The Putnam Hall Champions

“Where does the fun come in?” asked Jack, as all hurried to his dormitory.

“A joke on Coulter and Ritter,” cried Andy, merrily. “We caught them nosing around downstairs and I called them into the store-room in the dark. Then I slipped past them and locked them in. They can’t get out excepting by the window, and then they’ll have to get back into the Hall.”

“It serves ’em right,” answered Pepper, and then told of what had been heard by himself and Henry down by the apple-tree. “We ought to pay Mumps back for spying on us, too,” he added.

It was voted to dispose of the strawberry shortcake and the lemonade at once. The cakes were cut up and passed around, and voted “the best ever.” The lemonade was also good, and the cadets drank their fill of it.

“What are you going to do with the two pitchers?” asked Joe Nelson.

“Sure an’ I have an idea, so I have,” came from Emerald. “Phy not leave ’em in Mumps’s room?”

“That’s the talk,” cried Pepper. “And we’ll leave this chunk of ice, too,” and he rattled the piece in the pitcher as he spoke.

Taking the two pitchers, the Irish student and Pepper approached the dormitory in which John Fenwick slept, along with Ritter, Coulter, Nick Paxton and Dan Baxter. They found the door unlocked and pushed it open. To their astonishment they met Mumps face to face. He was waiting for the return of Ritter and Coulter.

“Say, what do you want?” he began, but got no further, for without ceremony both boys thrust the empty pitchers into his arms. Then Pepper rammed the piece of ice down Mumps’s neck, and he and Emerald ran off swiftly and silently.

CHAPTER V

THE INTERVIEW IN THE OFFICE

“Hi, you – er – you let me alone!” sputtered Mumps. “Oh, my back! What did you want to put ice down my back for? Oh, dear, I’ll be all froze up!” And he danced around and let the two pitchers fall to the floor with a crash.

“That’s the time we paid him back for his sneaking tricks,” whispered Pepper, as he sped for his dormitory.

“Sure, he’s makin’ noise enough to wake the dead, so he is!” was Hogan’s comment. “If that don’t wake Captain Putnam up he must be slapin’ wid cotton in his ears an’ ear mufflers on!”

“The best thing we can do is to get in bed and lose no time about it,” answered the Imp, and began to undress before his bedroom was gained.

The others were speedily acquainted with the turn of affairs, and in less than three minutes every cadet was undressed and in bed. The pasteboard boxes had been thrown out of a window and all the crumbs of the little feast swept up.

Hogan was right, the noise soon awakened Captain Putnam, and the master of the Hall arose, donned a dressing gown, and sallied forth to see what was the matter. Then from an upper bed-chamber Mrs. Green, the matron of the school, appeared. She was a good-natured woman, but any alarm at night scared her.

“What is the trouble, Captain Putnam?” she asked, in a trembling voice. “Have burglars gotten into the school?”

“If they have they are making a big noise about it,” answered Captain Putnam. “I rather think some of the cadets are up to pranks.”

“Perhaps the school is on fire?”

“Is the school on fire?” demanded a student, who just then stuck his head out of a dormitory doorway.

“If the school is on fire I’m going to get out!” exclaimed another cadet.

“No! no! There is no fire!” cried the master of the Hall, hastily. “I believe it is nothing but some boys cutting-up. Listen!”

The sound in Mumps’s dormitory had ceased, but now came another sound from downstairs – the overturning of a chair, followed by the crash of glassware.

“That is in the dining-room, or the store-room!” shrieked Mrs. Green. “Oh, they must be burglars, sir! The boys would not make such a dreadful noise.”

“I’ll soon get at the bottom of this,” said Captain Putnam, sternly, and ran down the back stairs as rapidly as his dressing gown would permit. In the meantime many boys came out into the corridors, and George Strong, the assistant teacher, appeared.

When Captain Putnam reached the store-room he found the door locked. But the key was in the lock, and he speedily turned it and let himself in. It was almost totally dark in the room, and he had not taken two steps before he felt some broken glass under his feet. The window was open and he darted to it, to behold two students on the campus outside.

“Stop!” he called out. But instead of obeying the command the students kept on running, and disappeared from sight around an angle of the building.

“I will get at the bottom of this – I must get at the bottom of it,” the master of the Hall told himself, and lost no time in lighting up. A glance around showed him that a small stand containing some water-glasses had been tipped over and several glasses were broken.

“That stand was in the way in the dining-room, so we had it removed to here,” explained Mrs. Green. “Oh, what a mess! Be careful, sir, or you’ll cut your feet.”

“Mr. Strong, two students just leaped from this window and are outside,” said the captain, as his assistant appeared at the store-room door. “Find out who they are and bring them to my office.”

“Yes, sir,” answered George Strong, and ran for a door opening onto the campus. Once outside he saw Coulter and Ritter in the act of sneaking off towards the barns and ran after them.

“It will do you no good to run away,” he cried, as he came up and caught each by the arm. “Ah, so it is you, Coulter, and you, Ritter. You will report at once at Captain Putnam’s office.”

“We weren’t doing anything,” growled Gus Coulter.

“You can tell the captain your story.”

Meekly Ritter and Coulter marched into the Hall and to the office. They knew not what to say. They had not dreamed of being locked in the store-room, and the table with the glassware had been knocked over by Ritter in an endeavor to get the window open in the dark.

“Well, young men, what have you to say for yourselves?” demanded Captain Putnam, sternly, as he confronted the pair.

“We broke the glassware by mistake, sir,” answered Reff Ritter. “I will pay for the damage done.”

“But what were you doing in the store-room at this time of night?”

“We – er – we came down to get – er – to get some lemons,” faltered Coulter. “I – er – I had a pain in the stomach, and I thought sucking on a lemon would cure it.”

“Humph! Did you have a pain, too?” and the master of the Hall turned to Ritter.

“No, sir, but – er – Gus was so sick I thought I had best come down with him,” answered Ritter.

“Are you still sick, Coulter?”

“Why – er – the pain seems better now, sir. I guess I scared it away!” And the guilty cadet smiled faintly.

“Indeed! Well, why did you leave the store-room by way of the window?”

“Because while we were inside somebody came and locked the door on us.”

“Oh! Some other students, I presume.”

“Yes, sir. It was too dark for us to see who they were.”

“And you went down for nothing but lemons, eh?”

“Yes, sir.”