The Putnam Hall Rebellion

“Confound it, who is this chap?” muttered one of the Pornell students who had come ashore.

“I don’t know,” answered the other.

“Help!” yelled Joe. “Some fellows running off with this clothing! Cadets ahoy!” For he saw that the bundles contained Putnam Hall uniforms.

“What’s up?” called back Jack. He swam to a rock. “Well, I never!” he gasped, looking into the Cove.

“What do you see?” questioned Pepper, anxiously.

“Some fellows at our clothing! And look, there’s a motor boat!”

“Yes, and tying fast to our sloops!” gasped Fred Century. “Stop, you thieves!” he bawled.

“Let that clothing alone!” commanded Joe, and ran forward with his trowel uplifted as if it was a dagger. “Drop them, I say, or somebody will get hurt!”

His attitude was so fierce that the students from Pornell Academy let the bundles fall and ran back to the motor boat with all speed. Bock was also alarmed, both at the shouts from shore and from the swimmers at a distance, and had shoved off, so the pair had to wade in up to their knees to get on board.

“Going to leave us behind, Roy?” demanded one, angrily.

“No, but we haven’t any time to waste,” said the bully. “Here they come, like a band of wild Indians!”

And Jack and his chums certainly did look like wild men as they rushed along the shore, catching up rocks as they did so.

“Stop, or I’ll hit you with a stone!” called out Pepper, and then let fly a missile that whizzed so close to Roy Bock’s head that the bully dodged. More stones followed, thrown by Jack and the other swimmers and by Joe Nelson, and several students on the motor boat were hit.

“Don’t! don’t!” screamed Will Carey. “You may kill somebody!”

“Then leave those sloops alone!” called Jack.

“We know you, Roy Bock,” added Fred. “And you too, Gussic and Carey. You clear out mighty quick, or you’ll get into trouble.”

“We have a right to come here if we want to,” growled Bock, seeing that the chance to play the Putnam Hall lads a trick had passed.

“Perhaps. But you have no right to touch our boats,” answered Jack.

“Nor our clothing,” added Andy. “Joe, how is it that you are here?” he went on.

“I was digging plants in the woods when I heard some talking,” answered Joe Nelson. “I came to the shore just in time to see two of that crowd gathering up your clothing.”

“I see. Well, it was lucky you arrived.”

“We found the boats deserted,” said Sedley. “We were going to tow them down to your dock.”

“Tell that to your grandmother, Sedley,” retorted Dale. “You were going to run away with the sloops – and run away with our clothing too.”

“It’s on a level with the joke you played at Putnam Hall the other day,” added Stuffer.

“What joke?” demanded Grimes.

“You know well enough.”

“I don’t know anything,” retorted the Pornell student uneasily.

“Perhaps you don’t know how we found you out,” added Jack, pinching Pepper’s arm.

“And perhaps you don’t know that Captain Putnam is going to swear out a warrant for your arrest,” added The Imp, as he returned Jack’s pinch.

“Our arrest!” cried Roy Bock, in consternation.

“That’s what I said.”

“He won’t dare to do it. If he does – well, we haven’t forgotten how you came to our school one night and stole all our trophies.”

“You just wait and see what he does,” said Jack, calmly. And then he started to dress and his chums did the same. Roy Bock wanted to talk some more, but the young major cautioned his chums to keep silent, and at last the motor boat and its occupants moved away across the lake.

“Well, we’ve found them out,” declared Pepper. “They are responsible for that rough-housing right enough!”

“Yes, and we have them guessing as to what Captain Putnam is going to do about it,” answered Jack with a grin. “Maybe they won’t sleep much to-night, thinking it over!”

“We must get square on them, for that and for their attempt to take our boats and our clothing,” declared Dale.

“You bet we will!” declared Andy; and all of the others agreed with him.

CHAPTER VIII

STARCHING AND BLUEING

“To get square with those Pornell fellows means two things,” remarked Jack, as the boys proceeded to push off and out of the Cove. “One is to do something worth while, and the other is to keep Captain Putnam in the dark about the rough-house affair. If we raise a row about that – ”

“The Pornell students will raise a row if we do anything and are found out,” finished Andy.

“Right you are.”

“Well, I guess we can keep still, since the captain has admitted he thinks Bob Grenwood innocent of the affair,” remarked Dale.

On the arrival at the Hall the two sloops were tied up at the dock, and the boys drifted down to the gymnasium, where Andy did some wonderful “stunts” on the rings and bars. Jack drew some of his chums aside and in a corner it was discussed how accounts might be “squared up” with the Pornellites.

“I know what I’d like to do,” grumbled Stuffer. “I’d like to present them with Pluxton Cuddle. They could have him and welcome.”

“What, have you had more trouble?” questioned Pepper.

“Indeed I have! What do you think! I was eating some candy I bought in town last week and he told me to throw it away – that it would ruin my digestion!”

“That’s fierce,” said Hogan. “Sure, and where is this tyranny to stop, I don’t know! Next thing ye know he won’t let us eat at all, at all!”

“I move we give Cuddle a lesson – after we get through with Pornell,” said Bart Conners, and this suggestion was hailed with satisfaction by all present.

One of the boys had learned that a number of Pornell students were going to a party on the following Wednesday afternoon. The affair was to be given by a number of girls at a place called Lakelawn, a mile from the Academy. Among the invited guests were Bock and several of his cronies.