The Putnam Hall Cadets: or, Good Times in School and Out

CHAPTER VI

AN ODD BIT OF PUNISHMENT

For the moment the declaration by the bully that he would run the boat into those in the water kept the swimmers back.

“Look out, fellows!” cried Stuffer, in alarm. “That boat has got a pretty sharp bow. If it hits you it will cut you deep!”

“I’m going to stop the boat anyway,” cried Jack, and continued to swim toward the craft.

As Jack did this, Andy measured his distance and suddenly dove out of sight. Andy was as good at swimming as he was at acrobatic feats, and he did not come up until he was close to the side of the rowboat. Then, before Baxter knew what was up, he had hold of one of the oars and jerked it out of the bully’s hand.

“Hi, give me back that oar!” cried Baxter, in alarm.

“Not much,” said Andy. And then, as Baxter tried to hit him with the other oar, he dove under the boat and gave it a sudden push that nearly upset the craft.

“Oh!” yelled Mumps, in alarm. “Don’t! We are going over! Help!”

By this time all of the crowd in the water were surrounding the rowboat, and Jack lost no time in pulling an oar from Paxton. Then he shoved the end of the blade against Dan Baxter, and in a twinkling the bully fell over against the gunwale. Here Pepper caught him by the arm, and over went Baxter into the water with a loud splash.

“Don’t throw me over!” screamed Mumps. “Don’t! I – I can’t hardly swim a stroke.”

“Do you surrender?” demanded Jack.

“Yes! Yes! Please don’t throw me over! I – I wasn’t going to do anything!”

“Paxton, do you surrender?” asked Jack.

“No, I don’t! I’m going – Hi! give me that oar!” For somebody had suddenly captured the other blade.

“If you don’t surrender we’ll cast you adrift without oars,” came from Pepper, with a wink at his companions.

“Yo – you won’t dare,” faltered Paxton.

“Won’t we? You’ll soon see.”

“Yes, cast him adrift,” was the cry.

“Send him away out into the lake!”

“No! No! I – I surrender!” said Paxton.

By this time Dan Baxter was walking ashore. His clothes – a new suit, elegantly pressed, – were, of course, soaked completely, and there was a streak of mud over one shoulder.

“I’ll make somebody pay for this!” he growled. “It will cost two dollars to have this suit fixed up again.”

“You brought it on yourself, Baxter,” said Jack.

“No, I didn’t!”

“Yes, you did. What right had you to try to run away with our baskets of things?”

“I – er – I wasn’t going to run off with ’em. I was just fooling.”

“I don’t believe you,” broke in Pepper.

Several surrounded the bully, so that he might not run away, and the rowboat with Paxton and Mumps was turned back to the point from where it had started.

“Let us make them prisoners,” suggested Andy. “They ought to be taught a lesson.”

“That’s the talk!” came the cry.

“I – I won’t stand it,” faltered Paxton.

“Then sit on it!” cried Pepper, and tripped the fellow up. While he and Stuffer made Paxton a prisoner, the others attended to Dan Baxter and Mumps. The prisoners had their hands tied behind them, and each had a foot tied to the root of a big tree, the boys using sections of boat rope for that purpose.

“Now let us finish our swim,” said Jack, and drew his crowd to one side.

“What shall we do with them?” whispered Pepper.

“We ought to duck Paxton and Mumps,” came the suggestion. “Baxter don’t need any more.”

“Let us keep them bound up,” said another. “They can look on while we are feasting.”

“That’s the talk!” cried Jack. “It will make their mouths water to look at us getting outside of the good things.”

“And let us pretend that we’re going to leave them tied up when we go away,” added Andy.

So it was arranged, and, this settled, the boys continued their swim and then dressed at their leisure.

“See here, ain’t you going to let us go?” asked Dan Baxter, after a long spell of silence.

“Of course not,” answered Jack. “We’ve decided to let you stay here until Sunday night.”

“Sunday night!” cried Mumps, in alarm. “I don’t want to stay here all night and all day tomorrow!”

“Don’t get afraid, Mumpsy dear,” came from Pepper. “There are not very many bears around these parts now.”

“Oh! one bear is enough!” And the sneak shivered.

“I’m not going to stay here until Sunday night,” came from Paxton.

“Come, let us off, and maybe I’ll call it square,” said Baxter, in a more reasonable tone.

“But we don’t intend to call it square, Baxter,” answered Pepper.

“Then you won’t let us go?”

“No!” shouted the rest of the crowd.

After that the baskets were brought up and all the good things spread out where Baxter, Paxton, and Mumps could see them. Soon the cadets were eating and drinking to their hearts’ content.

“Baxter, wouldn’t you like a drink of soda?” asked Pepper, coming up with a glass full of the beverage. “I don’t like to be too hard on a fellow student.”

“Yes, I’d like a drink,” grumbled the bully.

“All right then, you shall have one – as soon as you go down to Cedarville and put up the necessary nickel at the store.”

“Oh, go to thunder!” growled the bully.

“Can’t I have a drink?” asked Mumps. “I’m as dry as a – a fish.”

“Sure you can have a drink – but not of soda,” said Andy. “I’ll get some water for all hands.”

He disappeared behind the bushes in the direction of a spring. Soon he came back with three glasses filled with water.

“Here’s a drink for each,” he said. “I’m not going to be too mean about this. I know what it is to go dry.”

He passed a glass to Pepper and one to Stuffer, and each of the cadets held his glass up to the mouth of a prisoner. As Baxter, Paxton, and Mumps were all dry, each drank eagerly.

“Hullo, what’s this?” spluttered Paxton.

“Bah!” came from Baxter, spitting out the water. “It’s full of salt!”

“This will make us drier than ever!” groaned Mumps.

“And I took several swallows,” growled Paxton.

“So did I,” added Baxter.

“To be sure it’s full of salt,” said Andy. “I thought you all needed it, you’re so fresh, you know.”

“Be gorry, that’s the bist joke yit,” came from Emerald Hogan, with a roar. “That’s roight, Andy, me b’y, salt ’em down.”

“I’ll salt you down, Irish!” cried Baxter, in a rage. “Just wait till I get back to the Hall.”

After this the bully and his cronies asked for nothing more to eat or drink, but they wistfully eyed the good things as the others disposed of them. The salt made them fearfully dry, and each would have given a good round sum for a glass of pure, cold water.

“Wonder if we can all get into that boat,” said Jack, after the feast had come to an end. “A row on the lake and back to the Hall would just suit me.”

“It will give us a little practice for those races,” put in Pepper. “I reckon we can manage it.”

“Are you going to steal our boat?” demanded Baxter.

“It is not your boat – it belongs to the academy,” retorted Jack. “We have as much right to it as you have.”

“Yes, but we had it first.”

“You won’t need any boat just yet,” said Stuffer. “You’re to stay here, you know.”

“No! No! don’t leave us here,” cried Paxton. “Let us go and – er – I, for one, will call the whole matter off.”

“Will you really!” said Pepper. “Awfully kind, I’m sure.”

“If you don’t let us go I’ll tell on you,” said Mumps. “The captain won’t stand for anything like this.”

“What have you got to say, Baxter?” demanded Jack.

“You had better let us go,” grumbled the bully. He did not fancy spending a night in the dark woods.

“If we let you go, will you keep your mouth shut?”

“I haven’t said that I would.”

“All right, we’ll leave you tied up.”

“No! No!” came from Mumps, pleadingly. “Please don’t do it! Dan, tell them that you won’t say anything.”

“They won’t dare to leave us,” said the bully.

“Won’t we?” said Jack. “Wait and see. Come on, fellows, put the baskets in the boat and come on board.”

“They are going to leave us,” groaned Mumps, as the baskets were stowed away and several entered the craft. “We’ll have to stay here all night, and I know it is going to rain! And there may be bears around! Peleg Snuggers told me about a bear he saw once, on the road to Malville.”

“Oh, don’t be a calf, Mumps,” interrupted the bully. “They’ll all laugh at you.”

“I don’t care, I don’t want to stay, so there!” whimpered the sneak. “Tell them you won’t say anything.”

“Well, good-bye!” shouted Jack, turning toward the rowboat.

He walked several steps, but then Baxter hailed him.

“Stop!” cried the bully. “Let us go. For Mumps’ sake I won’t say anything.”

“Very well. Remember, Baxter, that’s a bargain. Are you agreed, Paxton?”

“Yes.”

“And you, Mumps?”

“I shan’t say a word – I promise, Ruddy.”

Without another word Jack released the three prisoners. Then he ran for the rowboat, leaped in and shoved off, and soon the craft was on its way out into the lake.

CHAPTER VII

HOW THE BOAT RACES WERE WON

“Do you think they’ll keep silent?” asked Stuffer, after the rowboat was some distance from the shore.

“That’s a problem,” answered Jack. “Maybe they will – for their own benefit.”

“If they talk about it, the laugh will be on them,” came from Andy.

“That was a fine dive of yours, Andy,” came from Pepper. “You took them by surprise.”

“We would have been in a mess if they had gotten away with the baskets and our clothes,” said Stuffer.

“Sure, an do yez think they’d stale our duds?” questioned Hogan.

“They’d take everything – if they got the chance,” answered Jack. “It was lucky for us that Mumps fell and gave the alarm.”

“What a calf he is!”

“Sneaks are generally of that sort,” said Andy. “How I’d hate to have the reputation he is gaining.”

They looked back and saw Baxter, Paxton, and Mumps standing on the shore. The bully shook his fist at them.

“He feels real friendly,” said Andy. “I think he’d like to embrace us all.”

Soon the rowboat passed out of sight of that portion of the shore. Then the craft was turned up the lake, and those who were to go into the boat races during the following week took turns at the oars.

“Pepper pulls a fine stroke,” said Stuffer. “He ought to win something.”

“I believe Jackson and Perry will win the main races,” said another cadet. “They are bang-up oarsmen. They live on the Ohio River and have had lots of practice.”

“Well, I am going to do my best,” answered Pepper.

“And so am I,” added Jack.

The sun was just going down when the boys returned to Putnam Hall, tired out but thoroughly happy. They cleaned out the boat and put it away, and then went to their dormitories to wash up for parade.

“Hullo, look here!” cried Jack, as he got out his uniform. “Somebody has been putting on my rank of office.” And this was true, and the uniforms of the other elected officers had been treated likewise. When the young officers went below each received a shining sword, with a scabbard and belt to match.

“We’ll have to have our pictures taken,” said Henry Lee, with pride, and later on, this was done, and each officer sent one or more of the photographs home, much to the parents’ delight.

It must be confessed that Jack felt quite proud when he stepped out in front of the battalion, sword in hand, and in his newly decorated uniform. He saw his friends in the ranks and also saw his enemies. Baxter looked as dark as a thundercloud, but did not dare to express his feelings.

“That was very well accomplished, Major Ruddy,” said Captain Putnam after the drill was at an end. “I trust you keep the battalion up to such a standard for the balance of the term.”

“I shall do my best, sir,” answered the youthful major.

“Ruddy seems to take hold with vigor,” was George Strong’s comment. “I like to see a boy do that.”

“His father was once in the army, and he has military blood in his veins,” answered the master of the Hall.

The boat races which have been mentioned were to come off on the following Wednesday afternoon, starting at two o’clock. There were to be four races, three among the students of Putnam Hall and the fourth race with the students of Pornell Academy, situated a few miles from Putnam Hall. Pornell Academy was an old institution of learning presided over by a Dr. Pornell, who did not much fancy the coming of Captain Putnam to that neighborhood.

“I hope we wax those Pornell fellows good,” said Pepper. “They are a proud lot, and they think we are nothing but the dust of the earth.”

“The races between ourselves will show what we can do,” answered Singleton.

“Are you going to row, Stuffer?”

“To be sure I am.”

“Well, I hope you win something.”

The day was a cool, bracing one, an ideal day for boat racing, and immediately after the midday meal the oarsmen turned out in force and the lake front was alive with craft of various sorts. The races had been talked of for two weeks and several sloops and a steam launch came up from Cedarville bringing parties to view the contests. Some boats also came from across the lake, and flags flapped gayly in the moderate breeze.

The first race was a four-oared affair between the smaller boys, and much to the surprise of everybody it was won by Mumps and a lad named Cathby.

“Hullo, I didn’t know Mumps could row so well,” cried Pepper.

“He comes from a town on the Hudson River, and was brought up around boats,” answered a cadet standing near. “His folks own several sailboats, so I’ve been told.”

“Well, he deserves credit for winning, even if he is a sneak,” declared Jack.

The next race was an eight-oared affair, between crews made of Stuffer, Hogan, Blackmore, and a number of others already mentioned in these pages. This was lost by the crew led by Stuffer.

“Stuffer had been eating too much,” said Pepper. And the always-hungry lad afterwards admitted that this was true.

The third race was a four-oared affair between Jack, Pepper, Andy, and Joe Nelson on one side, and Paxton and several chums on the other. Baxter had been expected to row in this, but fell out at the last moment, stating he was not well. Privately, he was afraid of losing, for he knew Jack and his friends were good oarsmen.

The race was for a mile, and at the discharge of a pistol both crews started in fine shape.

“Go it, Paxton!” was the cry. “You can win if you try!”

“Pull, Pepper, pull!”

“Make every stroke tell, Jack!”

On and on swept the two boats, and for the first half of the course kept side by side.

“It’s going to be a tie race!”

“Pull, Paxton! Pull, Leeds!”

“See, Paxton’s boat is going ahead!”

It was true – slowly but surely the craft went forward, until it was a full length in advance. Jack, Pepper, and the others were doing their best but the other boat continued to keep in the lead.

“I see a rope trailing behind!” cried Pepper suddenly.

“There it goes,” added Andy. “It was caught on the bottom.”

“All together, and give her tar!” shouted Jack, shutting his teeth hard. “Pull, boys, pull!” And they did pull as never before.

But quarter of a mile of the race remained, and now Jack’s boat was crawling up to the rival craft.

“See, Paxton’s boat is but half a length ahead!”

“They are tie again!”

“Pull, everybody, and may the best crew win!” came from a gentleman in one of the sailboats.

“Oh, pa, I hope that last boat wins,” cried a girl in the sailing craft, a fine small yacht.

“So do I, Laura,” came from a second girl.

“Why, Flossie?” questioned her father, with a smile.

“Oh, I don’t know. They look nicer than the boys in the first boat.”

“Really? You have sharp eyes, I must say.” And then Mr. Ford, for such was the gentleman’s name, turned to the race once more.

Jack, Pepper, Andy, and Joe Nelson were working like steam engines, and the same may be said of their opponents. On and on swept the two rowboats toward the finish line. There was a wild yelling along the lake front and from the various boats gathered around.

“Come, we must win!” shouted Joe Nelson, and seemed to suddenly wake up. Jack and the others also renewed their exertions, and now their spurt carried them a foot in the lead.

“Here they come!”

“Jack Ruddy’s boat is ahead!”

“Paxton is crawling up again!”

It was true, the rivals were also spurting, and for a moment the two craft were side by side once more. But Paxton’s crew could not keep up the terrific pace, and suddenly they fell back, and Jack and his friends shot over the line winners by a full length.

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