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

As Jack broke off short and pointed with his hand, all of the masked students looked in that direction. Then Jack gave Pepper and Andy the signal, and side by side they dove into the woods and ran towards the road.

“They are gone!”

“It was a trick, to get us to look away!” roared Roy Bock. “Come on after them!”

“If you come after us now we’ll shoot somebody!” cried Andy. They had no firearms, but he thought he might scare their enemies.

“Do you think they will shoot?” questioned one of the masked boys, a lad who was timid by nature.

“No, I don’t,” answered Grimes. “Come on!”

“We don’t want to get hurt – ”

“Come on, it’s all right!” And then the crowd went after Jack, Pepper, and Andy pell-mell.

But our friends had gained a good start and they made the best possible use of their time. They leaped over the rocks and small brush-wood, and presently caught sight of the lantern, still hanging over the dashboard of the buggy.

“Hullo, what’s this?” cried Pepper, as he stumbled over something. “Bicycles, I declare, four singles and two tandems!”

“They must have come to this spot on their wheels,” answered Andy.

“I’ve got an idea – we’ll take a couple of the wheels along! Then somebody will have to walk home!”

This was agreed to, and in a trice they had hoisted two of the bicycles into the buggy. Then they got in and urged the horse forward.

“Stop!” came from behind. “Stop!”

“They have two of our wheels!” came in alarm, a moment later. “They are driving away with them!”

“Give us back our bicycles!”

“Not to-night!” shouted Jack. “If you want them, come to Putnam Hall to-morrow and get them!”

“This is the worst yet!” growled Roy Bock, whose wheel had been taken. “We must catch them if we can.”

“Yes, let’s do our best,” returned Grimes, whose wheel was likewise missing.

The rest of the boys mounted their wheels and tried to follow the buggy. But the road to Putnam Hall was much rougher than that to Pornell Academy, and soon they had to abandon the pursuit.

“We made a mess of it,” said Gussic. “They have the laugh on us.”

“I don’t feel like going to Putnam Hall for my wheel,” said Grimes, with a downcast look on his face.

“No more do I,” answered Bock. “But what are you going to do about it?”

“They’ll be sure to tell the Ford girls of this, and they’ll have the laugh on us.”

“If they do that, I’ll punch somebody’s head,” grumbled Roy Bock.

As soon as they were sure the Pornell students had given up the pursuit, those in the buggy slackened their pace, and re-arranged the bicycles they were carrying.

“We surely turned the tables on them that time,” laughed Jack. “I don’t think they’ll stop us again in a hurry.”

When they reached Putnam Hall they placed the bicycles in care of Peleg Snuggers.

“An’ where did you get them machines?” demanded the general utility man.

“They belong to a couple of Pornell boys. We picked ’em up on the road,” answered Jack.

“I’ll wager a tomato you got into a scrap,” said Peleg, with a grin.

“If we did, we didn’t get the worst of it, Peleg,” said Pepper.

“I don’t reckon you did. Most on the boys at Putnam Hall knows how to take care o’ themselves.”

Our friends were curious to know what the Pornell students would do about their wheels. Two days passed, and then a hired man from the Academy appeared with a wagon, and a note for Jack. The note was unsigned and read as follows:

“Please return the two bicycles per bearer, and we will call the whole thing off.”

“That’s short enough,” said Pepper, after Jack had read the note aloud. “What are you going to do?”

“Let them have their wheels. It wouldn’t be honest to keep them.”

“Let us send a note in return,” suggested Andy.

“I have it!” cried Pepper, and without delay he wrote out the following:

“In the future beware and keep off the grass.

    “Committee of Three.”

“That’s short and to the point,” said Jack. The note was sent with the bicycles; and that was the last seen or heard of the Pornell boys for some time to come.

CHAPTER XI

A GREAT GAME OF FOOTBALL

Once more the days glided by peacefully. Autumn was now well under way, and the leaves of the trees were turning to crimson and gold. Boating became almost a thing of the past, and talks about football filled the air.

With the coming of the football season Dale Blackmore was in his element. Not only was Dale a good athlete, but it was speedily learned that he had been captain of a good amateur football team in the town he hailed from, and that the team had in one season won nine games out of twelve.

“Dale is the man for our team,” said Jack, and by a popular vote the lad was made captain. There was a slight opposition by Dan Baxter but this quickly subsided.

As soon as he was made captain, Dale set to work to organize as a good a team as Putnam Hall could produce. He tried fully thirty cadets and then selected fifteen – eleven for the regular team and the balance as substitutes. On the regular team were Jack, Andy, Hogan, Bart Conners, Henry Lee, and others already mentioned in these pages. Pepper was a substitute, and he was willing enough to take a “back seat” as he called it.

“Now we have got to get into practice,” said Dale, “and it’s to be no baby play either.” And every day the team went out on the playground to practice. Dale made a good coach, and soon had the boys doing finely. He was assisted by George Strong, who had himself played football on his college team.

It had been expected that Pornell Academy would play Putnam Hall. But the Pornell students were sore over their boat-race defeat and they insisted that a false start had been made. The discussion grew warm on both sides, and so the scheme for a football match for that year fell through, although matches between the two schools were played later, as I have already mentioned in certain volumes of the “Rover Boys Series.”