CHAPTER XXVIII
THREE BOYS AND THREE DOGS
“Are you all right, Jack?”
“Yes.”
“How about you, Pep?”
“As right as a button. Say, that was a ride worth talking about, wasn’t it?”
“I should say it was,” said the young major. “I must say, though, I shouldn’t care for another like it.”
“It suits me to a T!” cried Andy. “I don’t know but what I’d like to be a balloon acrobat.”
The weight of the big balloon made the upper branches of the tree bend far down, while a few of them were broken. Fearing the whole top of the tree might snap off, the three cadets climbed down with caution until they reached the ground.
“Here we are, safe and sound!” cried Andy, doing a handspring, just to work off his high spirits.
“Don’t crow, Andy; we are not yet out of the woods,” returned Jack, with a faint smile.
“It seems to me we are much in the woods,” came from Pepper, as he gazed around. “I must confess I haven’t the least idea where we are.”
“I know,” said Jack, dryly.
“Where?”
“On the ground. There, that pays you back for telling me we were in the air awhile ago.”
“We must have sailed seven or eight miles at least,” said Andy. “Remember, the breeze was a pretty fair one.”
“I thought we came about fifty miles,” answered Pepper. “And we seemed to be about five miles high.”
“You couldn’t live at five miles, you know that,” answered Jack, quickly. “Science teaches that – ”
“Oh, bother science, unless it can connect us with a refreshment stand,” interrupted Pepper. “I am awfully dry, and hungry too.”
They gazed around them. On all sides was the tall timber. The ground was very uneven and rocky in spots. Some of the rocks were damp, but they could not locate any spring or brook.
“The first thing to do is to get out of this woods,” said Jack. “Then perhaps we can strike a farmhouse and get some refreshments. I am not hungry, but I’d like to have a drink of cold water.”
“Maybe you’d refuse a nice piece of pie?” said Pepper, sarcastically. “Or some fresh doughnuts?”
“Stop, Pep!” cried Andy. “I am getting hungry now. Come on!”
“Where to?”
“Out of the woods.”
“Which way?”
That was the question, and the three cadets stared around them helplessly.
“By the sun the lake must be in that direction,” said Jack. “Let us try to reach the water. Perhaps we can hail some passing boat.”
The others agreed, and leaving the balloon where it was, they made their way among the tall trees for a distance of several rods.
“Hullo! here’s a road!” cried Andy. “This must lead to somewhere. We are in luck.”
“But it doesn’t lead down to the lake,” said Jack.
However, it was decided to follow the road for awhile, which seemed to pass from the woods quarter of a mile further on. Then they came to an apple orchard, but, of course, none of the apples were ripe.
“Hark! I hear some dogs approaching!” ejaculated Jack, a few minutes later. “I hope they are not unfriendly.”
“They are bulldogs!” came from Pepper. “Say, I don’t like this at all!”
“Nor I,” added Andy, as the dogs came closer. There were three bulldogs, all of large size, and each looked particularly savage.
The three boys did not know what to do, but as the bulldogs came closer, Andy ran for a nearby tree. The others followed, and all got up into the tree just as the animals reached the vicinity.
The dogs were baying loudly, and as they gathered under the tree, they snapped and snarled in anything but a pleasant fashion. They had evidently run quite a distance, for they looked hot.
“Here’s a pretty kettle of fish,” remarked Jack. “We got out of one difficulty only to tumble into another.”
“Thanks, but I don’t want to tumble just now,” answered Pepper, with a shake of his head. “I don’t think those brutes would like anything better than to chew us up.”
“I wonder if I can beat them off with a stick?” said Andy, beginning to cut off a tree-bough with his pocketknife.
“I don’t think so, but you can try it,” answered the young major.
The stick was cut and Andy let himself down to a lower limb. He hit one of the dogs just once. Then the animal made a leap, caught hold of the stick, and had not Andy let go he would have been jerked to the ground. As it was he swung clear around the limb and only his acrobatic skill saved him.
“Don’t you try that again,” warned Pepper.
“Don’t think I will. Gosh! he almost had me; didn’t he?”
The dogs made themselves at home under the tree, lying down, but keeping their eyes fixed on the prisoners. The moment one of the lads moved there would be a growl from below.
“They’d make good camp guards, if they were trained,” said Pepper, with a sorry kind of a grin.
“This is no laughing matter,” expostulated Jack.
“Don’t think I’m laughing. I’d give a week’s spending money to be out of this right now.”
“Ditto here,” said Andy.
A half-hour went by and still the dogs remained at the foot of the tree. Occasionally one would walk around a bit and growl, but that was all. The boys tried everything they could think of to chase the brutes away, but without avail.
“I think I see somebody coming!” said Andy, later on. He had climbed to the top of the tree to make observations.
“Let us yell for help,” suggested Pepper, and all three immediately set up as loud a shout as their lungs would permit. At first there was no reply, but then a faint hello came back, and Andy saw the man running towards them.
“If he owns the dogs he’ll aid us,” said the acrobatic youth.
“Yes, but if he doesn’t what is he to do?” asked Jack, quickly. “We ought to warn him.”
Again they set up a shout:
“Look out for the dogs!”
“What’s that?” asked the man, coming to a halt.
“Look out for the dogs.”
“Three bulldogs?”
“Yes.”
“That’s all right – the dogs are mine.”
“Good enough,” murmured Jack. “Now we’ll get some help, I hope.”
The man came nearer. He was dressed in a riding-suit and carried a short whip in one hand. As he came closer the bulldogs ran towards him in a friendly way.
“Say, do you know who he is?” asked Jack, suddenly.
“Who?” asked the others.
“Haverick, the horse-dealer – the man who owned the dog I shot while we were at target practice.”
CHAPTER XXIX
THE OLD WELL
The announcement the young major made was true – the man who had come up was really Sam Haverick, the horse-dealer, a fellow known far and wide around the lake for his sharp deals in horseflesh.
As soon as he caught sight of the cadets’ uniforms his face took on a sour look.
“Are you youngsters from Putnam Hall?” he asked, as he came to a halt under the tree.
“We are,” answered Pepper.
“How many of you up there?”
“Three.”
“Humph! What are you doing there?”
“The dogs drove us up here,” said Andy. Jack was purposely keeping in the background.
“As they are your dogs we would like you to call them off,” continued Pepper. “They have kept us treed about long enough.”
“I guess they know you,” said the horse-dealer, with a scowl. “One of you cadets killed one of their mates.”
“The mad dog,” said Andy.
“He wasn’t mad! He only wanted to have some fun. Say, why don’t you show yourself?” shouted the man, to Jack.
As there was no help for it, the young major stepped out on a tree-limb in full view.
“Oh, I see now. You are Jack Ruddy, the lad who shot my dog. Ain’t that so?”
“I did shoot the dog,” answered Jack, boldly. “But I only did it because he was mad and because he wanted to bite Mrs. Bennington.”
“Stuff and nonsense! You shot the dog because you thought it was smart!” growled the horse-dealer. “I ought to have had you locked up for it.”
There was an awkward pause. The boys felt that they could expect anything but kind treatment from Sam Haverick.
“Are you going to call off the dogs?” asked Pepper, at last.
“I will – on one condition,” answered the man, and there was a shrewd look in his face as he spoke.
“What’s that?” asked Jack, although he knew about what was coming.
“That you pay for the dog you shot.”
“How much?”
“Fifty dollars.”
“Do you think we have fifty dollars with us?” cried Andy. “Why, I haven’t but eighty cents.”
“And I have sixty-five cents,” said Pepper.
“I’ve got two dollars and a quarter,” put in Jack. “But I am not going to give it to you,” he added, with spirit.
“Humph! Then you can stay in the tree.”
“We shan’t do that either,” said Pepper. “Call off those dogs and be quick about it. I am coming down, and if your dogs attack me, you’ll go to prison for it.”
“That’s the talk,” said Jack. “Call off the dogs, quick! Here I come!” And he started to drop down.
The horse-dealer was a good deal of a brute, but he was likewise a coward, and he did not dare to allow his dogs to attack the boys. As they came down out of the tree, he whistled to the bulldogs and they crouched behind him.
“Suppose you think you’re smart,” he growled.
“We are standing up for our rights, that is all,” answered Jack. “Now we are going on our way. If those dogs come after us again, I’ll get Captain Putnam to have you locked up for allowing such brutes at liberty.”
“Oh, go to grass!” grumbled Sam Haverick, and strode off, with his dogs following him.
As he went in one direction, the boys thought it wise to take the other. They continued on the road, and quarter of an hour later came in sight of a small farmhouse, perched on a hillside and surrounded with fields of grain.
“So you were really in that balloon!” said the farmer after he had heard their story. “Don’t it beat all now! I wouldn’t go up in one of them pesky things not fer a million dollars!”
“An’ I wouldn’t go fer three million,” said his wife, who was in the kitchen baking.
The boys asked if they could purchase some lunch and were given some sandwiches, fresh cake, and all the milk they could drink. The farmer wanted no pay, but each cadet insisted upon giving his wife a quarter.
“This road will take you to Cedarville,” said the farmer. “It’s a long way around though. A short way is by the trail over yonder.”
“Is the trail a good one?” asked Pepper, cautiously.
“You see, we don’t want to lose our way again,” explained Jack.
“I don’t see how you can lose your way,” answered the farmer. “Keep to the trail until you come to some tall rocks. Then turn to your left, go around the rocks, and you’ll come out on the old Borden Road, which runs straight down to Cedarville.”
“That looks easy enough,” said Andy.
The three cadets soon set off, and in a few minutes the farmhouse was out of sight. They passed through a patch of woods, then across a meadow, and then followed the trail beside a tiny brook, which seemed alive with trout.
“This is the spot for fishing,” exclaimed Pepper. “Don’t I wish I had a line!”
“We can’t stop to fish now,” answered Jack. “Remember, the folks will be worried about us until we report.”
“That is true. But we can come here some other day.”
The trail left the brook a little further on, and then they came to a point where the way was uncertain.
“Go slow now,” cautioned the young major. “We don’t want to become tangled up if we can possibly avoid it.”
“Here seems to be a cleared spot,” said Pepper, gazing around. “I wonder if there was once a farm here?”
“If there was it must have been abandoned years ago,” answered Andy. “To me it’s a perfect wilderness.”
They started to go on, when suddenly Andy sank down in the soil a distance of about two feet.
“Help!” he yelled, and scrambled out of the hole as quickly as he could.
“Humph! I wonder if that is another cave?” muttered Jack.
“I didn’t seem to touch bottom,” answered the acrobatic youth.
“Let us examine it, just for fun,” said Pepper, and walked back before the others could stop him. He picked up a dead tree-branch and poked it into the hole.
“I can’t touch bottom,” he declared.
“You had better come away before you fall in,” said Jack.
“Do you know what I think?” went on the Imp. “I think it is an old well.”
“A well? out here?” came from Andy, with a skeptical look.
“Look for yourself.”
Both of the others were now interested, and made an examination.
“It certainly is a well, and the top had been choked up most likely for years,” declared the young major.
“I’ll stick a tree-limb in the hole,” said Pepper. “That will prevent somebody else from going down into it.”
This was done, and they started to go ahead once more. They had covered only fifty feet when Jack suddenly came to a halt as if electrified.
“Well, I never!” he gasped, after a look ahead and then a look behind.
“What’s up now?” asked Andy and Pepper, in a breath.
“Do you remember Mr. Strong’s story about that hidden pot of gold?”
“Certainly,” said Andy.
“You don’t mean – ” began Pepper.
“Don’t you remember that his great-grandfather left a letter, stating the pot of gold was hidden under the tree that had the stone in its roots, – the tree that stood twenty paces north cf the old well?”
“Yes.”
“Well, yonder is the old well, and here is the stone, about twenty paces north of it. The tree blew down years ago, but here is a part of the stump.”
“And do you think the pot of gold is there?” almost shouted Pepper.
“That remains to be found out,” answered Jack.
CHAPTER XXX
SOMETHING OF A FIND – CONCLUSION
The discovery which Jack had made filled all three of the cadets with excitement, and they gazed at the rock and tree-root in wonder and expectation.
“Oh, I hope the pot of gold is really there!” cried Andy.
“We’ll have to dig for it,” returned Pepper. “Come on! I wish I had a spade.”
“So do I.”
“We’ll have to use our knives and some sticks,” put in the young major. “And our hands too.”
They were soon digging away at the foot of the rock. Then they pulled away some of the rotten tree-roots that were near.
“Look out, there is a snake!” ejaculated Andy, a moment later. But the reptile was small and harmless, and quickly got out of sight in the bushes.
“I wonder if there are any more around,” ventured Jack. He did not like snakes in the least.
“We’ll have to keep our eyes open,” answered Pepper.
Once more they made the dirt fly, loosening it with their knives and some sharp-pointed sticks, and scooping it away with their hands. They did not mind getting dirty – all their thoughts were on uncovering the pot of gold, if it was really there.
“This doesn’t look like anything,” grumbled Andy, after they had been digging the best part of half an hour.
“Do you want to give up?” questioned Jack, quickly.
“Not yet.”
“Here is a flat stone,” said Pepper. “It is quite large, too. We will have some trouble getting it up.”
“Perhaps it is placed directly over the pot of gold,” said Andy.
They worked all around the flat stone and then pried up one end with a heavy stick. Pepper placed his hand beneath.
“There is something under it,” he announced. “Feels like an iron pot!”
“Let us get that stone up!” cried Jack.
They tugged and strained with might and main, and at last the flat rock came up out of the hole. Beneath was the cover to an old rusty pot and beneath this the pot itself, resting in a bed of dirt and small stones.
“Hurrah! here it is!” cried Andy. “Bring it up, Jack!”
It was no easy matter to bring up the iron pot, which was heavy, but at last they had it out on the grass. The lid was rusted fast, but they speedily pried it off.
“Empty!” ejaculated Pepper, looking into the receptacle, and his face fell.
“All our work for nothing,” murmured Andy.
“No, it is not empty,” said Jack. “That is an iron plate resting near the bottom. Wait till I pry it up with my knife blade.”
He set to work, and soon the iron plate came up. Beneath lay some dull yellow round pieces of metal.
“Gold!” shouted the young major. “Old English and Spanish gold!”
“Are you sure it is gold?” queried Pepper.
“Yes. Look for yourself,” and Jack brushed off one of the pieces on his coat-sleeve. “Boys, we’re in luck! We have certainly found the pot with gold in it that Mr. Strong has been looking for so long!”
“Not very much gold,” said Andy. “I thought there would be a pot full.”
“It doesn’t take much gold to make quite a sum, Andy. You know a ten-dollar gold piece isn’t very large.”
“That is true.”
The boys inspected the pieces with interest and counted them up. All told there were four hundred and twenty-three pieces, some large and some small, English, French, and Spanish gold, as they made out by some of the tarnished markings.
“Let us take the pot and all along,” said Pepper. “Mr. Strong will wish to see the whole thing.”
“And let us mark this place, so we can find it again,” added Andy.
They hung the pot with its contents on a stout stick, and two carried it at a time. Having marked the neighborhood, they set off along the trail, and after a rather tedious walk reached the highway running into Cedarville.
“I know where we are now,” said Jack. “We needn’t go all the way to Cedarville. We can branch off a little way below here and go directly to Putnam Hall.”
They followed his advice, and half an hour later, just as the sun was setting, came in sight of the school. They were soon seen, and a shout went up.
“There are Jack, Andy, and Pepper now!”
“Did you get hurt on your balloon trip?”
“Where did you leave the balloon?”
“We were afraid you were all killed.”
Such were some of the remarks and questions uttered by those who had returned to the Hall after the departure of the balloon with the boys.
“We are safe and sound,” said Jack, speaking for himself and his chums.
“What have you got there?” asked Dale.
“Something for Mr. Strong,” whispered Pepper. “Where is he?”
“In the Hall. Captain Putnam is out hunting for you. He said if you were found, to fire the cannon.”
“All right, then fire it,” said Andy.
The three boys marched into the Hall with their precious burden. They were told that Mr. Strong had gone to his room, and so followed up the stairs and knocked on the door.
“What! back, safe and sound!” cried the teacher. “I am more than glad to hear it.”
“We are glad to be back,” answered Jack.
“But what made you run off?”
“We didn’t run off. We were carried off against our will.”
“Well! well! I suppose – What is that thing?”
“This, Mr. Strong, is something we suspect belongs to you,” said Jack, proudly. “It is the missing pot of gold – only it isn’t full by any means.”
“The pot of gold? Surely I must be dreaming!” gasped the teacher. “Where did you get it?”
Their tale was speedily told in detail, and the gold was examined with much interest.
“It must be true,” said George Strong. “What an extraordinary ending to an extraordinary adventure!”
Just then the cannon on the campus boomed out – the signal that the boys had returned to Putnam Hall.
The shot soon brought Captain Putnam back to the school, and he listened to the cadets’ story with as close attention as had George Strong. He had already heard from Dale, Stuffer, Hogan, and Joe Nelson how the balloon had started away, and so could not blame the boys very much.
“It was imprudent for you to get into the basket,” said he. “But as nobody was hurt, we will let it pass. But the balloonist wants his balloon back.”
“He can have it, and welcome,” said Jack. “After this I’ll do my ballooning on the ground!”
“Ditto here,” said Pepper.
“I rather enjoyed it,” said Andy. “I’d go again – if I got the chance.”
“Not while you are a pupil under my care,” said Captain Putnam, decidedly.
On the following day the balloon was located by those who owned it and brought over to Cedarville, and on Monday the professor gave an exhibition to which Captain Putnam and his pupils contributed liberally. This satisfied Professor Aireo and he departed for parts unknown, and that ended the matter.
As soon as possible George Strong found out the value of the coins the iron pot had contained, and had the boys take him to the spot where the treasure had been located.
“The gold is worth exactly six thousand and two hundred dollars,” said the teacher. “I shall divide it up with my relatives. The question is, What part of the sum do you think you ought to have for finding it?”
“We’ll leave that to you?” said Andy, who was not overly rich.
“Would a hundred dollars each suit you?”
“That suits me,” said the acrobatic youth, and Jack and Pepper said they were also satisfied. Later on each got the amount mentioned.
“Have you located those crazy men yet?” asked Jack.
“In a way, yes. They took a boat to Ithaca, and then a train for the north. Perhaps they have left the neighborhood for good.” But in this statement George Strong was mistaken, as later events proved.
The balloon adventure made Andy, Jack, and Pepper the heroes of the Hall for the time being.
“We’ll never have another adventure as thrilling as that,” said Pepper, but he was mistaken; they did have an adventure equally thrilling, and what it was I shall relate in another volume of this series, to be called “The Putnam Hall Champions; or, Bound to Win Out.” In that volume we shall meet all our friends once more, and likewise some of their enemies, and learn the particulars of a victory which led to a most unlooked-for discovery.
Summer was now at hand, and one bright Saturday the boys had a regular field-day, with a big spread afterwards. Jack, Andy, Pepper, and the others did very well, winning several prizes. Harry Blossom made a neat speech, and then all sat down to a meal which made Stuffer Singleton’s eyes fairly glisten.
“This day is the limit!” cried Andy, while the eating was going on. “I was never so happy in my life before.”
“I don’t think any schoolboys could be happier than we are,” said Jack. “Especially with old Crabtree gone.”
“Drop Crabtree,” sang out Dale. “He will come back all too soon, don’t fear!”
“Here comes Captain Putnam!” announced Pepper. “Let us give him a cheer.”
All agreed, and the cheer went echoing across the lake and the hills far and wide, and with that cheer let us take our departure.