathed someone, evidently much relieved.
"Who was that we heard tooting the mouth organ?" demanded Johnson,
editor of the Bartlett College Weekly.
"Rube's the guilty man," betrayed Pole, anxious to have another share
his sorrows. "If they ask you to play, Rube, don't do it! I wouldn't
play before such an unappreciative audience."
"Come on, Rube, give us some music!"
"No, I reckon I've made noise enough for one evening," replied Judd,
shyly.
"Just one tune, please!"
Judd looked at Cateye questioningly.
"Go ahead," grinned Cateye, "Drive 'em out, Judd!"
Judd picked up the mouth organ.
"What'll I play?"
"Oh,--anything!"
"That's pretty broad. S'posin' I impersonate a steam calliope in a
circus?"
"Impersonate, Judd! Great snakes, don't try to impersonate one of
those things! The distortion would be so stupendous that you'd never
look the same again!"
"I reckon I'll imitate one, then," responded Judd, raising the mouth
organ to his lips.
The moment he started playing, a hush came over the bunch. The
imitation was so perfect that every fellow could imagine again the tail
end of a gaudy circus parade and the steaming calliope.
When Judd finished he was greeted with a round of applause. Cries of,
"More! More!" came from every throat.
Judd seemed to catch the spirit of it all and to forget his
embarrassment. He began to play simple home melodies and popular songs
which gripped at the heart strings of every fellow present. Several
times the fellows started in and sang while Judd furnished the
accompaniments. At last, Judd, thinking that he had played long
enough, struck up the tune, "Good-night, ladies." The fellows took the
hint and departed, promising to come again and thanking Judd for his
entertainment.
"Well, Judd," said Cateye, quietly, "I'm proud of you tonight. You
made some hit with the bunch!"
"Did I?"
"I should say you did! I'd give anything to have the guys rave over me
like they did over you and your playing."
"Honest?"
"Sure thing! How did you ever learn to play the mouth organ so well?
I never imagined that instrument could produce such pretty music!"
"I can't remember when I learned. Seems as if I always knew how,"
replied Judd, mightily pleased.
"Your popularity is assured now!" went on Cateye, "You'll have a crowd
in here every night."
"Not much!" sniffed Judd, "I'm no orchestra. They'll be lucky if they
hear another note for a week!"
"Well, let's go to bed," yawned Cateye, sleepily, breaking off
conversation. "I don't know when I've been so tired. For heaven's
sake don't snore to-night! I want to snooze."
"Trust me, pal," grinned Judd, "I'm not due to snore for two nights
yet. You must remember, I'm runnin' on a fixed schedule."
Long after Judd's steady breathing could be heard Cateye lay awake,
thinking. He had tried to go to sleep at first but found sleep, for a
time at least, impossible.
"Good old Judd," Cateye mused to himself, "I'm getting so I like you
better every day. You may be awkward; you may be a rube as they say;
but you're a great scout just the same. Bob,..." (Here he addressed
his friend as though he were present), "That was the best thing you
ever did when you sent your green kid brother down to me. You knew how
I could help him if I would and you knew what an inspiration he would
be to me. This is a great old world and a great old college. What
would life be without real friendship? What would one do without,--"
but musing, he dropped off into the land of dreams.
* * * * *
The campus clock had tolled twelve very methodically and stopped for an
hour's rest. Cateye was still sleeping soundly but for some
unaccountable reason he was bothered with bad dreams. It seemed now as
if Judd had turned into a raving maniac, had grasped him by the throat
and was slowly, cruelly, choking him to death. Try as he might Cateye
could not shake that death grip off. Judd was grinning crazily and
saying: "That's one of my failin's; I always do grip too hard!"
Cateye's breath began to come in short, quick gasps. He tried his best
to cry out, to beg Judd to release him, but though his lips moved no
sound came forth. Cateye tried to get free, but failed, and lost
consciousness altogether.
Judd was also troubled in his sleep but his dreams were of a different
nature. It seemed to him as if all the flies in the Universe were
buzzing and crawling about on his face. They crept into his eyes and
mouth and even ventured up his nose. The more Judd fought to keep them
off the more numerous they became. Finally one big fly succeeded in
gaining entrance to Judd's mouth and buzzed down into his throat,
almost choking him. He coughed and sat bolt upright. It was hard for
him to think, to act, to breathe. Why! The room was full of smoke!
This discovery brought Judd to full consciousness with a jolt. He
bounded to his feet and rushed over to Cateye's bed.
"Cateye! Cateye! Wake up! The dorm's on fire! Quick!"
No answer.
"Cateye!"
The smoke was stifling. There was no time to waste. Judd reached over
and shook Cateye roughly. This not producing the desired affect he
pulled Cateye out of bed and dragged him to the door, shouting, "Fire!"
as loud as he could. From the lower floor his cries were answered and
a voice here and there took up the cry.
Judd opened the door into the hall but was met by such a blast of hot,
suffocating smoke that he quickly shut it again. What was to be done?
Cateye was unconscious; the hallway was black with smoke. The window!
Judd rushed over to it and looked down. But the dorm was three stories
high and they were upon the third story! Judd was baffled for a
moment, then, diving under his bed he pulled forth a coil of knotted
rope, one end of which was tied to a ring in the floor, provided for
fellows in every room, in case of just such an emergency. He quickly
made a noose of the free end, passed this around under Cateye's arm
pits, and pushing him out the window, lowered him to the ground.
Half-clad figures were already dashing across the campus. At Judd's
lusty hail some one took care of Cateye. Satisfied that his room-mate
was now free from danger Judd turned about to see what else he could
do. The smoke was steadily growing thicker.
He grabbed a towel, saturated it by thrusting it in a pitcher of water
on the dresser, and wrapped it about his face; then he turned and
rushed into the hall. At the further end, near the stairs, a little
line of red flame sputtered. Judd started back, remembering the coil
of hose at the other end of the hall, and wondering why none of the
students had thought to use it before. But he stumbled across a body
lying in the doorway of the room adjoining Cateye's. He stooped and
rolled the body over so that he could see the face. "Pole!" he gasped.
Stepping over Pole's inert form and into the room, Judd saw Potts lying
in a sitting posture, half-dressed, against the side of his bed!
Yells came from the floor below. "Go out the window, guys! We can't
reach you from below! What's the matter up there? Get a move on!"
Judd secured the rope from under Potts' bed, made another noose and let
Potts gently out the window. He looked out on the campus. A great
crowd of students had now collected and more were coming from every
direction. Some had lanterns.
"Tie one of those lanterns on and send it up!" shouted Judd, hoarsely.
"Where are all the fellows? There's only four accounted for! Ten more
up there!" inquired an anxious voice from below.
"Don't know!" responded Judd, pulling up the rope and taking off the
lantern. "I'm lettin' 'em down as soon as I find 'em!"
Pole's long, lean form was the next one to slip gracefully over the
window sill to safety.
Then Judd rushed into the hall, lantern in hand. The line of fire had
increased into a blaze. Two doors down, Reynolds, a sophomore, dashed
into the hall, clad in pajamas.
"Help!" he cried, wild-eyed. "Max is asleep! I can't waken him.
Hurry, somebody, quick!"
"Make a noose of your rope an' let him out the window!" directed Judd,
"then join me!"
Reynolds disappeared within his room.
Judd hurried to the end of the hall, uncoiled the hose, and turned on
the water. At first a feeble stream came forth, but the flow of water
steadily increased until it gushed out.
Another student, almost choked with smoke, darted into the hall.
"This is a fright!" he cried, on seeing Judd. "Ned is suffocated and
I'm almost done for!"
At this moment, Reynolds, having disposed of his room-mate, dashed
across the hall.
"Here, I'll help you!" he called. "We'll go to every room and clear
the fellows out!"
"That's the way to do it!" shouted Judd, encouragingly. "I'll stay
here an' fight this fire!"
Dragging the hose down the hall, wetting everything before him as he
went, Judd soon neared the source of the fire. It seemed to be
centered about the head of the stairs. The first room on the right at
the top of the stairs had been used as a store-room. Its door was
almost burnt away and inside it was a mass of flames.
A voice called up from the second floor.
"Thank God, somebody had brains enough to use the hose at last! We're
keeping the fire from breaking through but the building is full of
smoke. Where is the blaze, in the store-room?"
"Yep!" replied Judd, his eyes smarting from the films of smoke and
flying cinders.
"Everybody out up there?"
"Gettin' 'em out!" Judd did not feel like talking much.
"Good! Keep the water on that blaze and we'll have the fire out in
about twenty minutes. More smoke than anything else!"
Reynolds and McCabe, the fellow he had helped, came running up to Judd.
"They're all out!" cried McCabe. "Some job, though--most everyone
suffocated. I never had such hard work getting awake in all my life!"
"Fetch the lantern," ordered Judd, pushing ahead into the store-room,
having extinguished the fire about the head of the stairs.
The forceful stream of water soon produced a telling effect on the
flames. There was a loud hissing noise and white clouds of steam.
Then the last tongue of flame slowly died out and all was darkness,
save for the light shed by the lantern.
"Hurrah, we're heroes!" grinned McCabe.
The smoke was still treacherously thick. Neither Judd nor Reynolds saw
any humor in McCabe's exclamation at that moment. Judd continued to
pour water into the charred room. Some students at the second floor
landing ventured up cautiously.
"Smudge over?" asked one.
"Mostly!" replied Judd.
"That sure was a bad one for so little a fire. Four of the nine
fellows who were suffocated haven't come to yet!"
"How's Cateye?" demanded Judd.
"He's one of 'em!" was the reply.
"Here,--somebody, take this hose! Quick! I'm a goin' down stairs,"
cried Judd, "This smoke's too much for me! ... Say, fellows,--where is
Cateye now?"
"They took him to dorm number two!"
Judd waited only long enough to pull a pair of trousers on over his
nightshirt, and to push his big feet into a pair of slippers. He
forced his way through eager crowds of questioners and elbowed many
fellows from his path.
The four unconscious men were laid out upon cots, drawn up in the
reading room. Doctor Bray, college physician, and several students,
were busy working over them. A great crowd stood in front of the
dormitory, not allowed to enter.
Judd fought his way through the crowd and stepped in at the door, his
face black from smoke and the upper portion of his nightshirt drenched.
Oole halted him.
"You can't go in there!"
Cries of, "Hold him!" "What do you think you are?" "Keep him out!" came
from the crowd.
"Cateye,--he's my room-mate!" said Judd, simply, and pushed Oole aside
as though he were a mere toy. Oole, remembering how narrowly he
escaped fate at the powerful hands of Judd once before, offered no
resistance.
"Come on! You let him in. Let us in!" some student shouted.
"Sure! He's no better than any of us!"
"Shut up, you guys!" bellowed Oole. "Cateye's in there and he's Rube's
room-mate! Guess he has a right to go in."
"I should say he has!" echoed Reynolds, coming up. "That guy put out
the fire and saved some lives besides!"
"What! Rube put out the fire?"
"Sure he did! There were only five of us on the third floor who
weren't suffocated. That was the nastiest, thickest smoke I ever got
into! Benz and Mann both woke up and went out the window after yelling
fire."
"Benz and Mann! The yellow,--" began somebody, but stopped short when
he saw the two fellows standing shamefacedly in the crowd.
"Rube let down Cateye, Potts, and Pole, and then got out the hose,"
went on Reynolds, the crowd listening eagerly. "About this time I woke
up and when I got the first whiff of smoke I lost my head. Rube saw
me, told me what to do, and McCabe and I lowered all the other fellows
while Rube fought the fire. Some of the guys were half awake but so
stupid that they didn't know what they were doing so we hoisted them
out the window anyhow. Thanks to Rube the dorm is saved and I guess
the fellows will be none the worse for their experiences."
"Bravo!"
"Good work, all of you!"
"Rube is some boy!"
Benz turned about and walked away. "Rube again!" he muttered, angrily.
"The lucky stiff!"
* * * * *
Cateye came to with a start, looked about and saw Judd.
"For the love of mud, Judd, never choke me like that again. Why,--you
almost killed me!"
"Choke you, Cateye? I never choked you!" protested Judd, "You were in
a fire, pal, an' the only thing I did was to shove you out the window."
"Fire! Where? When?" Cateye sat up, then laid back again, weakly.
"About three quarters of an hour ago. A little smudge at the dorm.
You were suffocated,--"
"So you didn't choke me after all," said Cateye, much relieved, feeling
of his throat. "My, that was an awful dream! Gee! I smell like a
piece of smoked ham! Say, who are those guys?" indicating the fellows
on the other cots, over whom Doctor Bray was still working.
"Pole, Potts, and Lawton," replied the doctor, "Your room and theirs
was the nearest to the fire and you got the direct benefit of the
smoke. They're beginning to come around though. Lucky some of you
weren't killed!"
"Judd, you must have saved my life!" breathed Cateye.
"He undoubtedly did!" replied Doctor Bray, "Another five minutes would
have ended you four fellows!"
Cateye held out his hand, gratefully. Judd took it, grinning
sheepishly.
"Good old scout!" said Cateye, softly. "Be careful, ... that grip of
yours ...!"