CHAPTER XIII PLUXTON CUDDLE’S PROPOSITION
“Say, Jack, this begins to look serious,” remarked Pepper in a whisper,as all eyes were directed to Crabtree and the lash he carried.
“He’ll make a big mistake if he tries to whip us,” was the young major’scomment. “What’s this?” he asked, as a bit of paper was thrust into hishand. The paper read:
“_Refuse to say a word about anything. Pass this paper along._”
“That’s the talk,” said the young major, and slipped the sheet to thestudent behind him. Thus the paper travelled from one end of theclassroom to the other.
“I was just going to call the roll, Mr. Crabtree,” said Pluxton Cuddle.“We’ll find out soon who is guilty of assaulting you.”
“Yes! yes! The quicker the better,” answered the other teacher, grimly,and clutched his cat-o’-nine tails tightly.
“If he tries to use that there will be a regular fight, mark my words,”whispered Dale, who sat near Pepper.
“He’s a fool to bring that here, at such a time,” answered The Imp.“What does he take us for, a lot of kids?”
“Addison!” called out Pluxton Cuddle, with his eyes on the roll book.“Stand up!”
The cadet addressed did so.
“Did you throw anything at Mr. Crabtree?”
“I have nothing to say, sir.”
“Do you defy me?” fumed Pluxton Cuddle.
To this the pupil made no answer.
“Sit down! Blackmore, stand up. What have you to say?”
“I have nothing to say, Mr. Cuddle.”
“What! You—er—Is this a plot, sir?”
“I have nothing to say, sir, excepting that I am willing to go on withmy lessons, Mr. Cuddle.”
“We’ll have no lessons here until this is settled!” cried JosiahCrabtree. “Call the next pupil.”
“Blossom! What have you to say for yourself?” asked Cuddle.
“I have nothing to say, sir,” replied the first lieutenant of Company A,in the same tone of voice employed by those who had answered before him.
“This is—a conspiracy!” gasped Pluxton Cuddle.
“I told you how it was!” cried Josiah Crabtree. “I think the best thingI can do is to give each pupil present ten lashes with this cat.” And heshook the cat-o’-nine tails in the boys’ faces.
“Mr. Crabtree!” called out Jack, rising. “As major of the schoolbattalion I feel it my duty to speak out. I think the boys would like meto be their spokesman.”
“Yes! yes!” was the cry from all sides.
“Tell him we won’t stand for a licking,” said one boy in the rear.
“Silence!” cried the two teachers simultaneously.
“We want justice!” came from the middle of the room.
“Leave it to Captain Putnam!” came from the right.
“Forget it and go on with the lessons,” added a voice from the left.
“Boys!” called out Jack and waved his hand. “Let me do the talkingplease.” And at once the classroom became silent.
“Ruddy, I want you to sit down!” thundered Josiah Crabtree.
“Perhaps it would be as well to listen to what he has to say,” whisperedPluxton Cuddle, who was growing a little alarmed at the demonstrationthe pupils seemed to be on the point of making.
“Mr. Cuddle, am I in authority here, or you?” demanded the unreasonableCrabtree.
“You asked me to assist you, sir,” answered Cuddle, sharply.
“So I did, but—but—these young ruffians must be taught to mind! The waythey have acted is outrageous!”
“You won’t gain much by bullying them,” went on Pluxton Cuddle. “If Ihad my way, I know what I’d do, sir.”
“And what would you do?” snapped Josiah Crabtree.
“I should cut down their supply of food. That is the whole fault in thisschool—the boys get too much to eat, sir, entirely too much. It makesanimals of them, yes, sir, animals!” Pluxton Cuddle was beginning tomount his hobby. “I have told Captain Putnam about it already. If theboys had only half of what they get now they would be brighter, quickerto learn, and much more easy to manage. As it is, they get largequantities of meat and it makes perfect bulls of them—and the pastryclogs their brains, and they can’t learn their lessons even if they try.Put them on half rations, and in less than a week you will behold awonderful change in them.”
“Humph!” mused Josiah Crabtree, struck by a sudden idea. “It might be agood thing to cut down their food—give them say one meal a day untilthey got to their senses.”
“Two small meals,” interposed Pluxton Cuddle, eagerly. “And meat butonce every forty-eight hours—and no pastry of any kind. It would do thema world of good.”
“Well, do as you think best, Mr. Cuddle. You have charge of them outsideof the classrooms, remember.”
“Then you agree?” questioned Pluxton Cuddle eagerly.
“You may do as you please—I leave them entirely in your hands, outsideof the classrooms. During school hours my word must be law.”
“Exactly, I understand.” Pluxton Cuddle began rubbing his handstogether. “We’ll start on the new system of meals this very evening.”
“Do as you like.” Josiah Crabtree paused. “But I must finish what Istarted out to do.” He looked at Jack. “Ruddy, since you seem so veryanxious to talk, what have you to say for yourself?”
“I wish to speak for the whole class—or at least for the majority of theboys,” corrected the young major, with a glance at Ritter, Coulter,Paxton and Sabine.
“Well, out with it!” snapped Crabtree.
“This trouble, sir, is all due to a misunderstanding,” pursued the youngmajor. “We thought you wanted us to study the Latin lesson up to andincluding paragraph twenty-two. We were not prepared to go any furtherthan that, even though Dave Kearney did get through all right. We thinkthe whole matter might be dropped where it is—and we are willing to goback to our studies.”
“Drop it!” snapped Josiah Crabtree. “Never! If I do nothing more, I amgoing to thrash the boy who threw that inkwell at me and covered my facewith ink.”
He said this so fiercely that Reff Ritter grew pale and looked aroundanxiously. The bully wondered if the other cadets present would help himto keep his secret.
“I want the student who threw that inkwell to stand up,” went on theteacher, as Jack, having had his way, sat down.
Nobody moved, although several pairs of eyes were turned upon ReffRitter. Many lads present would have been glad to have seen the bullypunished, but they did not consider it honorable to expose him.
Crabtree had Pluxton Cuddle go through the roll, but this gave theteachers no satisfaction. Each and every cadet answered that he hadnothing to say.
After the last student had been questioned there was another pause andan ominous silence. The boys were curious to know what Josiah Crabtreewould do next. The teacher was in a quandary.
“We will take this up again another time,” he snapped, finally. “You mayreturn to your lessons, and to-morrow we’ll have for a Latin lesson downto the end of paragraph thirty-two. Do you understand?—down to the endof paragraph thirty-two—not thirty or thirty-one, but to the end ofthirty-two.” And then turning he wrote the statement on the blackboard.“Now there will be no further misunderstanding,” he added sourly. Thenhe dismissed Peleg Snuggers and the gymnastic instructor, put away thecat-o’-nine tails in his desk, and turned to talk with Pluxton Cuddle ina whisper, so that the scholars might not hear what was said.
“Phew! I wonder if he really expects us to take such a long lesson?”exclaimed Pepper in a low voice. “Why, from twenty-two to thirty-two areten paragraphs, and we never had over six before.”
“He is going to get square in one way if not in another,” answered Andy.“Just the same, I’ll wager a lot of the fellows won’t have the lessonto-morrow.”
A few minutes later Pluxton Cuddle hurried out to another classroom
, andthen the routine for the day went on as if nothing out of the ordinaryhad happened. The cadets even saw Josiah Crabtree smile to himself. Itwas a bad sign, and they knew it.
“He’s got it in for us,” whispered Dale. “Look out for a storm.”
“Yes, and a hurricane at that,” returned Stuffer.
The classes were usually dismissed in the morning at ten minutes totwelve, thus giving the cadets ten minutes for exercise before sittingdown to dinner. But twelve o’clock came and Josiah Crabtree made nomotion to dismiss the boys.
“Hello, this is a new move,” cried Pepper, in a low voice.
“Silence in the room,” called out the teacher sharply. “We will now takeup the lesson in algebra. Conners, you may go to the blackboard.”
Somewhat perplexed, Bart Conners arose and walked to the board. He didnot know the algebra lesson very well, for he had counted on going overit during the noon hour. He was given a decidedly difficult problem inequations.
“Say, is he going to keep us here all noon?” asked Hogan. “Sure, if heis, ’tis an outrage, so ’tis!”
“He isn’t going to starve me!” answered Stuffer, who, as usual, was veryhungry. He raised his hand, and then, to get quicker recognition,snapped his finger and thumb.
“Singleton, what do you want?” asked Josiah Crabtree, tartly.
“Please, sir, it’s after twelve o’clock.”
“I know it.”
“Aren’t we to go to dinner, sir?”
“Not now. Sit down.” And the teacher frowned heavily.
Stuffer sank into his seat, a look of misery on his face. His appearancewas so woe-begone Pepper had to laugh outright. At this Crabtree rappedsharply on his desk.
“Silence! I will have silence!” he called. “Conners, go on with theexample.”
“I can’t—er—do it,” stammered the captain of Company B.
“Huh! Then take your seat! Ritter!”
“Please, sir, I am afraid I can’t do it either. I was going to studydirectly after dinner——” began the bully.
“Never mind the rest, Ritter. Paxton!”
“I guess I can do it,” answered Nick Paxton, and shuffled to theblackboard. He soon had a mass of figures written down, but they seemedto lead to nowhere, and Josiah Crabtree was more put out than ever.
“That is all wrong, Paxton!” he said. “You are a blockhead! Take yourseat!” And Paxton did so, with his head hanging down.
In the meantime the other classes had been dismissed, and those kept incould hear the other cadets walk through the halls and enter the messroom. Then followed a clatter of knives and forks and dishes. Thesesounds made many cadets besides Stuffer feel an emptiness in thevicinity of their belts.
“As no one appears to know the algebra lesson, we will take time forstudying,” said Josiah Crabtree. “I will examine you again at oneo’clock. The room will be quiet.”
Quarter of an hour dragged by slowly. The boys wanted to talk thesituation over, but Josiah Crabtree would permit no whispering.Presently the teacher arose and walked to the door.
“I will be back shortly,” he said, in a cold voice. “I want absoluteorder maintained during my absence.” Then he went out, shutting the doorafter him. A strange clicking followed.
“He has locked us in!” exclaimed a youth who sat near the door, in ahoarse whisper. “Now what do you think of that?”