CHAPTER XVIII
ON A FORAGING EXPEDITION
The announcement that Andy made was received with keen interest by all. Every cadet crowded around to get some of the food brought in and to learn the particulars of his foraging and exploring expedition.
“Getting down the back stairs was easy,” said the acrobatic youth. “But once I was in the lower entryway I had to keep my eyes open, to escape the cook and the waiters. I found the bags on a hook behind the door and I got the grub from the pantry when nobody was near. I was careful what I took, for I didn’t want anybody to discover what had been done. I may want to go back for dinner, you know,” and Andy grinned broadly.
“Andy, you have saved my life!” cried Stuffer, with his mouth full of bread and cheese. “I shall remember you in my will.”
“Leave some for me,” was the reply. “I am just as hungry as anybody. All I had in the pantry was one cold sausage and a cracker.”
“Here, we’ll divide the stuff equally,” said Jack, and this was done. Fortunately the paper bags held quite some food, so there was more than enough for all.
“It’s a pity we can’t get some of this stuff to the fellows in the next dormitory,” said Pepper. “I suppose they are as hungry as we are.”
“I’ve got an idea!” cried Dale. “Put all your contributions for the next room into this bag,” and he held up the receptacle as he spoke.
“How are you going to get it to them?” questioned Henry Lee.
“I have a brand new, patented and copyrighted way,” went on Dale. “Just fork over, everybody, for the benefit of the heathens in Hungry Land.”
The bag was soon filled with bread, cheese, crackers and chipped beef, and then Dale tied it fast to the end of a hockey stick. This done, he went to one of the windows and looked out cautiously. Not one of the guards below was looking up. He shoved the bag outside and swung it to the left as far as possible – directly in front of another window.
“Hello, what’s this?” a voice cried, and then the bag was caught and taken in. Then the head of a cadet appeared. “Much obliged,” he said to Dale. “Just what we were wishing for. How did you get it?”
“That’s a secret,” answered Dale. “Maybe, if you keep mum, there will be more coming later.” “Are you fellows going to give in?” went on the cadet from the next dormitory.
“Never!”
“Just what we’ve decided. We’ve got a plan.”
“What’s that?”
“If we are kept here until to-night we are going to run away.”
“Perhaps we’ll be with you,” answered Dale, and then, as a guard looked up, he drew in his head.
“That’s a great idea, Dale,” said Jack. “By means of the windows we can communicate with every dormitory on this side of the building. Queer we didn’t think of it before.”
“We were too much upset by the talk with Cuddle and Crabtree,” answered Stuffer.
“Let us pass along some notes and see how the different rooms feel over this affair,” continued the young major.
Soon the notes were written, each having on it the number of the dormitory for which it was intended. Then the communications were pinned to the hockey stick, and by this means passed from one room window to the next. Thus five rooms were reached, and soon notes began to come back.
“We are certainly of one mind,” said Jack, after the various communications had been read. “Everybody says, ‘No surrender!’ That’s plain enough.”
“Barringer’s room is giving out apples,” said Bart. “That’s not so bad. I shouldn’t mind an apple myself.”
“They are all waiting for food, and I suppose it is up to us to supply them with some,” continued Jack. “I have half a mind to go down myself and look around.”
“I’ll go with you,” put in Pepper. “I am tired of being boxed in here.”
“Well, be careful, or you’ll give the snap away,” cautioned Andy. “Some of the steps of the back stairs squeak terribly. I left my shoes in the trunk room when I went down.”
“We’ll leave them here,” answered The Imp, and took off the footwear then and there, and Jack did likewise.
It was no easy thing to climb through the ceiling opening into the trunk room, and once above they had to feel their way through the darkness to the door. Pepper stubbed his toe on a trunk and drew a sharp breath of pain.
“Hurt?” whispered Jack.
“No, but I put an awful dent in the trunk,” was the joking reply. “Let us get a candle when we go down. I hate this darkness.”
With bated breath the two cadets walked out into the deserted hall and then down the back stairs. Once they heard somebody close at hand slam a door and their hearts leaped into their throats.
“If anybody sees us, run like mad for the trunk room and fasten the door somehow,” said Jack. “We don’t want a soul to know what we are up to. If we can get food we can stand Cuddle and Crabtree off indefinitely.”
At last the boys reached the back entryway, and through a crack of the door peered into the kitchen. Nobody was present, and the big pantry was also deserted, and so was the mess hall.
“We’ve got it all to ourselves!” whispered Pepper joyfully. “Jack, this is a cinch, a picnic! Let us take up all the food we can carry!”
“Here is just what we want,” replied the major, and took from a hook two big waiters’ aprons. “We can bundle up a lot of stuff in these.”
“And here are two fresh tins of crackers, ten pounds in each tin. We must take these by all means – and that fresh chunk of cheese!”
“You take what you can carry to the trunk room,” answered Jack. “I’ll hunt up something a little more appetizing.”
While Pepper was on his errand the young major made a careful survey of the pantry, and into a wooden box he found there placed a freshly-boiled ham, some cold roast beef, several loaves of bread, some butter, three bottles of pickles, some cans of sardines and some bottles of milk. Then, from a barrel, he filled a wash basin with apples.
“This will do for the present, I’m thinking,” he said, as he surveyed the stuff. “Now for a candle and some matches,” and he procured them.
He carried the wooden box on his shoulder and Pepper came down and got the apples, and also two loaf cakes which had been baked the day before, and some knives, forks and several glasses and tin plates.
“You’d think we were getting ready for the annual encampment,” said The Imp, while he and Jack were on the way upstairs with the last of the things.
“Listen!” exclaimed the young major, suddenly. “Somebody is coming!”
“It’s the cook!” gasped Pepper, as he caught sight of a well-known figure coming along the upper hallway. “Jack, what shall we do?”
“I – I don’t know! We’ll have to run past her, I guess.”
“We can’t do it – the hall is too narrow.”
The cook came closer, and the two cadets turned back and tried to crouch out of sight in a doorway. The boys’ hearts were, figuratively speaking, in their throats.
But just as the cook was almost on them she paused and turned back.
“Oh dear, I meant to bring that clean apron down!” the cadets heard her murmur, and then she passed out of sight.
“What a lucky escape,” gasped Pepper.
“Don’t stop any longer – get up to the trunk room before it is too late,” urged his chum, and together they sped on as if a ghost was at their heels. Having arrived there they shut the door and pulled a trunk in front of it, first, however, lighting the candle, that they might not break anything.
It took some time to transfer all the food to the dormitory below. The quantity made all the boys smile, and Stuffer’s eyes fairly glistened.
“This is the best yet,” said the youth who loved to eat. “Say, isn’t it most dinner time?”
“I wish Bob Grenwood was in this room,” said Jack. “I’d appoint him quartermaster once more – to divide the rations.”
“Make me quartermaster,” pleaded Stuffer.
“He’ll be sure to look out for No. 1!” said Fred, with a laugh.
“This food is to be divided among all the rooms we can reach,” said Jack. “And it is to be a fair division, too.”
The division then commenced, and for the best part of an hour the cadets were busy, passing stuff from one window to another. They had to do this with care, so that none of the guards on the campus might discover what was going on.
“And now for dinner!” cried Pepper, as he looked at his watch and saw that it was twelve o’clock. “Boys, I think we can all be truly thankful for the good things provided.”
“So we can,” answered Dale.
At that moment there sounded footsteps in the hallway and then came a knock on the door.
CHAPTER XIX
WHAT HAPPENED TO JACK RUDDY
“Boys, get the eating out of sight – somebody may want to come in!” cried Jack, in a low voice. And in a few seconds the food was placed in a closet and covered with papers and books.
“I want to talk to you!” called the voice of Josiah Crabtree.
“What do you want, Mr. Crabtree?” demanded the young major.
“It is now twelve o’clock,” went on the teacher. “Dinner will be served in a few minutes. Are you ready to do as I wish?”
“You mean for us to apologize?” asked Pepper.
“Yes, and to promise to do as ordered in the future.”
“We won’t apologize,” answered several, in unison.
“Don’t you want your dinner?” demanded the teacher, in a somewhat crestfallen tone of voice.
“This is not a question of dinner – it is a question of principle, Mr. Crabtree,” answered Jack.
“Exactly – but you must be hungry.”
“We are,” and this was true, for nobody had as yet started to eat.
“There is no use of your being stubborn,” continued Josiah Crabtree.
“We are not stubborn.”
“Yes, you are!”
“You are the one who is stubborn,” put in Dale. “You and Mr. Cuddle think you are right – but we are about thirty or thirty-five to two.”
“Bah! you are only boys and do not realize what you are doing.”
“We are going to leave this matter to Captain Putnam.”
“Then you don’t want any dinner, eh?” Josiah Crabtree felt certain that the cadets must be very hungry.
“Not on your terms,” answered Jack.
“Do you all say that?” called out the teacher.
“Yes!” came in a chorus.
“Very well, you can go hungry a while longer!” cried Crabtree in a rage, and stalked off to interview the boys in some of the other rooms. One and all refused to “surrender,” as they expressed it. Then Josiah Crabtree went below to the office, where he met Pluxton Cuddle.
“They are as yet not hungry enough,” said Cuddle, after listening to the other teacher’s story. “Wait until the middle of the afternoon, or supper time. I’ll warrant they will then be glad enough to do anything we wish.”
“Let us hope so,” answered Josiah Crabtree, and then he and Cuddle talked the matter over from beginning to end, and fixed up the story they should tell Captain Putnam when he returned. According to their idea the cadets were to blame for everything and had assaulted them most outrageously. Crabtree had already interviewed one of the men hired by him at Cedarville and this fellow was ready to corroborate any tale the instructors might put forth.
The teachers had just about finished their talk when they heard a hurried knock on the door of the office and one of the waiters appeared.
“The cook and the head waiter would like you to come to the kitchen at once, please!” cried the colored man.
“What for?” demanded Josiah Crabtree.
“A lot of the eating has been stolen, sah!”
“Stolen!” screamed Pluxton Cuddle.
“Yes, sah. They jess found it out, sah, and they sent me to tell you, sah.”
“This is – er – extraordinary!”
“It’s those confounded boys!” roared Josiah Crabtree. “They must have gotten to the kitchen somehow and taken the things.”
“But the guards – you forget the guards,” returned Pluxton Cuddle.
“Perhaps one of them was bribed – and perhaps a waiter was bribed too,” said Crabtree with something like a groan. “Oh, I know no longer whom to trust here!”
Both of the teachers followed the waiter to the kitchen. Here they found the cook and several others talking excitedly. Nobody could tell exactly what had been taken, but the cook was certain it was considerable.
“They have outwitted us!” moaned Pluxton Cuddle. “Now they will stuff themselves and be more ugly than ever!”
“I am going to find out if they are in league with anybody outside,” said Josiah Crabtree, and started without delay to interview all the hired help around the Hall and also the men from Cedarville. Each and every person, of course, declared he or she knew absolutely nothing of the missing food and had had no communication whatever with the cadets.
“We are following your ordars, sah,” declared the head waiter. “Right or wrong, we are following ’em.”
“Don’t you think I am in the right?” demanded Josiah Crabtree, sourly.
At this the colored man shrugged his shoulders.
“That is fo’ Cap’n Putnam to say, sah.”
“Ha! then you side with the boys, eh?”
“I ain’t sidin’ at all, sah. I obeys orders, that’s all, sah.”
“Humph!” growled the teacher and walked off, followed by Pluxton Cuddle. Then the teachers held another conference.
In the meantime the imprisoned cadets ate what they had for dinner with keen satisfaction, and then put away the rest of the food for future use.
They had hardly finished when they heard footsteps in the hallway and heard somebody talk to the guard.
“There is Peleg Snuggers,” said Pepper. “Wonder what he wants?”
“I say, in there!” called out the man of all work, pounding on the door with his fist.
“Hello, Peleg! What’s this, a bombardment?” asked Jack, pleasantly.
“No, it ain’t no bombardment,” answered the man. “I want to talk to Major Ruddy.”
“You’re talking to him now, Peleg, my son.”
“You are to come down to the office to onct,” went on the general utility man.
“Who wants me?” asked the young major, in considerable astonishment.
“Mr. Crabtree. He wants to talk to you.”
“Does he want anybody else?” asked Pepper.
“No, only Ruddy.”
“Jack, look out,” whispered Dale. “This may be some trick.”
“I don’t think I’d go,” came from Bart. “There is no telling what those teachers may be up to.”
“I am not afraid of them,” answered the young major bravely. “Perhaps they want to compromise.”
“Are ye comin’ or not?” demanded Peleg Snuggers, impatiently.
“I can’t come unless the door is unlocked.”
“I’ll unlock it. But, remember, nobody but Ruddy is to come out,” went on the man of all work.
With great caution the door was unfastened by Peleg Snuggers and the guard, and Jack was allowed to pass into the hallway. Then the door was fastened as before.
“I say, Jack!” called out Pepper. “If everything is O. K. we’ll look for you back inside of an hour.”
“Very well,” answered the young major.
He was accompanied downstairs by Peleg Snuggers. Several times the general utility man seemed to be on the point of speaking, but he did not say a word until the door of the office was gained.
“Take care o’ yourself!” he whispered hoarsely. “Sorry I can’t do nuthin’ for ye!” And then he opened the door and allowed Jack to enter.
The young major found Josiah Crabtree seated at Captain Putnam’s desk. The teacher had a slip of paper in his hand.
“Major Ruddy, I wish you would read that,” he said, shortly.
Wondering what the paper would contain, Jack took it and started to read. As he did so he was attacked from behind and a rope was quickly passed from one wrist to another. In the meantime a folded towel was held over his mouth, so that he might not cry out. Although he struggled he was no match for Pluxton Cuddle and the guards, and in a very few minutes he was a helpless prisoner. A loose gag was placed in his mouth, so that to call out was impossible.
“I am very sorry to have to treat you in this fashion,” said Josiah Crabtree, with a wicked gleam of triumph in his eyes. “But your conduct, and the conduct of your associates, has rendered it necessary. I trust by to-morrow you will be in a proper frame of mind to come to terms. Mr. Cuddle, you may have him taken away.”
Then Jack was led from the office to the rear of the Hall, where there was a sort of guardroom. This was an apartment not over ten feet square and having a single window, high up from the floor. Outside, a tall iron fence ran around the window in the form of a semi-circle. In the guardroom were two chairs and a washstand. The place was damp and gloomy.
“You’ll stay here for the present,” said Pluxton Cuddle, as he thrust Jack inside. Then the gag was removed, and his hands were unfastened.
“I shall report this outrage to Captain Putnam,” answered the young major. And then the door was closed and locked on him, and he was left alone.
CHAPTER XX
THE ESCAPE FROM THE GUARDROOM
The young major was in no agreeable frame of mind when he found himself locked in the guardroom. He had been attacked in an underhanded fashion and rather roughly treated, and one button had been torn from his uniform. He sat down on a chair and shut his teeth tightly.
“This is the limit,” he mused. “When I get out I rather think I’ll make it warm for both Crabtree and Cuddle! They have no right whatever to treat me in this fashion.”
A quarter of an hour passed – to the young major it appeared a much longer time – when he heard footsteps approaching and the door was unlocked. He sprang up, hoping for freedom. But he was mistaken, instead another cadet was thrown into the room, protesting loudly. Then the door was secured as before.
“Ritter!” exclaimed Jack, in astonishment.
“Oh, so you are here, eh?” cried the school bully. “I thought I was to be alone. This is a fine way to treat a student.”
“If you mean that for sarcasm I agree with you,” answered the young major.
“Say, was it you gave me away to old Crabtree?” demanded Reff Ritter suddenly.
“I don’t know what you mean, Reff.”
“He sent Peleg Snuggers up to the door of our dormitory, stating he wanted to have a talk with me. As soon as I got to the office Cuddle and some of those outside guards pounced on me like a lot of wolves. I gave Cuddle a good one in the nose and he hit me over the head with a cane – and then I was thrown in here. Somebody must have told them about the inkwell and the hot potatoes and plates. I believe it was you!” And Ritter gave Jack an ugly look.
“I didn’t say a word, Reff – I give my word of honor.”
“I don’t believe you, Jack Ruddy. If you didn’t, why am I here?”
“For that matter, why am I here?”
“I don’t know, excepting as a witness against me.”
“You are mistaken, Reff. Whether you believe it or not, I did not tell Crabtree a word about you – in fact, your name wasn’t mentioned to me. I was asked to come down to the office and I went – and then I was attacked from behind, made a prisoner, and brought here.”
“Humph!” muttered the bully, and that was all he said for the time being.
Several more minutes passed and then from a distance they heard a sudden cry for help. Both leaped up from their chairs.
“That was Bob Grenwood’s voice!” exclaimed Jack. “It came from the direction of the office. Maybe they are serving him as they served us.”
“Maybe,” returned Reff Ritter, and his face lost some of its gloomy look. It was a case of “misery loves company,” with him. The young major’s words proved true, and in a few minutes the former quartermaster of the Hall battalion was thrown violently into the guardroom. His collar was partly torn, and blood was flowing from a scratch on his cheek.
“They must have had quite a time with you, Bob,” said Jack, after greeting the new arrival.
“They sure did!” was the reply. “We had a pitched battle in the office, and Crabtree hit me in the mouth and I landed on his left eye. I guess he’ll carry the eye in mourning for a while.”
“It looks as if they were going to make all of us prisoners one by one,” said Reff Ritter.
“That’s about the size of it.”
“This guardroom won’t hold over a dozen,” said Jack. “What will they do with the rest? I’ve got an idea!” he added suddenly.
“What’s that?”
“Old Crabtree is sending for the leader of every dormitory. More than likely he thinks if he can get the leaders under lock and key the other cadets will knuckle under to him.”
“Maybe they’ll do it,” growled Reff Ritter. “When I came away Mumps and Billy Sabine wanted to give in. Mumps, the sneak, was scared half to death.”
“If they take the leader from each dormitory you’ll soon see Frank Barringer and Mart Ballock coming along,” said Bob Grenwood.
The three youths talked the situation over until another noise was heard in the hallway. Then Frank Barringer was shoved into the guardroom. He was a dignified, gentlemanly youth and showed little resistance.
“Mr. Cuddle, I protest against such rough treatment,” he said. “I shall hold you responsible for what you have done. If Captain Putnam will not take up the matter, I shall get my father to do so. I thought this was a young gentlemen’s school, not a penitentiary.”
“Don’t talk to me, sir, don’t talk to me!” spluttered Pluxton Cuddle. “I know what I am doing!” And then the door was banged into Frank’s face.
“Number Four!” cried Jack. “We are gradually filling the ranks. Before long we’ll have enough recruits for an awkward squad!” And he smiled faintly.
“Mart Ballock next,” said Bob Grenwood, and he was right, the cadet mentioned was thrown into the guardroom a few minutes later. Then came two more cadets, the head lads in two other dormitories.
“Boys, I’ve got a scheme,” said Jack. “There are now seven of us here. Why not try to break away when they come with the next cadet? I’d rather be out of the school than in such a gloomy hole as this.”
“I am with you!” answered Bob Grenwood.
“It may mean some fighting,” mused Frank Barringer.
“What of it?” blustered Reff Ritter. “I’ll fight if the rest will. Let us give it to ’em good when they come!”
“But if we get away, where are we to go to?” questioned Mart Ballock. “I haven’t a cent of money with me.”
“We can camp out, if we can’t do anything else,” said Jack. “We could get a tent or two, some provisions, and go up the lake shore – ”
“Hurrah! that’s the idea!” exclaimed another cadet. “We could remain out till Captain Putnam came back.”
“What of the other fellows?” asked Reff Ritter.
“They can join us if they want to,” answered the young major.
“That will be a regular rebellion,” said Frank Barringer.
“Don’t you think we are justified, Frank?”
“Oh, yes, Jack – under the circumstances we are justified in doing almost anything. Besides, if we get away, I’ll have a chance to send that telegram to Captain Putnam. It ought to be sent at once.”
“We ought to have some plan of action,” said Bob Grenwood. “After we break away what shall we do?”
“We ought to fix it so that the fellows left behind will know what we are up to,” said the young major. “Perhaps they might get out tonight and follow us – if they wanted to.”
After considerable discussion it was decided that, given the chance, each cadet should get out of the Hall as best he could. All were to meet later at the ruins of an old barn, half a mile up the lake shore.
“Don’t be worried if I don’t show up on time,” said Jack. “If I can I want to let the other fellows know what is going on.” And then he told of the hole in the closet ceiling and of how it led to the trunk room above.
There was little time to say more, for soon more footsteps sounded in the hallway and again the door was opened. This time the prisoner was Fred Century.
“Now, boys, all together!” shouted Jack, and leaped for the half-closed door. “Come on, Fred!” he added. “We are off for Bailey’s old barn.” He spoke the last words softly, so that those outside might not hear.
Then came a wild rush, and blows were freely exchanged between the guards and Pluxton Cuddle and the cadets. One of the guards was thrown down and the other received a kick in the shins that made him roar with pain. Cuddle made a grab for Jack, but Reff Ritter caught him by the ankles and threw him on his back, where he lay for the moment, his wind knocked out of him.
The encounter made considerable noise, and before the cadets could get away Josiah Crabtree and one of the guards from upstairs appeared on the scene. Crabtree held a cane in his hand and struck several lads. Then Jack caught hold of the cane and wrenched it from the teacher’s grasp.
“Don’t – don’t hit me, Ruddy!” gasped the teacher, as he saw the cane go up.
“Then get out of our way!” answered the young major, and Josiah Crabtree shrank back in terror. The next moment Jack was bounding through the hallway, and the other cadets scattered in several directions. Some went into the classrooms and out of the windows while two ran out of a side door. Jack mounted a side stairs, skipped past a guard who looked bewildered and frightened, and then sped for the trunk room. But as he reached the door his heart failed him. He remembered how the door had been barricaded from the inside by a heavy trunk.
“If I can’t shove it back, I can’t get in!” he thought, and tried the door. Just as he did so it came open, and to his surprise he found himself confronted by Pepper.
“Jack!” gasped The Imp. “Where have you been? I was just going on a scouting expedition after you.”
“Shut the door – and push the trunk back into place,” answered the young major. “I’ve got a great story to tell,” he added. “We are now in open rebellion!”