The Putnam Hall Rivals

“I don’t hear them,” came softly in Dan Baxter’s voice.

“They are foxy,” answered Ritter.

The door was tried and Dan Baxter looked into the room. He could see next to nothing in the almost total darkness.

“Who – who’s there?” asked Andy, sleepily. “Is it time to – to get up?”

A grunt from Dan Baxter was the only response, and then the door was closed again, and they heard Baxter and some others moving away.

“Say, Andy, that was rich!” whispered Pepper, and gave a low laugh.

“Don’t stir too much yet,” cautioned Jack. “They may come back.”

“I am going to the door to watch,” answered Pepper. “If they come this way again I can crawl back to bed in a jiffy.”

Standing at the door, which he held on a crack, the Imp saw Baxter and several others move from one dormitory to another, listening and spying at every door.

“Cheese it, here comes Mr. Strong!” he heard Coulter say, a short while later, and off the bully’s crowd scampered to their rooms. Then the second assistant teacher came up the stairs and Pepper hurried back to his bed. George Strong looked around the hallway and walked to several dormitories, and then passed on to the third floor of the building.

“Will they come back again?” asked Andy, after a long spell of silence.

“Better wait a while longer and see,” said Hogan.

“I’m itching to get at that stuff,” came, with a sigh, from Stuffer.

“Did you ever know a time that you wasn’t hungry, Stuffer?” asked Andy.

“Humph! I guess you’ll get away with your full share, Andy,” was the retort.

At last the boys considered themselves safe and crawled from their beds once more. A dim light was made, and sitting in a circle, they divided the good things on hand and devoured them with a keen relish. The turkey proved to be of the best, and the pie was “prime,” as Andy expressed it.

“Oh, if Baxter could only see us now,” whispered Pepper, with a mouth half full of turkey.

“It would make him dance with joy, I don’t think,” answered Jack.

The little feast kept up the best part of half an hour.

“Here goes the last of the pie!” cried Stuffer.

“Baxter, we thank thee for this feast!” added Pepper.

“Come again,” put in Jack.

“Just you fellows wait, that’s all!” came an unexpected voice from the doorway, and turning swiftly, they saw Dan Baxter standing there. He was shaking his fist at the crowd.

“Hullo!” gasped Pepper. For the instant he could say no more.

“I suspected it from the start,” fairly hissed the bully of Putnam Hall. “Just wait, that’s all! If I don’t square up you can shoot me!” And away he went, giving the door the hardest kind of a bang after him.

“Now our cake is dough,” came from Stuffer.

“Sure an’ I’d like to know what he’ll be after doin’,” came curiously from Emerald.

“I wonder if he’ll have the nerve to call Captain Putnam?” mused Andy.

“No,” answered Jack, promptly. “He won’t report this, for if he did he knows we would tell on him too. He’ll try to get square some other way.”

“To bed, all of you!” cried Pepper. “Don’t forget how he slammed that door. Some of the teachers may be along before we know it.”

The remains of the feast were cleared away and the room put in order. Then the cadets went to sleep, and slumbered soundly until the bell awoke them in the morning.

It was not until the boys entered the mess-hall that they saw Dan Baxter again. The bully of the school looked like a thundercloud, and so did Reff Ritter, Coulter, and Paxton.

“They have it in for us, that is dead certain,” whispered Andy to Pepper.

“Yes, we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for them,” was the reply.

“Ditmore, stop your talking!” came sternly from Josiah Crabtree.

“Yes, sir,” answered the Imp, meekly.

“You talk altogether too much at meals,” went on the sour-looking teacher.

“Yes, sir.”

“Silence!”

“Yes, sir.”

“If you say another word I’ll send you from the table,” stormed Josiah Crabtree, and after that Pepper said no more.

That morning everything seemed to go wrong in the classroom. Many lessons were missed and several teachers were out of humor. Josiah Crabtree stormed around, and finally told both Pepper and Jack that they would have to stay in after school in the afternoon.

“Mr. Crabtree, I do not think I am to blame in this,” said Jack. “I understood you to say we were to take up pages 180 and 181 in the history only.”

“I said 180 to 184,” snapped the teacher.

“He did not,” murmured Pepper under his breath.

“You are growing very negligent in your studies,” went on the teacher, tartly. “I shall not stand for it.”

“Then sit down,” grumbled Andy.

“Snow, did you speak?” thundered Crabtree.

Andy was silent.

“Snow, answer me.”