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

“I’ll have the law on you!”

In a minute more the gymnasium door was opened and the victim was marched outside. He was well blindfolded, so that he could not see where he was going. The masked cadets led him into the woods, around the boathouse, and then made half a dozen turns, so that Baxter was completely bewildered.

“Here’s the old shanty,” said Jack, in a loud voice, when they came to a halt. “Put him into the garret and leave him.” And then Baxter was marched into the carriage house of Putnam Hall and made to mount the ladder to the loft. Here he was tied to a post, but in such a loose fashion that he could get free with ease.

“Now, Baxter, listen,” said Jack, still in an assumed voice. “You are probably four miles from Putnam Hall. Don’t try to get away, or you may get into more trouble. To-morrow night we’ll come back and finish our job.”

“I – I can’t stay here so long. It’s cold and I – I ain’t got anything to eat.”

“Well, make the best of it,” was the cry, and then the masked cadets scampered off, and a few minutes later were safe in their dormitories in the Hall.

With a sinking heart Dan Baxter listened to them depart, and then gave a deep groan.

“I – I can’t stand this!” he muttered to himself. “It’s dreadful! And to think they branded me, too. What will Paxton and the others say!”

The loft was not a particularly cold place, for the windows were tightly closed. Waiting to make sure that the crowd had gone, he pulled himself free from his bonds.

When he placed his hand to his forehead he could scarcely believe the evidence of his senses. He could feel nothing of the branding – his forehead was not sore – it did not hurt! What could it mean?

“They must have tricked me!” he told himself. “What a fool I was to raise such a howl! How they’ll laugh at me for it! But it did feel just as if I was being burnt!”

All was pitch-dark around him, for the masked cadets had taken the lantern with them. He stepped forward and ran into a low beam, giving his forehead a severe bump.

“Ouch! Nothing fake about that!” he muttered, dancing around. “I’ll have to be careful, or I’ll break my neck. Wonder how far I am from the Hall and what sort of a place this can be?” He felt around and grasped some old spider webs. “Some half tumbled down shanty, I suppose. Perhaps I’d better make myself at home until morning,” and he crouched down and hid himself in the old horse blanket. He remained awake half the night, finally falling off into a troubled doze.

When Baxter awoke it was early morning and still dark. He felt cold from head to feet and gave a shiver.

“I’d give five dollars to be back at the Hall,” he muttered to himself. “Wonder if I can walk the distance before it gets too light? If any person sees me on the road with the rubber boots and this horse blanket they’ll take me for a lunatic.” He gave a deep sigh. “I suppose I must be two miles away, at least. They said four, but maybe they piled it on.”

Several times the bully thought of starting out but gave it up, thinking he might lose his way; but when it became lighter he took a look around the loft and presently descended the ladder to the ground floor of the carriage house.

“Hi, you tramp! Wot be you a-doin’ up there, tell me that?” cried a voice from the other end of the building.

“I’m no tramp, sir,” answered Baxter. “I am – Peleg Snuggers!”

“If it ain’t Master Baxter!” ejaculated the general utility man, who had just started in on his morning work. “Well, I never! How did you git here?”

“What place is this, Peleg?”

“Wot place? Why, the carriage house, o’ course.”

“What!” yelled Dan Baxter; and at that instant he was by far the maddest boy the school ever contained.

“Sure. Wot did you think it was, eh?”

“Never mind. Is the back door to the Hall open?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’m going in,” answered the bully, and ran off without another word.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE RESULTS OF A FIRE

That morning Dan Baxter did not appear and it was reported that he was sick.

“He acts to me as if he were going to die,” announced Mumps, when appealed to. “I don’t know exactly what is the matter with him.”

“Can this be true?” asked Pepper of Jack. “I’d hate to think that Baxter got sick through what we did to him.”

“More than likely he is shamming,” said the young major, and he was right. But to make sure Captain Putnam sent for Doctor Framley, a physician of Cedarville, who made a careful examination.

“He is nervous, as if he had been frightened, that is all,” announced the medical man. “Let him keep quiet for a day or two.”

Baxter had hoped to scare his tormentors into thinking that they were responsible for a serious spell of sickness. When this plan failed he quickly got around as before. He tried his best to find out who had hazed him, but the cadets kept their secret well.

On the day following the hazing Jack chanced to go down to the lake front. He was just entering the boathouse when, to his astonishment, two men stepped forth. They were the individuals he had seen several times on the mysterious sloop.

“Say, what do you want here?” he demanded, but instead of replying the men hurried away, up the lake, and then in the direction of Cedarville.

“Well, of all the mysteries I ever struck,” exclaimed the young major. “Now, what can those chaps be up to? This is at least the third or fourth time they have come here, and nobody seems to know anything about them.”

When Jack returned to the Hall he lost no time in visiting Captain Putnam’s office.

“Perhaps you’ll laugh at me, sir,” he said. “But I want to report those two men again.”

“Again!” cried the master of Putnam Hall. “Where did you see them?”

“At the boathouse. I went down there for a skate strap. They were just coming out.”

“Did you speak to them?”

“Yes, I asked them what they wanted. They didn’t answer, and hurried away on the Cedarville road.”

“Did they take anything out of the boathouse?”

“I don’t know.”

“I must assuredly investigate this, Major Ruddy. Let us go to the boathouse together.”

This was done and they took a careful look around. Nothing was missing.

“Why can’t we follow them up once?” questioned Jack. “We ought to be able to overtake them in a cutter.”

“A good idea. I’ll have Snuggers get a cutter ready at once. Get your overcoat and your gloves.”

In a few minutes they were on the way, the captain driving and Jack sitting by his side. They drove all the way to the village, but saw nothing of the men.