The Putnam Hall Rebellion

“Second the motion,” answered Andy, promptly. “But how is it to be done?”

“Might each do an extra example in geometry, in honor of the event,” suggested Jack, with a smile.

“Geometry!” snorted Stuffer. “Not much! Let’s have something to eat!”

“Stuffer’s one idea of celebrating is something to eat,” cried Andy.

“Well, a feast isn’t so bad,” said another cadet.

“Where are we going to get anything?” asked Pepper. “We can’t go to Cedarville – it’s too late.”

“I have it!” cried Andy. “Let us have an ice-cream festival.”

“That’s easy enough to say, Andy, but where are you going to get the cream?” asked the young major.

“If some of you will make excuses for me after supper I’ll get the cream,” answered the acrobatic youth. “I can go to Cedarville and back in no time on my wheel. But I want some money,” he added, suddenly. “Poser, the ice-cream man, doesn’t tick anybody.”

“An ice-cream party it is,” said Emerald. “Sure, an’ I could eat some now, so I could!” And he smacked his lips.

When the cadets got back to Putnam Hall they washed up hastily and then some of the others turned over to Andy a portion of their spending money. Andy got a hasty supper, and then, watching his chance, stole from the mess hall on the sly. His bicycle was in the wagon house, and mounting this he spun along the highway leading to the town at record-breaking speed.

“Where did Snow go?” demanded Pluxton Cuddle, when he noticed the vacant chair.

“Perhaps he wasn’t feeling well,” suggested Pepper. “I noticed he had his hand to his stomach.”

“He eats too much,” grumbled the new teacher. “All of you boys eat more than is good for you. After this I shall have to keep an eye on Snow.” He glared round the table. “Singleton, what is that you have in your hand?”

“A piece of cake, sir,” answered Stuffer.

“Didn’t you have a piece before, sir?”

“Yes, sir. But I’m hungry and – ”

“One piece of cake is enough, Singleton. Put that down and leave the table.”

“Do you want me to go hungry?” demanded Stuffer, half angrily. The strenuous events of the afternoon had made him unusually hungry.

“I will not allow a cadet to stuff himself. I do not wonder that some of the boys have given you the nickname of Stuffer – although I abhor nicknames. Leave the room, sir!”

“All right, old cat!” grumbled Paul, under his breath, and he marched out, with Pluxton Cuddle’s eyes glaring after him. In the meantime Pepper calmly reached over, took half a dozen slices of cake and rolled them up in a napkin in his lap. Seeing this, Jack did the same. When Pluxton Cuddle chanced to look at the plate a minute later he stared in amazement.

“Who took that cake?” he thundered.

To this question all the cadets remained silent.

“Answer me, who took that cake?” he repeated, and looked at each boy in turn.

“I didn’t,” answered Dale.

“I ate but one piece, Mr. Cuddle!” said Pepper.

“That is all I ate, too,” added Jack.

“Only Stuffer – I mean Singleton – ate more than one piece,” said Bart Conners.

“Strange! strange! I thought the plate was full of cake,” murmured Pluxton Cuddle. He glared again at the cadets. “If I find out that any of you have deceived me I shall punish you severely. Now finish your suppers!” And he began to munch away vigorously on the dry toast he was eating. His theory was that a person should eat very little but masticate that little well, and he sometimes chewed a mouthful of food thirty or forty times.

When the meal was over, Pepper and Jack slipped the napkins full of cake under their jackets and left the mess hall. Then they took the cake upstairs and hid the dainty in a safe place. This done they strolled down the highway leading to Cedarville, looking for Andy.

“He ought to be coming soon,” remarked the young major, after a half hour had passed.

They walked a short distance from the Hall and then sat down on a rock to rest. Here presently Dale and Stuffer joined them.

“Where is Andy?” called out Stuffer. “I am hungry enough to eat that ice-cream right now.”

“I think something is wrong,” said Jack. “He ought to be back by this time.”

“What could be wrong, Jack?” asked Pepper.

“I don’t know, but – ” The young major paused. “Somehow, I feel that something serious has happened to Andy!”

CHAPTER XI

WHAT HAPPENED TO ANDY

“Perhaps Andy had a tumble from his wheel,” suggested Dale. “It might have broken down, you know.”

“Let us walk toward town and find out,” answered Pepper.

To this the others readily consented, and all set off in the direction of Cedarville. They had to go around a long curve, and then came to a spot where the roadway was lined upon either side with thick brushwood and trees.

“Here he is!” called out Jack, and ran forward. “At least, here is his wheel.”

He was right about the bicycle. It rested by the roadside, close to the fallen limb of a tree.

“He certainly took a tumble!” cried Stuffer. “But where is he?”

This question was answered by a groan that made all of the cadets start. They turned, peered into the bushes, and there beheld poor Andy stretched out on some grass. The blood was flowing from a wound in his forehead and from a cut on his hand.

“Andy!” cried the young major. “Are you hurt much?”

“I – I don’t know,” was the gasped-out reply.

“Didn’t you see the tree limb?” asked Pepper, as he got out his handkerchief to wipe away some of the blood on his chum’s face, so he might see the extent of the injury. Fortunately the cut was not deep, and it was easily bound up.

“That limb came down right in front of me,” was Andy’s answer. “If it had been down before I got to it I could have cleared it somehow.”

Stuffer ran to a nearby brook for water, bringing some in a cone he made of a sheet of writing paper, and inside of five minutes the sufferer felt well enough to tell his story.