The Putnam Hall Encampment: or, The Secret of the Old Mill

CHAPTER III
REFF RITTER’S CONFESSION

“He got down just in time,” said the strange boy, as he assisted Pepper in making Jack comfortable on the grass. “Is there a well handy? If there is I’ll get some water.”

“There is a well back of the church,” answered Pepper. “But I reckon my chum needs a chance to get back his wind more than anything else,” he added.

The strange youth ran off, to return presently with a large tin dipper full of water. With this he and Pepper bathed the young major’s face and gave him a drink. Jack soon opened his eyes and sat up.

“Did I – I fall?” he stammered.

“Not until you were on the ground,” answered Pepper.

“You held out just long enough and no longer,” said the strange boy, with a short laugh. “You were plucky to hold out as long as you did.”

“It was a terrible experience,” answered Jack soberly. “I thought at one time I’d surely lose my grip and break my neck!”

“You keep quiet awhile,” advised Pepper. “You need a chance to rest and get back your nerve, that’s all.”

“He certainly had nerve!” said the strange youth, with a grin. “But, say, you promised to tell me what it was all about. I know there is a military school near here called Putnam Hall? Do you go there?”

“Yes,” answered Pepper. “But – er – would you mind helping me put that ladder back before we talk? We don’t want to be spotted if we can help it.”

“Sure, I’ll help you,” cried the stranger, and soon he and The Imp had the ladder down and back to the shed. By this time Jack had recovered sufficiently to stand up. He was still a bit dizzy but his strength was coming back fast.

“I am Pepper Ditmore,” said that youth to the stranger. “And this is my chum, Jack Ruddy. I am only a private at the Hall but Jack is an officer.”

“And I am Bert Field,” said the stranger, and extended his hand, which both of the other boys shook. “I am just stopping in Cedarville for a day or two on business which – er – but that won’t interest you,” he added hastily. “It was a lark, eh, climbing into the belfry?”

“Yes, we intended to take away the bell clapper,” answered Pepper. “Some of the other cadets dared us to do it.”

“But how did you get locked in?”

“We think one of the other cadets – who is down on us – followed us and fastened the trap door. I suppose he thinks we are up there yet.”

“I want to thank you for what you did for me, Field,” said Jack, earnestly.

“Oh, that’s all right.”

“If you’ll – er – accept a gift, I’ll be pleased – ”

“No, thank you just the same, Ruddy. I don’t want a thing.”

“But we’d like to do something for you – to show you we appreciate your coming to our assistance,” put in Pepper.

“Maybe you’d like to visit our school?” suggested the young major.

“Thanks, but I haven’t time just now. But tell me, do you know a man living in these parts named Jabez Trask?” went on Bert Field, eagerly.

“No,” answered Jack, and Pepper shook his head.

“Never heard of him?”

“No,” said Pepper.

“Too bad! I thought maybe you boys knew about everybody living in this neighborhood.”

“Is it somebody you want to find?” questioned Jack.

“Yes, but – er – well, never mind. Don’t you bother your head about it.”

“The postmaster might be able to tell you where this Jabez Trask lives,” said the young major. “Why not ask him?”

“Well, – er – I don’t want to ask too many questions in public,” stammered Bert Field. “You see I – that is – can I trust you with my secret? You’ve trusted me with yours.”

“Certainly,” came from both of the Putnam Hall cadets.

“Well then, I want to find this Jabez Trask without his knowing anything about it.”

“Why, what in the world – ” began Pepper, for he scented a mystery connected with the youth with whom he and his chum had just become acquainted.

“I can’t explain it – or at least I don’t wish to, now,” answered Bert Field, quickly. “Please don’t say anything about it to anybody.” He pulled a silver watch from his pocket. “Phew! after ten o’clock! I’ll have to be going! Goodbye! Maybe we’ll meet again!”

“Good-bye!” answered Pepper.

“Much obliged!” added Jack. And then the tall, thin boy turned out of the churchyard and hurried along the country road, some bushes and trees soon hiding him from view. The young major gazed after him curiously and so did Pepper.

“That’s a strange fellow,” was Jack’s comment. “But he certainly did us a good turn.”

“He sure did,” answered Pepper. “Wonder what he wants of this Jabez Trask?”

“Something important, you may be certain of that, or he wouldn’t be so secret about it.”

The two cadets walked to the roadway and then both stopped short and looked at each other. The same thought had occurred to each.

“We came for that clapper and we might as well have it,” declared Pepper. “I’ll go back and get it, Jack. You can rest behind the bushes, where nobody will see you.”

“All right – and I’ll watch out, – that nobody comes up to fasten that trap door again.”

“By jove! that’s so! Maybe the Ritter crowd is hanging around yet!”

“If they are, it was mighty mean of them not to come to my assistance when I was in peril of my life!”

“Maybe they were too scared and ran away.”

Jack found a convenient spot behind some bushes and Pepper disappeared once more inside the church. In less than ten minutes The Imp reappeared with both the bell clapper and the battered lantern.

“I shoved the broken glass into a corner with my foot,” he said. “And I pulled the rope back into the belfry. The lower end came loose easily when I pulled it up.”

“To be sure,” answered Jack. “A knot was caught in a crotch and that is why it held when the pull was downward. But come on, we’d better be getting back, or we’ll have trouble getting into the Hall.”

“I am not going to carry this busted lantern,” said Pepper, and threw the thing behind some bushes. Then, with the clapper of the bell done up in a newspaper he had brought along, he struck out for Putnam Hall, with Jack beside him.

“There will be a big row when they find the clapper gone, that’s certain,” mused the young major.

“Maybe they’ll lay it to the Pornell fellows,” answered Pepper, with a broad grin. “Hope they do! It will pay back Roy Bock and his crowd for their meanness to us.”

Jack had now fully recovered his strength and both boys kept up a rapid gait until more than half the distance to Putnam Hall had been covered. Then, of a sudden, the young major called a halt.

“What’s the trouble?” demanded his chum.

“Somebody is coming! Maybe some of the teachers!”

Both of the cadets leaped from the roadway to some convenient bushes. It was after hours and they well knew that to be caught by Captain Putnam or any of his assistants would mean severe punishment. Jack might even be reduced to the ranks, something that would have hurt the major’s feelings exceedingly.

A whistle arose on the air, a peculiar whistle, thrice repeated. Pepper answered it at once, and he and Jack stepped back to the roadway. In a moment they were confronted by Andy Snow and Stuffer Singleton.

“Did you get it?” demanded Andy, eagerly.

“What kept you so long?” added Stuffer. “We made up our minds something had gone wrong and we were coming to find out.”

“Something did go wrong,” burst out Pepper. “Somebody locked us in the belfry.” And then he and his chum told their story.

“It must have been Ritter and his crowd,” declared Stuffer. “None of us did it. I was with Dale and the others all the time, and Andy was on his errand for Captain Putnam.”

“If I was certain it was Ritter I’d give him a piece of my mind!” declared Jack. “It was a mean piece of business on his part – after what I did for him a few weeks ago. He might have been expelled from this school if I had not asked the captain to give him another chance.”

“Oh, you can’t rely on Ritter,” came from the cadet who loved to eat. “Why, yesterday, I had an extra piece of pie hidden in a closet, to eat after lessons, and he came along and gobbled it down! He ought to have the daylights hammered out of him!”

“Well, we got the clapper anyway,” said Pepper, grimly. “And it’s up to you, Stuffer, to treat to that ice-cream, and for Dale to find that apple pie that was promised.”

“I’ll keep my promise the first time we go to town, never fear,” answered Stuffer. “But just now I think the best thing all of us can do is to sneak into the school and get to bed, before we are found out.”

“And before Ritter plays some more of his dirty tricks,” added Andy.

The four cadets walked in the direction of the school, but before arriving at the campus turned into a side road bordering the lake.

“No use of going in by the regular entrance,” said Jack. “We’d be sure to be spotted – especially if Ritter or his cronies have told one of the teachers that we are out.”

“I know where Snuggers keeps his key to the kitchen door,” said Andy. “Maybe I can get that.” He referred to Peleg Snuggers, a general utility man around Putnam Hall, who divided his time between the school building and the stables.

“Where is the key?” asked Pepper.

“On a nail in the washshed. I saw him put it there one evening.”

“Then we had better go in by the back way – if we can get the key,” said Stuffer.

With caution the boys skirted the edge of the lake. As they passed the boathouse they heard a murmur of voices. They were about to set off on a run, thinking some teachers were in the building, when Jack called a halt.

“It’s Reff Ritter talking!” he cried, in a low voice, and a few seconds later there issued from the boathouse the forms of the school bully and his two particular cronies, Gus Coulter and Nick Paxton. As soon as the three saw the other cadets they started to walk away rapidly.

“Stop, Ritter! I want to talk to you!” cried Jack, in a low but steady tone.

“What do you want?” snapped back Reff Ritter, coming to a halt and wheeling around. It was after hours, so he did not take the trouble to salute the young major.

“I want to talk to you, – and I want to talk to Coulter and Paxton, too.”

“What about?” and now the seven students came together close to the side of the boathouse. “Don’t give me any of your long-winded speeches, Ruddy, for I am sleepy and want to get to bed.”

“Ritter, you and your gang played a mean trick on me and Ditmore to-night.”

“Did we?” sneered the bully.

“You did.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Maybe you think you weren’t seen near the church?” put in Pepper, meaningly.

“Say, who – er – who saw us?” faltered Coulter.

“Ha, so you admit you were at the church!” cried Jack.

“Coulter, can’t you hold your jaw?” demanded Reff Ritter, angrily.

“Ritter, answer me straight,” said Jack, in a determined voice. “Were you at the church to-night or not.”

“Well, since you want to know so badly, I was,” answered the bully. “Now then, what of it?”

“You fastened the trap door of the belfry, did you?” put in Pepper.

“I did.”

CHAPTER IV
PUNISHING A BULLY

After the frank confession of the bully of Putnam Hall that he had fastened the trap door of the church belfry, there was a moment of intense silence. He faced Jack and Pepper with a sickly grin on his face.

“It was a joke on you all right enough,” he continued. “You were lucky to get away as quickly as you did. What did you do, – force the trap door open in spite of the bolt?”

“Ritter, I think you are about the worst boy that ever came to this school,” said Pepper.

“Oh, you needn’t preach to me, Ditmore.”

“I wouldn’t say so much if you had played that trick on me alone,” went on The Imp calmly. “But to play it on Jack – after all he did to save you from being expelled – well, it’s beyond me. I guess you don’t know what a conscience is.”

“If you are going to talk to me like that I’ll smash you one in the jaw!” fired back the bully. “I know what I am doing, and it’s not for you to teach me manners.”

“Do you know that Jack came close to losing his life at the church and all because you locked us in the belfry?” added Pepper.

“Humph! What are you trying to do, scare me? It didn’t hurt you to be locked in.”

“Ritter, you listen to me,” broke in the young major, and now his voice was so cold and uncompromising that all in the crowd held their breath. “You admit that you locked us in the belfry, don’t you? You know what it would have meant for me if I had been caught there, and you know what it would have meant for the school. It was mean, dirt mean. I thought you were going to turn over a new leaf – be like the rest of the fellows. Now – well, I think I’ll teach you a lesson.”

“Me, a lesson?” faltered Reff Ritter.

“Exactly. I made a mistake when I didn’t let Captain Putnam expel you. The whole school would have been better off for it. Take off your jacket and cap.”

“Why?”

“Because I am going to give you a sound thrashing – and do it before we go to bed.”

“Humph! Want to fight, eh?”

“No, I didn’t say anything about a fight, I said I was going to give you a sound thrashing.”

“If you fight we’ll all be caught!” cried Nick Paxton, in alarm. “Put it off till to-morrow.”

“Yes, let us get to bed!” added Coulter. “I won’t say a word about your being at the church.”

“You bet you won’t – not unless you want a big licking,” cried Pepper.

“Mum’s the word on this, remember that, everybody,” cried Andy.

“Remember it – or take the consequences,” came from Stuffer.

While the others were talking Jack had shed his cadet jacket and his cap and thrown them on a nearby bench. He faced Ritter so determinedly that the bully backed away several steps.

“I want you to know – ” began Ritter.

“Get ready, if you are going to,” returned the young major. And then as Ritter put up his fists and stuck out his chin he leaped forward and caught the bully by one wrist. The grip was like that of steel and he whirled the fellow around bodily.

“Take that!” roared Ritter and struck out wildly. Jack dodged the blow with ease.

Then, with the quickness of lightning, the young major “sailed into” his opponent. He hit Ritter a sharp blow in the right cheek and followed this up by one on the nose. Then the pair clinched, and he got the bully’s head under his arm and poked Ritter a hard one in the eye and a heavy one in the mouth that loosened several teeth.

“Le – let me g – g – go!” spluttered the bully.

“I’ll let you go when I am done with you!” returned Jack. “I am going to teach you a lesson you won’t forget in a hurry.”

“Break away!” cried Gus Coulter. “Fight him fair, Ruddy.”

“This isn’t a fight – I am merely giving him the thrashing he deserves,” answered the young major. “You keep out of it – or I’ll serve you the same,” he added, so sharply that Coulter stepped back in alarm.

How badly Jack might have damaged Ritter it is hard to state. He was thoroughly aroused and anxious to give the bully a “dressing down” he should never forget. But in the midst of the excitement a cry of alarm arose from Paxton, who had been looking anxiously towards the school building.

“Cheese it!” he called out. “Somebody is coming!”

“It’s old Crabtree!” exclaimed Stuffer. “Boys, we have got to leg it, unless we want to get caught,” he added, as the tall and angular form of the teacher was seen to emerge from the school building.

Jack had no more desire to be caught than anybody else and he quickly relinquished his hold on the bully and picked up his jacket and cap. Ritter was so dazed that he staggered for a second when let alone.

“Yo – you just wait, Jack Ruddy!” he muttered. “Just wait! I’ll get even, if it takes a lifetime to do it!”

“I’ll finish the thrashing some other time, Ritter,” answered the young officer, and then he and his chums ran in one direction while the bully and his cronies ran in another.

“Stop! stop!” came in the harsh, dictatorial voice of Josiah Crabtree, and he came rushing over the campus, cane in hand. “Stop, whoever you are!”

Fortunately for the cadets the moon, which had been shining clearly, now went under a heavy cloud, leaving the campus in darkness. The gloom was disastrous for the teacher, for in his hurry he did not see a low bench bordering the path. He bumped into the bench heavily, lost his balance, and went sprawling on his chest and face.

“Hi! hi! who did this? Who upset me?” he screamed wrathfully. “Stop, you young rascals! If you don’t stop I’ll have you all expelled!”

He picked himself up after an effort and got back his wind, but by that time all of the cadets were out of sight. The Ritter contingent went to an angle of the school building, where hung a rope running up to a dormitory. Jack, Pepper and Stuffer followed Andy to the washshed and there secured the key left by Peleg Snuggers.

“Hurry up, Andy,” cried Pepper, who was looking back to see if they were being followed. “Remember, old Crabtree is on the warpath!”

The kitchen door was quickly opened, the key being left in the lock, and up a back stairs sped the four cadets, Pepper leading the way.

“Wait a minute!” whispered The Imp, when the upper hallway was gained.

“What do you want?” questioned Stuffer.

“Here is the bell clapper. Crabtree is out of his room, and we might – ”

“Hurrah! just the thing!” cried Andy. “Give it to me, Pep. You have done enough for one night.”

“I’ll go with Andy,” put in Stuffer. “You and Jack go to bed.”

And while the young major and his chum sped for their dormitory Andy and Stuffer ran down a side hall leading to the apartment occupied by Josiah Crabtree. As expected, the door was unlocked and they quickly stepped inside the room.

“I’ll put it in his bureau drawer, among his shirts,” said Andy. “He’ll be sure to find it to-morrow.”

“Oh, say, I’ve got an idea!” cried the lad who loved to eat. “But it will rob me of my candy,” he added woefully.

“What is the idea, Stuffer?” asked Andy, who was placing the bell clapper between the teacher’s dress shirts in the bureau.

“I’ve got this molasses candy with me. Supposing I put some of it in the bed? He might – ”

“Have sweet dreams!” finished the acrobatic youth. “Good! Spread the candy out well, Stuffer. It’s a bit hard, I know. But the heat of old Crabtree’s body will fix it all right!”

The bell clapper disposed of, the two cadets spread the molasses candy, which was in thin, flat form, in the bed, between the sheets. Then they turned down the light as they had found it, and hurried forth and to their quarters. As they did this they heard a door below slammed shut and locked.

“Crabtree is coming in!” announced Pepper, who was on the watch. “I’ll wager he is as mad as a hornet for not catching us!”

Some of the other cadets had been told about what was going on, and at several dormitory doors heads peeped forth. But then sounded a peculiar whistle, coming from Emerald Hogan.

It was a signal that the teacher was coming around, inspecting the dormitories. Every cadet understood, and there was a wild scramble to put out the lights and leap into bed.

The only lad who did not escape was Gus Coulter. In the semi-darkness he ran into another cadet and was knocked flat. Before he could get up and reach his bed the door opened and Josiah Crabtree appeared. The light was burning brightly, for it was Coulter’s duty that week to put it out.

“Coulter, stand up!” cried the teacher, wrathfully, and the cadet arose sheepishly.

“What are you doing out of bed this time of night?” demanded Josiah Crabtree.

“I – er – I got up to – er – to get a drink,” answered the youth, stammeringly.

“Indeed!” was the sarcastic rejoinder. “And do you dress every time you want a drink?”

At this question there was a snicker from one of the beds. Josiah Crabtree whirled around to find out who was laughing at him. But every boy lay as if sound asleep.

“Who was laughing, I demand to know!” cried the teacher.

There was no answer.

“Coulter, were you outside a few minutes ago?” went on Josiah Crabtree.

“Me?” asked the cadet, in apparent astonishment. “I just got out of bed.”

“And dressed to get a drink of water, eh?”

Well, I – er – I didn’t feel well and I thought I might need a doctor. But I am better now.”

“Humph! a likely story,” growled the teacher. “I will attend to your case later.” And off he hurried, to find out, if possible, if any students in the other dormitories were up.

When he reached the room used by Jack and his friends he found the young major on his back snoring lustily. All the other boys seemed to be sleeping soundly, and their garments were hung up with care and their shoes placed exactly as the regulations of the school required. The teacher did not know that under the covers some of the boys had not yet taken off their socks and dress shirts, and that the shoes at Pepper’s chair were an extra pair and not the ones The Imp had been wearing all day, – those foot coverings being still on his feet.

Having looked around carefully, Josiah Crabtree retired and continued his inspection of the sleeping rooms. As soon as he was out of sight and hearing Pepper sat up and so did his chums.

“Just escaped and no more,” said Dale Blackmore. “Well, a miss is as good as four miles.”

“Sure, an’ somebody would have been caught had he looked at Pep’s feet!” came from Emerald. “Nixt toime take off your shoes, me b’y, ’tis safer.”

“I hadn’t time,” answered Pepper. “But I’ll take them off now,” he added. “Walking around the Hall at night in my socks is good enough for me.”

The boys had been told of what had been done with the sticky candy, and all waited impatiently for Josiah Crabtree to retire. Presently they heard the teacher enter his room, closing and locking the door after him.

“Now for a little more fun!” whispered The Imp. “Come on, but don’t make any noise!”

One after another the cadets stole out in the dimly-lit hallway and tiptoed their way to the teacher’s apartment. Listening at the door they heard Josiah Crabtree disrobe, put out the light, and crawl into bed.

“Now just wait!” whispered Stuffer. “There will be something doing in a few minutes, mark my words!”