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“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.
“Mr. Crabtree, have Peleg Snuggers hunt Grenwood up, and at once.”
“I will, sir,” answered the teacher and hurried off to find the general utility man of the Hall. Then both went in search of Bob Grenwood, but failed to find the ex-quartermaster.
“Perhaps he didn’t come back after he left us,” said Jack. “Maybe he felt too down-hearted to return. I must say, I feel mighty sorry for Bob.”
There was nothing to do but to straighten out the library, sitting room and classrooms, and then the cadets went to supper. After that some of the boys went out on the campus, some to the lake shore, and others to the gymnasium.
“Well, one thing is certain, some of our school-books are gone,” said Joe Nelson. “Too bad! I had an essay in my history. If it is not found I’ll have to write another paper I suppose.”
“I’d not do it!” cried Stuffer. “It’s not your fault that the paper is gone.”
Jack and his chums were entering the gymnasium when a student who had gone ahead uttered a cry.
“They have been here, too!”
“What did they do?”
“Do? Did everything they could to spoil this place,” was the answer.
When lit up the gymnasium certainly presented “a sight for to see,” as Andy expressed it. The wooden horses had been stacked in a corner, the rings and turning bars had been cut down, and the Indian clubs, pulling machines, and the floor covered with oil and grease. Jack did not notice the grease on the floor until he slipped and fell, and Pepper, who was at his side, came down on top of him.
“This is the worst yet!”
“Why, fellows, this place is almost ruined!”
“The fellows who did this ought to be tarred and feathered!” cried Jack, as he got up and rubbed a bruised elbow.
“I don’t believe any of our cadets would do such a trick as this,” observed Andy.
“Reff Ritter and his cronies are mean enough to do anything,” answered Pepper.
“But they were with us,” answered Bart Conners.
“Boys, I think I know who is guilty!” almost shouted Jack, as a sudden idea popped into his head.
“Who?”
“Roy Bock and his crowd – the fellows we met this morning in the big touring car – the chaps who called us tin soldiers.”
“My gracious, Jack, do you think that is true?” demanded Pepper.
“If it is we ought to march over to Pornell Academy and wipe them off the face of the earth,” said Fred Century. “This looks just like Roy Bock’s underhanded meanness,” he added.
Captain Putnam was notified of the new discovery made and came down to inspect the damage done. His face grew very stern.
“This is positive vandalism,” was his comment. “If any boy in this school is guilty I shall expel him.”
“If you will permit me, Captain Putnam, I’d like to say a word,” said Jack.
“What is it, Major Ruddy.”
“I do not think this was done by anybody in our school. If you will remember, we were all away to-day to target practice.”
“That is true, but one boy, Robert Grenwood, came back early.”
“I know that, sir, but – ”
“And I rather think he was in an ugly frame of mind upon his return,” pursued the master of the school grimly.
“That might be, too, sir. All the same, I don’t think he’d do this. Bob isn’t that kind of a fellow.”
“Well, what were you going to say?”
“I was thinking of that crowd of Pornell Academy students we met on the road this morning.”
“The ones in an automobile?”
“Yes, sir, – the fellows who jeered at us and called us tin soldiers.”
“Ahem! What of them?”
“I don’t want to say too much, sir. But you know they are down on us, – and you know how our flagstaff and our cannon disappeared,” went on the young major, referring to an incident which had been related in detail in “The Putnam Hall Champions.”
“Yes, yes. And I also know how Doctor Pornell complained of the disappearance of some choice trophies belonging to his students,” said Captain Putnam grimly.
“Well, they got those trophies back,” said a student in the rear of the crowd, and a snicker passed among the cadets at the remembrance of the incident.
“Those fellows are the worst boys at Pornell,” went on the young major. “I don’t think they’d stop at anything to do this school an injury.”
“Can you prove any of them guilty?”
“No, sir – at least, not yet.”
“Then I can do nothing, for Doctor Pornell and myself are no longer on speaking terms.”
“I think it is clear enough,” said Pepper. “Outsiders wouldn’t have any reason to come here and do this – unless they had a grudge against you.”
“Maybe that butcher, Pangborn, did it,” suggested Dale, mentioning a meat dealer who had had trouble with the captain over his meat bill, and who no longer supplied the school.
“It might be.” The master of the school drew a long breath. “Well, I shall watch out, and I want you young gentlemen to do the same. If you learn of anything, let me know.”
A little later Bob Grenwood came in. From the target grounds he had walked to Cedarville and had purchased his supper at the village. He tried to slip upstairs unobserved, but was caught by Josiah Crabtree.
“Ha! so we have you, you young villain!” cried the teacher, taking him by the collar.
“What’s the matter?” asked Bob, somewhat startled.
“You know well enough,” stormed Josiah Crabtree, and without further ado marched the ex-quartermaster to Captain Putnam’s private office. Here Grenwood was put through a great number of questions. When he learned the drift of things he was highly indignant.
