The Putnam Hall Rivals

“What are you doing here?” asked the master of the Hall, in amazement.

“Oh, Captain Putnam, is that you?” asked Sabine. “Will you help us?”

“What is the trouble?”

“We are afraid of the traps,” said Coulter.

“Traps? I see no traps,” and Captain Putnam flashed around the rays of his lantern. Then he set the light down and untied the prisoners’ hands, and the cloths over their eyes were also removed.

“Well, I never!” cried Coulter, looking around.

“Not a single trap, or a bayonet!” murmured Sabine. “We have been fooled.”

“Go back to your tent at once!” cried Captain Putnam, sharply. “I want no more nonsense this night.”

The balance of the night passed quietly enough, for the cadets were afraid to prowl around, not knowing who might be on guard. In the morning there were a good many laughs, but Dan Baxter and his crowd did not join in.

Down at the general store at the cross-roads Pepper had purchased some firecrackers and also some seidlitz powders. Watching his chance that morning he took the white-paper powders and dumped them in the milk the Baxter crowd was using. Then he dumped the other powders into their sugar.

“Guess I’ll have some coffee now,” said Baxter, and got himself a cup. Then he put in some of the doctored milk and followed with some of the doctored sugar. Several of the others did the same.

An instant later Baxter’s coffee began to bubble and foam and then went up like a geyser. The bully was so astonished he let the cup fall with a smash.

“Great Scott! What’s up with the coffee!”

“My coffee is going to explode!” shrieked Mumps, and threw his cup in some bushes.

“This is awful!” cried Coulter. “Why, what in the world is the matter with it?”

“Say, Ferris, what did you do to that coffee?” demanded Ritter, striding up to the cadet who had made the beverage.

“I boiled it, that’s all,” answered Ferris. “It’s good, too,” he added.

“Did you put in some baking powder?” sneered Baxter.

“Not at all,” and now Ferris himself tasted some of the coffee he had in his pot. “Why, that’s fine.”

“Give me another cup of it,” said Baxter.

It certainly looked good and he put in some milk. Then he added the sugar as before. At once the coffee bubbled and foamed worse than before.

“Look there!” he cried, rushing forward with the coffee running over the cup and on to the ground. “What do you say to that?”

“Hullo, Baxter has got Mount Vesuvius brand of coffee!” cried Andy.

“Why don’t you bottle it for mineral water?” asked Pepper.

“Oh, shut up!” cried the bully.

“I think I’ll try some milk,” said Mumps. “Phew, what a flavor!”

To sweeten it he put in some sugar, and at once he had the milk boiling and foaming.

“This is what’s the matter!” cried Reff Ritter. “It’s the milk and sugar that is doctored. Somebody put seidlitz powders in them!”

“Dump the sugar and milk away,” said the bully, and this was done. Then the crowd had to get a new lot before they could go ahead with their meal. Pepper and his chums had a hearty laugh over the incident.

That night, when Pepper was on guard duty, he took his package of firecrackers with him and during his spare time fixed some of the crackers so that they would have extra long stems, made of nothing but ordinary cotton cord. Then, when he was off duty, he placed the firecrackers around the camp, lighting each fuse as he did so.

“Now wait, and you’ll see some fun,” he whispered to Andy, Dale, and the others.

For a few minutes there was silence, and then one of the crackers went off. It was of good size and the noise sounded like a gun shot.

“Corporal of the guard!” came the cry.

“What post?” was the question asked by the corporal, as he rushed out of his tent.

He had scarcely spoken when another firecracker went off with a loud bang.

“Something must surely be wrong,” murmured Captain Putnam, as he sprang up and donned part of his clothing. “There goes another shot!”

He ran outside and soon found the bewildered corporal of the guard, who was running around asking the various pickets who had fired the shots.

“I can’t find where the shots came from,” said the corporal, and just then came two more explosions, followed by a third.

As it happened, the explosions came from different sides of the camp, so Captain Putnam was as much bewildered as anybody. By this time all of the cadets were stirring, for it had been ordered that no shot should be fired unless something was really wrong.

“Must be thieves in the camp!”

“Maybe some wild beasts!”

“I think it is some bears,” said Andy, in a loud voice.

“Bears!” screamed Mumps, and the cry was taken up on all sides. “Oh, I don’t want to meet any bears!”

“Nonsense! There are no bears on this island,” said Captain Putnam. “They must be shooting at something else.”

“Let us go around and investigate,” said George Strong, and brought out his revolver, while the master of Putnam Hall did the same.

During this time the firecrackers continued to go off, by ones, twos, and threes. Then came the explosion of a dozen or more.

“My gracious, what can this mean?” ejaculated the captain. “All of the guards must be firing at once.”

“Perhaps it is a box of cartridges that got on fire,” suggested George Strong.

The corporal of the guard had been out to one of the posts, when an explosion took place just behind him, causing him to leap wildly into the air. He looked back, saw something burning, and picked it up.

“Here you are!” he called, rushing back to Captain Putnam. “I know what is up now.”