The Putnam Hall Rivals

“Coulter wasn’t with them,” whispered Pepper. “He and Mumps and Sabine must be trying the trick elsewhere. Let us go out and investigate.”

The others agreed, and slipping on some clothing they sallied forth in the darkness. Only a few stars were shining, so they had to pick their way with care among the tents.

“Wait, there is somebody – coming from Jack’s tent!” whispered Pepper, and the next moment the Imp had a fellow by the collar, while Andy and Dale caught the second cadet. They were Coulter and Sabine, and they had Jack’s uniform, his hat, shoes, and likewise the young major’s sword.

“Let us alone, will you?” growled Coulter, in a cowed tone.

“Sure, we will!” cried Pepper. “Dale, put those things back, will you?”

While Dale did so, Pepper and Andy held Coulter and Sabine. Jack slept on, totally unconscious of what was taking place.

Despite their protests, Coulter and Sabine were made to march back to the tent from which the other cadets had come. Then they were blindfolded.

“We’ll put them through the forty-fourth degree,” said Pepper.

The others understood what this meant, and in a twinkling the prisoners had their hands bound behind them.

“Let me go!” whined Billy Sabine. “Please don’t hurt me!”

“We won’t hurt you. Keep still.”

“If you don’t let us go, we’ll raise an alarm,” said Coulter.

“If you do we’ll tell how you tried to steal Major Ruddy’s things.”

“We weren’t going to steal them. We were only going to hide them.”

“It amounts to the same thing. March!” said the Imp.

“Where to?”

“You’ll soon find out.”

The prisoners were marched to one end of the camp where there were some low bushes. Then Pepper began to whisper, but in a voice so that Coulter and Sabine could hear.

“Fix the bayonets all around, and don’t forget to set the traps. That’s it, now set that trap too. If they dare to move, well, they’ll wish they hadn’t, that’s all.”

“You don’t want to kill them,” whispered Dale, entering into the spirit of the fun.

“They won’t get killed. It will only nip ’em pretty bad – if they move,” answered Pepper.

He opened and shut his pocketknife several times with sharp clicks. Then he announced that all was ready.

“Now don’t move – don’t budge – unless you want to fall into a sharp trap,” said the Imp, to the two prisoners.

“Ho – how long must we stay here?” asked Sabine, in a trembling voice.

“We’ll be back before sunrise and fix it so you can get away,” answered Andy.

Then the three boys withdrew and left the two prisoners alone.

Neither Coulter nor Sabine dared to move, thinking they would run into some sharp steel-trap, or sword point, and hurt themselves.

“This is awful!” groaned Coulter. “Hang the luck anyway!”

“If we get cut with a rusty trap we may get lockjaw,” groaned Sabine. “I heard of a boy who got caught in a bear-trap once and he died from blood-poisoning.”

Andy, Pepper, and Dale watched the prisoners for a while and then went back to their tent. Here they were joined by Hogan and Stuffer, coming in from guard duty.

There was a brief consultation of war, and it was decided that Baxter, Ritter, and the others must be paid back for what they had attempted to do.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE GENERAL ALARM

Baxter and his chums were just getting to sleep, having grown tired of waiting for the return of Sabine and Coulter, when the bully awoke with a start.

“What’s that?” he cried, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

Before him he saw a curious figure jumping up and down. It gave forth a curious glow of light.

“You can’t fool me!” he cried, and leaped from his cot, – to pitch headlong over an empty barrel.

“What’s up?” came from Reff Ritter, and he too got up and bumped into a bag of flour hanging on a level with his head. Down came the bag, and the flour flew in all directions, nearly smothering Mumps, who was still sleeping.

“What’s this?” spluttered the bully’s toady. “Who threw flour over me!”

He too arose, and fell into a lot of loose tinware, creating a great racket. Then came a crash of another sort.

“Look out, the tent is coming down!” called out Ritter, and tried to get out. But he too fell over the empty barrel, and the next moment down came the tent, burying all three of the boys and making more noise than ever.

“Run!” called out Pepper, who had arranged the affair, and he and his chums ran and were soon out of sight.

The noise awoke Captain Putnam and George Strong, who were sleeping in a tent close by. Both ran out, and a lantern was lit.

“What’s the trouble here?” demanded the captain.

“A tent is down,” answered George Strong. “Some students’ fun, I presume.”

Soon Baxter, Ritter, and Mumps crawled from under the collapsed tent, making a great noise among the tinware as they did so. Then a crowd began to collect.

“Fenwick! What in the world is the matter with your face?” cried Captain Putnam.

“It’s flour, sir,” answered Mumps. “Somebody nearly smothered me with flour.”

“They played a trick on us,” growled Dan Baxter. “There was a noise and I got up and saw a make-believe ghost – some phosphorus on some dangling shingles. I started to get up, and then somebody pulled the tent down on our heads.”

Some of the cadets began to snicker at this. More lanterns were lit, and while some of those present started to repair the damage that had been done, Captain Putnam took a lantern and walked around the camp. Seeing something behind some bushes, he walked thither and came to where Coulter and Sabine were still standing blindfolded and with their hands tied behind them.