WATCHING THE TREASURE.
“Any news yet?”
“Nothing. I guess they’re waiting till night to move it.”
“Do you suppose they knew the burglars were after it last night?”
“No, I don’t. They haven’t the least idea of it, I’m sure. I heard Bull
Harris talking about it this afternoon.”
The Seven were waiting for a summons to drill, and sitting in one of
the tents of the summer encampment. The cadet who was answering the
questions was Mark. He had just entered the tent as the conversation
before mentioned began.
“Bull Harris will never get that treasure away from us,” he continued.
“That is, not unless he has more sense than I think he has. Bull is
busy all day, nearly the same as we; so I think he’ll try to move it at
night. We can watch him then, and stand a fair show to get it back. You
see it was only night before last that he stole it from our cave, and I
think he’s pretty sure we haven’t found it out yet. We’ve been careful
not to awaken any suspicions.”
“Keerful!” echoed Texas. “Pshaw! I don’t see whar the keerful part is.
We stole over thar to the hotel last night an’ went up to the room and
tried to run off with it. An’ ef somebody hadn’t a seen us, we’d a had
it, too.”
“Bull Harris has small idea that those desperate burglars were his old
plebe enemies,” laughed Mark. “I heard him talking about the burglars
to the cadets this morning. He said he thought they had come up from
Highland Falls and----”
The conversation was cut short just then by the rattle of a drum, which
caused the plebes to spring up and hustle out of the tent in a hurry
to “fall in” for the morning drill in evolutions, which ended the
plotting, for that hour at least.
The treasure was still in the hotel. By way of penance for her last
night’s stupidity, Grace Fuller had volunteered to see that the chest
was not carried from the place that day without the plebes learning of
it. Mark had been over to inquire a short while ago; his report had
been as stated.
He was mistaken, however, in his idea that the yearling had no idea
who the burglars were. Young Chandler had picked up a revolver dropped
in the hall by Texas. Texas hadn’t missed it; he had too many for that.
But this one had his initials on it, and Chandler had “caught on” to
the state of affairs in no time. So Bull did know that he was watched,
and he was using all his cunning to outwit his unsuspecting enemies. A
chest of gold was a stake worth playing hard for.
Slowly the day passed. Chandler still held on to that revolver, with
the “J. P.” on the hilt. Likewise to the box of treasure in the corner
of his room. And he and Bull were busily plotting a way to remove it to
safety, and if possible get its real owners into trouble besides. Bull
thought they might make another effort to steal it. “It would be just
like the fools,” said he, “and if they do, they won’t get away quite so
easily again.”
Bull had a decided advantage in the matter, as you may easily see.
He was working with his eyes open. He knew the situation. The Seven,
on the other hand, were blinded by their supposition that they were
unwatched and unsuspected.
Moreover, Bull had what Texas would have called the “drop” on them with
that gun.
He was going to cap the climax by getting the treasure safely out of
reach; then he calculated that his long-sought revenge over Mark would
be obtained.
Bull watched Mark and his “gang” slyly during the day. Bull hated each
and every individual member of that gang with all the concentrated
hatred of which he was capable. Mark had foiled and outwitted him at
every turn--the wild and woolly Texan had thrashed him once; “Indian,”
the fat and timid “kid” from Indianapolis, had gotten mad one day and
interrupted one of Bull’s hazing bees, attacking the yearling with a
fury that had knocked him off his feet.
Then there was the Parson, who was one of the most inoffensive scholars
this world has ever made, but he did object to being tied in a sack
“like a member of the Turkish harem,” as he vividly described it. And
when Bull tried that, the Parson had a fit and put his classical and
geological muscles at work on Bull’s nose.
Then came “B’gee” Dewey, light-hearted, with a laugh that put everybody
in a good humor. Not so Bull; Dewey had once had the nerve to refuse
to climb a tree because Bull said to, and had given Bull two black
eyes during the scrimmage that followed. Besides these there were
“Chauncey, the dude,” and “Sleepy, the farmer,” who had once attacked
Bull and five other yearlings, and who, besides this, had dared to join
Mallory’s gang, an unpardonable offense anyhow. Bull Harris had much to
revenge, but he thought he was about to make up for all of it in a very
brief time.
The day passed without incident to interest us. It was the usual
routine of duty for the plebes, with much drilling and very little
rest. Grace Fuller kept some one watching Chandler all day with no
result; and that is all there is to be said.
The plot began to unfold itself that night, however. Chandler strolled
in to see Bull after supper, a fact which the Seven noticed with no
small amount of glee.
“He’s fixing up something for to-night,” they whispered.
That seemed to be the state of affairs for a fact, and the Seven made a
compact then and there to stay awake and prevent it if it was the last
thing they ever did in their lives.
That is, all of them but one. The one was the Parson. The Parson,
it appeared, had been “geologizing” during the morning; he had
secured some extraordinary specimens of rocks. There were pyrites
and fluorites, belemnites and ammonites, hematites, andalusies and
goniatites, to say nothing of Hittites and Jebusites, added by the
facetious Dewey, with outasites and gottabites. However that may
be, Parson Stanard had found a piece of “horn-blend, with traces of
potassium nitrate manifested.” So extraordinary a phenomenon as that
could not be allowed to pass unnoticed, especially for any quantity
of ordinary twenty-two carat gold, with no interest to the chemist
whatsoever. The Parson vowed he was going to analyze that specimen that
evening as soon as camp was quiet.
Dewey suggested that evening ought to be pretty good time to test for
“nitrates,” whereupon the Parson turned away with a solemn look of pain
and fell to examining his chemicals. The Parson had discovered a loose
board in the flooring of his tent, and with true Bostonian originality
he had hidden all his specimens and apparatus under that; the Texan’s
revolvers were there, too, making a most interesting collection of
articles altogether.
We must go on to the adventures of the evening. The Parson’s chemistry
was destined to play a most important part in the affair, but not just
at present.
Tattoo sounded, calling the cadets to roll call and bed; taps comes
half an hour later, “lights out and all quiet.” Then the “tac”
inspected and went to bed also, after which the Parson got up, let down
his tent walls, lighted his candle, and set out his array of test-tubes
and reagents. Then also Texas got up and stole out of the tent, past
the sentry, and over to the hotel.
It had been agreed that the place was to be watched from the distance
every moment that night. Texas had put in a claim to be first, and he
was on his way to spend an hour hiding in the bushes. Chandler and Bull
Harris weren’t going to remove that treasure without a “scrap.”
As it happened, Texas was not going to have to wait long. It appears
that Bull imagined that the Seven were going to try burglary again; his
plan to fool them was to hide the treasure early, before the people
in the hotel were quiet, and so before the plebes could do anything.
Then, the treasure once out of the way, Chandler might easily trap the
plebes. It was quite a clever scheme indeed, and Bull was in a hurry to
put it into execution.
He stole out of camp as Texas had done, and stole into the hotel at the
rear entrance. At the same moment Texas rose up out of the bushes and
sped away toward camp at the top of his speed.
Which was where the excitement began.