CHAPTER VIII A SCARE ON THE ROAD
Carrying their wheels to the back of the yard behind the drug store, thetwo cadets lifted them over a board fence and jumped after them. Thenthey crossed a vacant lot and came out on a back street. Here they littheir bicycle lamps and then leaped into the saddles and were off.
"It's a fine night for a ride," observed Andy. "Wish we didn't have togo right back to the Hall. I'd like to take a spin of ten or twelvemiles."
"We might go around by the upper road," answered Pepper. "It won't takebut half an hour longer at the most. I don't think Ritter and Coulterwill hurry themselves. They like to smoke too well."
"Yes, and play pool, Pep. It's a wonder the captain doesn't find outwhat they are up to."
"Well, I am not going to turn tell-tale."
Reaching the main road leading to Putnam Hall, the two cadets followedthis for a quarter of a mile and then branched off to the left, on whatwas familiarly known as the upper road--since it ran on higher groundthan that which followed the lake shore. This made a long turn betweenthe hills to the west of the school and would give them a ride of fouror five miles extra.
Two miles of the upper road were covered when Pepper noticed that hislamp was growing dimmer. He stopped and dismounted and shook the lamp.No sound from within followed.
"Empty," he declared. "Too bad. I should have filled it before Istarted."
"Never mind, I'll lead and you can follow," answered Andy. "I don'tbelieve there is anything the matter with the road, anyway."
Andy dashed ahead and Pepper followed him at a distance of fifty feet.Thus another half-mile was reeled off. Then Andy slowed up, calling uponhis chum to do the same.
"My front tire is flattened out," declared the acrobatic cadet. "I hopeI haven't got a bad puncture."
"If it was bad I reckon you would have heard the air hiss," answeredPepper.
The lamp was loosened from the wheel and turned on the flat tire, andboth boys got close to find the puncture. Presently Pepper detected asmall, sharp thorn sticking in the rubber. It had made a hole like thatof a pin.
"I'll wind a piece of tape around it," said Andy. "That will hold tillwe get to the Hall, I guess," and he brought out the bicycle tape fromhis repair bag.
Both boys were hard at work, bending over the wheel in the dim light ofthe lamp, when they were startled by hearing voices close to them. Onboth sides of the road were trees and bushes and the spot was certainlya lonely one.
"Somebody is coming--" began Pepper, when two figures stepped into theroad and confronted the cadets.
The boys were amazed and alarmed, and with good reason. The figures werethose of big boys or men, and each wore a green hood and a green maskwhich entirely concealed his face and head. More than this, each woregloves with the finger-tips missing. Both carried heavy clubs in theirhands.
For the moment the boys were so astonished they neither spoke nor moved.Then both leaped up and confronted the newcomers.
"We have them!" said one of the masked figures. "We have them at last."
"Yes, we have them," answered the other.
"Do you surrender?" demanded the first speaker of Andy and Pepper.
"Surrender? What for?" Pepper managed to ask.
"You shall know in due time. If you surrender, hand over yourpocketbook."
"I haven't any pocketbook."
"Yes, you have, and it has exactly two hundred dollars in it," said thesecond masked fellow.
"We want both of your pocketbooks," went on the first one who hadspoken.
"I haven't any pocketbook, either," said Andy. "You've made a mistake intackling us."
"Let us take them to the cave for ransom!" cried the second fellow, andbegan to march around, waving his club over his head.
"Pep, this is a trick!" whispered the acrobatic youth. "Some of thefellows have followed us. Maybe they are going to initiate us in somenew secret society."
"By jinks, that's so! Say, it would be great if we could get away fromthem!"
"Will you give up your pocketbooks?" demanded the first of the maskedfigures.
"Yes, and your red dancing-slippers," added the second masked figure.
"Some of the cadets, beyond a doubt," whispered Pepper. "Well, we've gotno time for any initiations to-night."
"Let's pretend to submit," answered Andy, in an equally low voice. "If Ican only get this wheel pumped up it will be all right." For the tiretape was now in place over the puncture.
"What say you?" demanded both figures, coming to a halt by the roadside,with clubs upraised.
"Let us mend this wheel first and we'll do whatever you want," answeredAndy.
"It is well, proceed," answered the leading masked person.
Andy already had his pocket-pump out, and he proceeded with all haste topump up the tire. Then he put the pump back into his pocket.
"Take up your wheel," he whispered. "Ride like mad when you get thechance. I am going to try to scare them."
"The money!" roared one of the masked persons.
"Look! look!" screamed Andy, suddenly, and pointed into the woods. "Thetrees are on fire!"
The two masked figures wheeled around in fright. As they did this Andyand Pepper gave their wheels a push and leaped into the saddles. Theypedalled with vigor and were soon fifty feet away.
"Come back! Come back!" yelled the two masked persons, in consternation.
"Not to-night!" called back Andy.
"You'll have to find somebody else to initiate," added Pepper.
"Confound the luck!" muttered one of the masked figures.
"And I thought we had them prisoners," added the second masked person.
Laughing merrily over their escape, Andy and Pepper continued on theirway to Putnam Hall. The darkness of the night speedily hid the twomasked figures from their view.
"Did you discover who they were?" questioned the acrobatic youth, asthey came in sight of the school.
"No. First I thought one of the fellows was Bart Conners, but he didn'ttalk much like Bart."
"Their voices had a familiar tone to them."
"Yes, I know that. Well, whoever they were, they got left this time."
"Maybe a whole crowd of them were back in the woods."
"Perhaps. If so, we can find out who they are when they steal back intothe Hall."
"That's an idea. Let us watch for them."
The two cadets found Jack and the others anxiously awaiting theirreturn.
"Ritter and Coulter just came in," said the young major. "Ritter carriedsomething in his pocket."
"It's all right--the drug clerk said it wouldn't hurt our things a bit,"answered Pepper, and then he and Andy told of what had taken place atCedarville and on the road.
"I didn't hear of any new secret societies," said Dale, who was present.
"Nor I," added Jack. "But some of the fellows may be getting them up.It's a mistake, though, to have initiations to-night. If the boys stayup late they'll be as sleepy as owls at the inspection to-morrow."
"I want to find out who those chaps are--if I possibly can," said Pepper."I am going to stay up, at least for awhile, and see if I can spotthem."
"And I'll do the same," added Andy.
Satisfied that no harm would now come to their outfits, Jack and theothers retired. Andy and Pepper waited until all were asleep and thenone stationed himself at a window on the east side of the Hall and theother at a window on the west.
For a good hour nobody appeared. Then Andy saw some figures moving downnear the boat-house.
"The same pair, and they still have on the masks and hoods," he said,after calling Pepper.
"Here they come," said Pepper, a minute later, as the two masked figuresapproached the Hall. Then the two persons below passed out of sightbehind the school.
"What do you suppose we had best do now?" questioned Pepper.
"Wait till they come upstairs."
They waited, and thus ten, fif
teen, twenty minutes passed.
"I guess they are not coming up," began Andy, when he heard a doorclose. Then came a murmuring of voices, and he and the Imp saw the dimforms of two cadets coming up a side stairs. The newcomers tiptoed theirway along a corridor and one slipped into one dormitory and the otherhurried into the room next to it.
"Joe Nelson and Harry Blossom!" whispered Pepper. "Who would havethought it!"
"I didn't know they belonged to anything new."
"Nor I. Well, we fooled them nicely."
"Let us quiz them about it when we get the chance."
"Sure."
Andy and Pepper were tired enough to go to bed, and it did not take themlong to get to sleep. When they awoke the Hall bell was clanging loudly.They were a little late, and so were some of the others, and there was agreat rush to get dressed and downstairs on time.
The morning session was a brief one. During that period Reff Ritter gotexcused from his class for ten minutes, and Gus Coulter also got a leaveof absence.
"I would like to go out a few minutes, Mr. Strong," said Jack to theassistant teacher.
"Very well, Major Ruddy," was the answer, and Jack hurried away andafter Ritter and Coulter. He saw the conspirators go to a closet and getout two bottles of light-colored liquid. Then they visited the dormitoryoccupied by Jack and his friends, and also the rack where the cadetskept their swords and guns.
"What shall we do with the empty bottles?" Jack heard Coulter ask, as heand Ritter passed a door behind which the young major was in hiding.
"Put them in Sabine's closet," answered Ritter. "Then, if the worstcomes to the worst, I can say that little sneak was in it."
"All right," answered Coulter, and the proposal was immediately carriedout. Then the two conspirators went back to their class-room. But Jackgot in ahead of them, and was deep in a history lesson when theyentered.
The morning session at an end, it was announced that dinner would beserved in the mess-room in a quarter of an hour. Losing no time, Jackand his chums ran to inspect their outfits. They found some parts oftheir uniforms damp, where the liquid from the bottles had been pouredover them. The guns and Jack's sword were also moist, but these werereadily dried.
"I only hope the drug clerk didn't make any mistake," said the youngmajor.
"We'll know for certain after dinner," answered Andy.
The visitors had already arrived, and Captain Putnam had had a salutefrom the new cannon on the campus fired in their honor, and was nowentertaining them in his private dining-room. The cadets marched intothe mess-room for dinner, and half an hour later dispersed, to preparefor the inspection.