The Putnam Hall Rebellion

“Pluxton Cuddle!” cried The Imp. “Wonder if he’ll try to cuddle up to us?”

“I did hear that he was quite a scientist,” went on Joe Nelson. “One of the kind who does everything by rule.”

“Oh, dear! I can see my finish!” sighed Pepper. “It will be ten minutes for this, ten minutes for that, and so on, all day long. And find out the whyforness of the thus of everything in the bargain!”

“Oh, don’t worry beforehand,” answered Jack. “He may be another Mr. Strong.”

“Not much, Jack! Mr. Strong is one teacher out of a hundred, heaven bless him!”

“If all teachers were like Mr. Strong, going to boarding school would be a cinch,” added Andy, slangily. “He’s the dearest man who ever tried to teach a fellow the value of x and y, and don’t you forget it!”

“And I firmly believe we learn twice as much under a man like Mr. Strong as we do under old Josiah Crabtree, – although Crabtree may be the greater scholar,” came from Stuffer.

The cadets spent a pleasant time in the woods, and at the roll of the drum hastened back to the pasture. When the two companies were formed it was found Bob Grenwood was missing.

“He got disgusted and said he was going to walk back to the Hall alone,” said one of the students. “I can’t say that I blame him much. It was a terrible thing to be made to resign.”

In a few minutes more the line of march back to Putnam Hall was taken up. To give the cadets a variety of scene, Captain Putnam took to another road than that pursued in the morning. This was nearly a mile longer, and, consequently, it was after the supper hour when the cadets came in sight of the school buildings.

As the cadets marched up to the campus a man came rushing out of the school holding up his hands in horror. It was Josiah Crabtree.

“Captain Putnam! Captain Putnam!” he gasped. “Come quickly! Something dreadful has happened!”

CHAPTER V

A “ROUGH HOUSE” AT PUTNAM HALL

“What is the matter, Mr. Crabtree?” demanded the master of the school, as he dismounted from his horse and strode forward.

“The schoolrooms, sir – and the sitting room and library! All turned topsy-turvy!”

“What!”

“Yes, sir! I just came in from the village – I went on a little business, as you know. When I got back I went to the library for a book – ‘The History of Turkey’ – and when I got there!” Josiah Crabtree held up his hands mutely. “It is a shame, an outrage, sir! And the classrooms are about as bad!”

“I’ll see about this,” said Captain Putnam, and strode into the school.

“Something is wrong,” said Pepper, after the cadets had broken ranks. “Let’s see what it is!” And he ran off to place his weapon in the gun rack.

Something was indeed wrong, as a hasty glance around the lower floor of the school building revealed. Every book in the library had been thrown on the floor, and to the general heap were added several pictures and maps taken from the walls. Two inkstands from a writing desk had been overturned, one on a table and over a beautiful statue of Justice standing on a pedestal in a corner. The floor rug had been folded up and thrown over a chandelier.

“Who did this?” demanded the master of the school sternly. “Who did this, I say?”

Nobody answered for the reason that nobody knew.

“And the schoolrooms are as bad,” cried Josiah Crabtree. “Never have I seen the equal, sir!”

Without loss of time Captain Putnam walked from one classroom to another and the cadets and teachers followed him, and so did some of the frightened servants. In every room books and papers were scattered in all directions. On a big school globe rested an old silk hat, and an old linen duster that Josiah Crabtree occasionally used in warm weather.

“Look at that! The rascals!” spluttered the irate teacher. “My coat, sir! It makes the globe look like a – a – scarecrow, sir!”

“It certainly does,” answered Captain Putnam, and for an instant he felt inclined to laugh. At the same time Pepper burst into a roar and Andy and some others did the same.

“This is a rough house and no mistake,” murmured Jack. “Who did it, I wonder?”

“Somebody has been here during our absence,” said Dale.

“Boys, stop your laughing!” exclaimed Josiah Crabtree, turning suddenly upon Pepper and his chums. “If you do not stop this minute, I’ll punish you severely! This is no laughing matter!”

“I won’t laugh any more,” answered Pepper, and, behind the fussy teacher’s back drew such a doleful face that Andy and Dale were almost convulsed.

“Here’s a go!” cried one of the cadets presently. “My Latin grammar is gone!”

“So is my history!” came from another.

“So is mine!”

“And mine!”

A hasty hunt was made and soon it was discovered that every history and every Latin grammar was missing. All the other books were there, although mixed up and mussed.

“Well, I don’t mind the loss of the grammar and history so much,” observed Pepper. “I’d like to get rid of them forever!”

“So say we all of us!” sang out Andy softly.

“Boys!” cried Captain Putnam loudly, and at the call everybody became silent. “If any one of you know anything about this, I want that pupil to step forward and say so.”

There was a pause. Nobody budged.

“Was anybody left behind when we went for the target practice?”

Again there was a pause. Nobody spoke.

“This is, as Mr. Crabtree says, an outrage, and I intend to get at the bottom of it.”

“I know somebody who came back before we did,” said Mumps, stepping to the front.

“Who was that, Fenwick?”

“Bob Grenwood.”

“Oh, what a little sneak!” murmured Pepper.

“He ought to have his neck wrung!” added Andy.

“Humph! So he did,” said Captain Putnam. “Does anybody know where Grenwood is now?”

He looked from one to another of the assembled scholars, but all shook their heads.