TIT FOR TAT
After that it was a comparatively easy matter to get Henry Stowell
to tell the details of what had been done. Several times Dock Wesley
tried to stop him, but finally he also capitulated and became almost as
humble as the sneak.
“It was only a bit of fun,” said Wesley. “Can’t a fellow do something
on the last night at school?”
“Sure!” answered Fred.
“But you’ve got to take your dose in return,” was Fatty Hendry’s
comment.
Thereupon Codfish and Wesley admitted that they and four other cadets
had entered the rooms occupied by the Rovers and their chums and taken
away all their clothing and their bed things.
“Everything is locked up safe and sound in Room Forty-two,” said
Codfish. “You know, that room hasn’t been occupied this term.”
“How did you get the key?” asked Andy.
“We got it one day from the janitor when he was cleaning up. He
thought he had lost it, and so locked up with a duplicate.”
“Where is the key now?” asked Jack.
“I――I let Dock keep it,” faltered Codfish.
“Say, you needn’t put off everything on me,” growled Wesley. “You
had as much to do with this as anybody. The key is on a hook in that
closet,” and Wesley nodded toward a closet in a corner.
“Now we want to know who the other fellows were,” declared Fred, after
the key had been secured.
“Oh, you had better not ask that,” pleaded the sneak. “If we give them
away they may hammer the daylights out of us.”
“You talk up, Codfish, or you may get the hammering right now,” put in
Gif.
Thereupon Codfish mentioned the names of four cadets who had been more
or less chummy with him since the term had started. Two were new boys,
and all were fellows with whom the Rovers and their chums had had
little to do.
“Now put on your slippers and come along with us,” ordered Jack.
“What do you want of us?” questioned Wesley.
“First of all, you’re going to bring all that stuff back,” declared the
young major. “After that we’ll see what we’ll do.”
“Why don’t you make the other fellows join us?” asked Codfish. He
thought there might be safety in numbers.
“We’ll take care of them later on,” put in Gif grimly.
Finding themselves cornered, Codfish and Wesley accompanied the others
to Room 42, and there on the bed, on the chairs, and on the floor they
found all the things taken from the Rovers and Gif and Spouter.
“I call this something of a mess,” declared Fatty, who had come along.
“Here, give me some of that clothing! I’ll help carry it.”
Even with the assistance of those who had suffered from the joke, it
was necessary to make several trips back and forth to get all the
things where they belonged. During the last trip Fred and Andy noticed
some other cadets hiding in the shadows at the end of the corridor and
laughing softly among themselves.
“They think they’ve got the joke on us,” whispered Fred. “Come on, let
us make a break for them.”
“Not yet. I’ve got a better plan,” came from Randy.
After everything had been restored to the rooms, the Rovers and their
chums marched Codfish and Wesley back to their own quarters.
“Now then, I think we’ll give you a dose of your own medicine,” said
the young major. “Boys, pick up all that extra clothing and all those
quilts and bedsheets and put them in the closet over there.”
“Say, what does this mean?” demanded Wesley.
“You’ll see in a minute.”
The others were quick to catch the idea, and all the bed coverings, as
well as the wearing apparel in the room, were quickly transferred to
the closet.
“We’ll leave you your pajamas, for you might catch cold,” said Randy.
Then the closet door was locked and the key taken away.
“Now, don’t try to raise a row, or you’ll be sure to get the worst of
it,” said Jack, as the crowd prepared to leave the room.
“We can’t stay here with nothing on the beds!” cried Codfish.
“You thought we could do it, didn’t you?” asked Andy. “It’s simply tit
for tat. Go on and lie down and enjoy yourselves.” And thereupon the
Rovers and their chums withdrew, locking the door after them.
“I guess that will hold them for a while,” remarked Spouter. “They
can’t get their things unless they break open the door, and I don’t
think they’ll go that far. And they can’t get out unless they go on the
fire escape, and the door from there to the corridor is locked on the
inside――they’d have to go through some of the other fellows’ rooms.”
“Now then, how are we going to square up with those other fellows?”
asked Gif.
“I was thinking I might sneak down and get old Huxley’s garden
syringe――the one he uses to spray the bushes and flowers with,” said
Andy. “We might give ’em all a dose of ice-water, or something like
that.”
“Old stuff,” declared Fred. “Can’t we think of something new?”
“We might blow some smoke through the keyholes or under the doors,”
suggested Randy. “Then we could bang on the door and let them think
there was a fire.”
“Gosh! that isn’t half bad,” said Fred. “But how shall we make the
smoke? We can’t build a fire, or anything of that sort.”
“Some wet paper will do the trick.”
“I don’t think you ought to try that, boys,” declared Jack. “It might
bring on a panic, and we don’t want any one to be hurt on this, the
last night at the Hall. Come on and see if we can’t get hold of those
fellows.”
They passed around a corner of the corridor, and as they did so Gif
suddenly clutched the youngest Rover by the arm.
“There go some fellows now!” he whispered. “See them crawling along
over there? I wonder who they are and what they’re up to?”
The lights in the hallway had been turned low, and the Rovers and their
chums could just make out the forms of four cadets slinking along
silently. Then they disappeared from view around one of the numerous
corners.
Curious to know what new fun might be in the air, the Rovers and the
others followed the crowd like so many shadows. They saw the four
cadets who were ahead stop in front of the room which they had left but
a few moments before.
“Gee, I know that crowd!” exclaimed Andy, in a low voice. “Those are
the very fellows Codfish and Wesley mentioned――the fellows who helped
them take our things.”
“They must be wanting to know what we were doing here,” suggested Gif.
“Say, why can’t we pounce on ’em and make ’em prisoners? We are seven
to four.”
“I’m game if you fellows are,” answered Randy readily.
A plan was hastily formed, and just as the four cadets had begun their
talk with Codfish and Wesley, out of the semi-darkness pounced the
Rovers and their chums.
“Give in! Give in!” was the whispered command. “Give in or you’ll get
the licking of your lives!”
“Hi! Stop that!” roared one of the cadets, a lad named Morris. “Let up!”
“Do-do-don’t ch-choke me to death!” spluttered a cadet named Shamberg.
“Let up, I tell you!”
“It’s the Rovers!” came from a third of the lads.
“They’ve found us out!” wailed the fourth, a fellow who was just as
much of a sneak and coward as Codfish had ever been.
Surrounded and taken completely off their guard, the four cadets
were speedily made prisoners. Then, almost before they knew what was
happening, they were taken to the two adjoining rooms which they
chanced to occupy. One of the rooms had a rather large closet which at
one time had been a storeroom. It had a small window about five feet
from the ground.
“I’ve got an idea,” said Jack. “Throw a mattress in here on the floor.”
The others quickly caught on and in a trice a mattress from one of the
beds was flung on the floor of the storeroom. Then the four cadets who
had been captured were forced into the place.
“Now you fellows can stay here until morning,” declared Jack. “You
didn’t want us to have a decent night’s sleep, so now you can get along
in any old way you please. Don’t dare to make a rumpus, or we’ll be
after you in a way you least expect.”
“Gee, we’ll smother to death in here this warm night!” declared Morris.
“No, you won’t,” said Spouter. “You can take turns at looking out of
the window. But I’d advise you not to crawl out, because it’s about
twenty-five feet to the ground.”
“We’ll report this to-morrow, you see if we don’t,” grumbled Shamberg.
“Report and be hanged,” retorted Gif. “If you say a word to Colonel
Colby we’ll tell him what you did.” And thereupon the Rovers and their
chums withdrew, locking the storeroom door and then locking the door to
the corridor.
It was a good quarter of an hour after Gif, Spouter and Fatty had
left them that the Rovers were able to rearrange their beds so that
they could lie down. All were now thoroughly tired out and Andy
could scarcely keep his eyes open. But there was to be little sleep
for any of the cadets during that last night at Colby Hall. Half a
dozen parties were wandering around, making all the fun possible, and
presently Professor Snopper Duke came after some of the boys, trying
to quiet them.
“This is disgraceful!” stormed the irate teacher. “I want you boys to
keep quiet.”
Then came an alarm from Codfish and Wesley, as several other cadets
broke into their room, bent upon bringing the sneak and his chum to
terms for something done in the classroom the week before. Into this
row Snopper Duke precipitated himself, and as a consequence was struck
in the nose by a baseball which one of the lads threw at Codfish.
“Oh, oh, my nose! Who threw that baseball?” roared the teacher. Then,
as the blood began to flow from the injured organ, he hastened off to
the nearest bathroom where he might bathe it.
It was all of three o’clock before the Rovers got any sleep at all.
By half past six they were again awake and busy packing their things,
ready to depart. Then Randy and Andy sneaked away and liberated Morris,
Shamberg and the other two with them.
“Hope you slept well,” said Andy, grinning.
“You let me get my hands on you, and I’ll show you how I slept,”
stormed Morris. But then Andy ran off laughing and his twin followed
him. The other boys were very sore, but did not dare to do anything.
“And now to get the girls and start for home!” said Jack, a short while
after breakfast.
“And then for our vacation!” added Fred. “If only we knew where it was
going to be!”
“You’ll know very soon,” declared Andy. “Randy and I have made up our
minds to tell you as soon as we are ready to leave Haven Point.”