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

“I’ll wager Baxter gets into trouble,” said Dale. And he was right, as later events proved.

CHAPTER XIX

THE RESULT OF THE NUTTING PARTY

All the boys who accompanied Jack were good walkers, and it was not long before they were deep in the woods back of Putnam Hall. The clear, bracing air put them in good spirits, and more than one began to whistle as they went on their way.

“There is a barbed wire fence!” cried Pepper, as they began to ascend Top Rock Hill. “We can’t go over that, I suppose.”

“Here is a path to the left,” answered Andy. “And I don’t know but what it is the better of the two.”

Not long after that they struck the first nut tree. They sent up a dozen sticks and stones, and down came a perfect shower of chestnuts, so thick in fact that they had to “stand from under” until the nuts stopped coming down.

“We’ve struck a bonanza, first trip,” cried Dale. “This will fill one-third of our bags at least.”

They began to pick up the nuts industriously, and soon had the majority of them. Then they passed on up the hill and soon found another tree almost as good.

“Let us go to the very top of this hill,” said Jack. “We are sure to get a beautiful view from up there.”

For the time being nutting was forgotten, and they raced along, to see who should get to the top of the hill first. But Dale outdistanced the others with ease.

“No use talking, Dale, you are the champion runner of Putnam Hall!” cried Jack, enthusiastically. “If we had a game of hare and hounds you ought to be the hare.”

“And no hounds would ever catch him,” put in Pepper.

“Gosh, but running makes a chap hungry!” came from Stuffer.

“Have some chestnuts,” answered Andy.

“Yes, here are a few to start on,” came from Pepper, and he let several fall down the hungry youth’s back, inside his shirt.

“Wow! Let up!” ejaculated Stuffer, squirming around. “Don’t! They’ll scratch me all the rest of the day!”

“Stand on your head and shake them out, Stuffer,” suggested Jack, and in the end that was what the hungry youth had to do. But he got square that night by placing some chestnut burrs in Pepper’s bed, much to the Imp’s discomfiture.

The top of the hill gained, a grand panorama was spread out on all sides of them. To the westward were other hills, with streams winding along them, and to the eastward Putnam Hall and the broad lake, the latter lying like a sheet of silver among the trees and rocks.

“Isn’t it great?” said Jack. “Do you know, I wish we had brought a camera along. I’d like a photo of it.”

“We can come up some day and take pictures,” replied Andy. “The folks at home will be glad to see them.”

“Say, fellows, look over there!” came from Stuffer, a moment later. “Am I mistaken, or is that Dan Baxter and his party?”

“To be sure it is Baxter, Paxton, and Mumps,” answered Jack. He gazed a moment longer. “What are those men doing to them?”

“I can’t make out.”

“The men have sticks, and one has a gun!” exclaimed Pepper. “As sure as you are born, Baxter and his cronies are in trouble!”

“They went into private grounds, that’s what the trouble is, and those men have caught them,” said Dale. “Just the same, fellows, I’d hate to see any of our cadets come to harm.”

“Baxter will earn what he gets, Dale.”

“Let us sneak closer and see what is being done,” said another. “We don’t want to see anybody shot.”

So it was agreed, and with their bags of nuts over their shoulders they hurried in the direction where they had located the bully and his cronies.

As they surmised, the party had poached on a private preserve, and the owner of the place, a hot-tempered old gentleman from Syracuse, and his three workmen, had caught them red-handed, with their bags loaded with the choicest kind of nuts.

To their consternation the old gentleman at first threatened to shoot the evil-doers, at which Mumps fell on his knees and begged for mercy. Then he ordered them to place all their nuts in a heap on the ground.

“Now, I’ll let you off on one condition,” he said, sternly.

“What condition?” asked Paxton.

“Oh, I’ll do anything!” howled the sneak of the Hall. “Only don’t have me arrested.”

“If the three of you will pick for me a full bushel of nuts I will let you all go,” said the owner of the preserve.

“Humph!” grumbled Baxter. “Aren’t you satisfied to rob us of those we have already picked?”

“I cannot rob you of what is already mine, young man.”

“I’ll pick nuts for you,” said Mumps, eagerly.

“So will I,” added Paxton, humbly.

“I’ll not pick any more,” came from the bully, defiantly.

“Very well, then, I’ll have you sent down to the Cedarville jail. I don’t think Captain Putnam will like that, or your parents, either.”

“It’s a mean thing – to send a fellow to jail for a few nuts.”

“You saw my signs, and when you came in here you did it at your own risk. Men and boys have been hunting, fishing, and nutting in here until I am tired of it, and I shall make an example of you, unless you agree to do as I wish. I make this offer merely out of friendship for Captain Putnam.”

“I’m not going to pick any nuts,” came firmly from Dan Baxter. He had on an extra stubborn streak.

“Very well, then. Mike and John, make him a prisoner.”

Without ceremony two of the workmen leaped forward and caught hold of the bully. He tried to resist, but in a twinkling one of the workmen laid him flat on his back. Then his hands were tied behind him.

“Let me go!” he roared.

“You keep quiet or you’ll get a sound thrashing,” ejaculated the gentleman, whose temper was none of the best.

“I – I’ll make you pay for this!”

“Perhaps you’ll do a little paying for yourself, unless you wish to serve a term in prison.”