The Putnam Hall Rivals

“Yes, sir.”

“Then you may remain in after school also.”

“Thank you for nothing,” growled Andy, but this time under his breath.

“I am going to fix old Crabby,” said Pepper, during recess. “I think it is a shame to keep us in – with the last of the skating at hand.”

Pepper’s opportunity to torment the teacher came sooner than expected. That afternoon Josiah Crabtree had to leave the classroom for several minutes. At noon the Imp had secured some flour in a paper bag. He passed up to the platform, and on the sly placed the bag of flour in the teacher’s desk, turning it upside down, with the bottom fastened by a slit in the paper to the lock part of the desk lid.

“We will now take up our next study,” said Josiah Crabtree, a little later. He looked around for a lead pencil, but could find none. Then he walked to his desk, sat down, and started to raise the lid.

The lid did not work very easily, and he gave it a nervous jerk. Up it came, and as it did so, the flour shot down out of the bag, into the desk and over the teacher’s lap. Some arose in a cloud, covering Crabtree’s face and neck.

“Wooh!” spluttered the teacher, leaping back. “Wh – what is this? Who – er – who – wooh! – played this trick on me!”

He was covered from head to foot with the flour, which got into his eyes and nose and caused him to sneeze loudly. His appearance was so comical all of the students set up a very loud roar.

“Silence! silence! I will have silence!” roared the teacher, wrathfully. Then he had to sneeze some more, and the classroom burst into another roar.

“Crabtree has turned miller!” whispered Stuffer.

“Doesn’t he make a fine-looking statue?” came from Dale.

“Boys! boys! be quiet!” stormed Josiah Crabtree. “This is – ker-chew! outrageous! I demand to know who – ker-chew – ker-chew!”

“Anybody ker-chew around here?” asked Pepper, calmly.

“Who did this?” fairly yelled the teacher. “Who did it, I say?”

“The flour,” whispered Jack, and this made some of the boys snicker.

“Ruddy, what did you say?” demanded Josiah Crabtree.

“I said the flour did it,” answered Jack.

“Really! you are a monument of wisdom,” said the teacher, sarcastically. “You may remain after school.”

The teacher shut up the flour-covered desk and brushed himself off with a whisk-broom.

“The whole class may stay in after school,” he thundered, a moment later.

“I didn’t do that, Mr. Crabtree,” whined Gus Coulter.

“Then who did?”

“I – er – ” Coulter glanced at Pepper, who quickly doubled up his fist. “I – er – I don’t know.”

“All stay in – for one full hour,” snapped the angry teacher, and then went on with the studies.

“We ought to tell on Ditmore,” whispered Ritter, to Dan Baxter.

“Never mind – that crowd will catch it tomorrow,” answered the bully of the Hall.

“It was too rich for anything,” said Andy to Pepper, when they were out of school at last. “My, but old Crabby was mad!”

“Coulter wanted to tell on me, but he didn’t dare.”

“He respects your fist, that’s why,” put in Dale.

“Those chaps have something up their sleeve,” said Jack, with a grave shake of his head. “Everybody keep on the watch, is my advice.”

“We’ll watch ’em,” answered Pepper. But the watch was not close enough, as later events proved.

CHAPTER VIII

THE BOATHOUSE FIRE

On the following evening Pepper was getting ready to go to bed when, on passing through the hallway, a folded sheet of paper dropped upon his head:

“Hullo, what’s this?” he murmured and looked up to the floor above, but could see nobody. He unfolded the sheet and read the following:

“To Pepper Ditmore and Jack Ruddy: Go down to the old, disused boathouse at once if you want to hear something to your advantage.

    “A Friend.”

“This is certainly queer,” said the Imp to himself. “I wonder who wrote it?”

He sought out the young major and showed him the communication. Jack read it with care. It was written in a loose and evidently a disguised hand.

“Maybe it is some sort of a trick – to get us to the old boathouse, Pep,” said Jack, after a moment’s thought.

“Don’t you think it best to go?”

“Oh, yes, we can go. If it is one of Baxter’s tricks I’ll show him I am not afraid of him.”

“Shall we take the others along?”

“This note is for you and me only. Are you afraid?”

“Not a bit.”

“Then come on – we have just time enough,” said the young major, glancing at a clock on the wall.

Slipping on their overcoats and donning their caps, they ran to a side door of the building. They were soon out into the night without anybody seeing them depart but the boy upstairs who had dropped the note. He chuckled to himself and then ran to a window at the end of the long hallway.

“Something will be doing pretty soon now,” he said to himself, as he made a signal from the window.

All unconscious of the trap that had been set for them, Jack and Pepper hurried towards the old, disused boathouse. It was a dark night, with a suggestion of either rain or snow in the air.