CHAPTER XVI PRISONERS IN THE DORMITORIES
“Well, one thing is certain,” observed Pepper, as he and half a dozenothers left the mess hall. “We are getting into this thing deeper anddeeper. I wonder how it is going to end?”
“I doubt if it ends before Captain Putnam gets back,” answered Jack.“Crabtree is just headstrong enough to attempt something even worse thangetting men with whips. Maybe he’ll have all of us locked up.”
“Will you stand for being arrested, Jack?” asked Andy.
“No.”
“Old Crabtree is a fool!” burst out Henry Lee. “I’d give half myspending money to ship him to—to Africa or the North Pole.”
“Say, I’ve got an idea!” burst out Stuffer. “Why not send him a bogustelegram, saying his grandfather or second cousin is dying ofbrainstorm, or something like that, and ask him to come right on? Thatmight take him away until the captain got back.”
“We might try that,” mused Jack. “But let us see first what happensto-morrow. Maybe by morning Crabtree and Cuddle will cool off—andperhaps the fellows will cool off too.”
What had become of the teachers and the strange men none of the cadetsknew, and the absence of all made the boys worry somewhat, although theytried not to show it. They wondered if the teachers had really gone offto summon more help, or make a formal complaint to the authorities.There was very little playing or studying done that evening.
“Might as well go to bed,” said Pepper, when the usual time for retiringwas at hand. “I must say, I am dead tired. Such strenuous times are toomuch for me.”
One by one the cadets went to their various dormitories. A few wereinclined to “cut up,” but Jack soon stopped this in every room but thatoccupied by Reff Ritter and his cronies.
“I want you to be on your good behavior,” said the young major.“Remember, when Captain Putnam gets back I am going to give him a fulland true report of what happened.”
“Don’t you dare to say anything to him about inkwells and plates,”growled Ritter. “If you do you’ll get into trouble.”
“I expect every student to confess to just what was done,” answeredJack.
By ten o’clock the majority of the cadets went to bed, and an hour laterthe Hall was wrapped in stillness. Then, from the barn, there came anumber of strange men, Josiah Crabtree and Pluxton Cuddle.
“Now make no noise,” cautioned Crabtree. “If you do some of them maywake up and make trouble.”
“We understand,” answered one of the strange men, who appeared to besomething of a leader. Then the whole party entered the school buildingby a back door, and went about carrying out a plan they had arranged.
“Hello!” cried Pepper, as he woke up in the morning and looked at hiswatch. “Half-past seven! I didn’t hear any bell.”
“Neither did I,” came from Andy, who sat up at the same time. “I fancyit didn’t ring.”
“Everything is going wrong in this school,” put in the young major, ashe slipped out of bed and commenced to dress.
“Maybe old Crabtree and Pluxton Cuddle, Esquire, have given it up,”suggested Pepper, as he rubbed his eyes and yawned.
Jack was the first to be dressed and Andy quickly followed.
“Let us take a look around and see how the land lays,” suggested theyoung major.
“I’m with you,” responded the acrobatic youth promptly.
“Beware of traps!” sang out Pepper. “Crabtree may be waiting for youwith a club.”
“Or a shotgun,” added Dale, with a grin.
Jack walked to the door and turned the knob. To his surprise the doorrefused to open. He tried to shake it, but it remained firm.
“What’s the matter?” cried Pepper.
“The door is locked.”
“Locked?”
“Yes.” Jack stooped down and looked into the keyhole. “The key is on theoutside,” he added.
“Perhaps somebody is playing a trick on us,” suggested Dale.
“Yes—Crabtree and Cuddle,” murmured the young major.
“Let’s try the door to the next room,” suggested Andy.
Several of the dormitories were connected by side doors, and hurriedinto the next room, Andy tried the door leading to the hall.
“This is locked too!” he said.
“We’re locked in, that is all there is to it!” cried one of the cadets.“The enemy has locked us in while we slept!”
“This must be a new idea for bringing us to terms,” said Stuffer.“Wonder how long Crabtree and Cuddle expect to keep us here?”
“Long enough to make you go without your breakfast, Stuffer,” saidPepper, with a grin. “Not much! I’ll break down the door first!”
“No, you won’t break down no door!” cried a harsh voice from the outerside of the barrier. “If you try it, you’ll get hurt, remember that!”
“Who are you?” demanded Andy, in astonishment.
“I’m a man hired to watch this door, and I am going to do it. Don’t youtry no funny work, or you’ll get hurt.”
“Are you one of the fellows who was in the mess hall yesterday?” askedJack.
“Yes.”
“Then you’ve been hired by Mr. Crabtree and Mr. Cuddle?”
“That’s it.”
“Where are they?”
“That ain’t none of your business,” answered the strange man, roughly.
“It is my business,” returned the young major, warmly. “You send for Mr.Crabtree at once.”
“I ain’t a-going to do it. I was told to stay here and watch thesedoors. Now you jest keep quiet and mind your own business.”
“Supposing we break down the door?” asked Pepper.
“The first boy who tries it, will get a good licking, and he’ll be tiedup in the coal cellar in the bargain.”
“Are you alone?” asked Fred Century.
“Not much I ain’t! There are ten of us here and outside, and we areactin’ under orders from the teachers. They are going to show you thatyou can’t run this school during Captain Putnam’s absence.”
“I wonder if he is telling the truth?” whispered the young major to hischums. “Ten of them! It doesn’t seem possible!”
“Wait till I take a look out of a window,” said Dale, and ran to thenearest opening. He poked out his head and looked down on the campus.“Well, I declare!” he ejaculated.
“What do you see?” asked several in a chorus.
“Three men down there, and they are armed with clubs and guns!”
“Never!” burst out Jack, and ran forward to take a look himself. Soonevery window was crowded with cadets, all gazing down to the groundbelow. There were three strange men, including one of those who had beenin the mess hall the evening previous. As Dale had said, each had a clubin one hand and a gun in the other. They walked up and down the side ofthe building, every once in a while glancing upward.
“This is the limit!” cried Pepper. “Why, you’d think we were prisonersin a penitentiary!”
“Yes, and some of those men were the keepers,” added Andy. “Oh, I say,”he went on, “let us give them something to let them know we are awake.”
“Right you are!” cried Pepper, quick to catch on to a joke. “Everybodyhand them a souvenir!”
In a moment more each cadet present in the two rooms had armed himself.One had a cake of soap, another an old pair of shoes, another a pitcherof water, and the rest old books and odds and ends of various kinds.
“Now then, all together!” cried Pepper. “One, two, three!” And down wentthe miscellaneous collection on the heads of the guards. Yells of painand wonder arose, for each of the men was struck. Before the guardscould recover from the unexpected attack, each cadet withdrew fromsight.
“Hi, you! We’ll get square, see if we don’t!” yelled one of the men.“Don’t you attempt to git out o’ them windows or you’ll git shot!”
“Do you think they’d attempt to shoot us?” ask
ed one of the boys, inconsternation.
“I don’t know what to think,” answered Jack, and his tone was verygrave. He realized that the situation had become a truly serious one.