CHAPTER XIX WHAT HAPPENED TO JACK RUDDY
“Boys, get the eating out of sight—somebody may want to come in!” criedJack, in a low voice. And in a few seconds the food was placed in acloset and covered with papers and books.
“I want to talk to you!” called the voice of Josiah Crabtree.
“What do you want, Mr. Crabtree?” demanded the young major.
“It is now twelve o’clock,” went on the teacher. “Dinner will be servedin a few minutes. Are you ready to do as I wish?”
“You mean for us to apologize?” asked Pepper.
“Yes, and to promise to do as ordered in the future.”
“We won’t apologize,” answered several, in unison.
“Don’t you want your dinner?” demanded the teacher, in a somewhatcrestfallen tone of voice.
“This is not a question of dinner—it is a question of principle, Mr.Crabtree,” answered Jack.
“Exactly—but you must be hungry.”
“We are,” and this was true, for nobody had as yet started to eat.
“There is no use of your being stubborn,” continued Josiah Crabtree.
“We are not stubborn.”
“Yes, you are!”
“You are the one who is stubborn,” put in Dale. “You and Mr. Cuddlethink you are right—but we are about thirty or thirty-five to two.”
“Bah! you are only boys and do not realize what you are doing.”
“We are going to leave this matter to Captain Putnam.”
“Then you don’t want any dinner, eh?” Josiah Crabtree felt certain thatthe cadets must be very hungry.
“Not on your terms,” answered Jack.
“Do you all say that?” called out the teacher.
“Yes!” came in a chorus.
“Very well, you can go hungry a while longer!” cried Crabtree in a rage,and stalked off to interview the boys in some of the other rooms. Oneand all refused to “surrender,” as they expressed it. Then JosiahCrabtree went below to the office, where he met Pluxton Cuddle.
“They are as yet not hungry enough,” said Cuddle, after listening to theother teacher’s story. “Wait until the middle of the afternoon, orsupper time. I’ll warrant they will then be glad enough to do anythingwe wish.”
“Let us hope so,” answered Josiah Crabtree, and then he and Cuddletalked the matter over from beginning to end, and fixed up the storythey should tell Captain Putnam when he returned. According to theiridea the cadets were to blame for everything and had assaulted them mostoutrageously. Crabtree had already interviewed one of the men hired byhim at Cedarville and this fellow was ready to corroborate any tale theinstructors might put forth.
The teachers had just about finished their talk when they heard ahurried knock on the door of the office and one of the waiters appeared.
“The cook and the head waiter would like you to come to the kitchen atonce, please!” cried the colored man.
“What for?” demanded Josiah Crabtree.
“A lot of the eating has been stolen, sah!”
“Stolen!” screamed Pluxton Cuddle.
“Yes, sah. They jess found it out, sah, and they sent me to tell you,sah.”
“This is—er—extraordinary!”
“It’s those confounded boys!” roared Josiah Crabtree. “They must havegotten to the kitchen somehow and taken the things.”
“But the guards—you forget the guards,” returned Pluxton Cuddle.
“Perhaps one of them was bribed—and perhaps a waiter was bribed too,”said Crabtree with something like a groan. “Oh, I know no longer whom totrust here!”
Both of the teachers followed the waiter to the kitchen. Here they foundthe cook and several others talking excitedly. Nobody could tell exactlywhat had been taken, but the cook was certain it was considerable.
“They have outwitted us!” moaned Pluxton Cuddle. “Now they will stuffthemselves and be more ugly than ever!”
“I am going to find out if they are in league with anybody outside,”said Josiah Crabtree, and started without delay to interview all thehired help around the Hall and also the men from Cedarville. Each andevery person, of course, declared he or she knew absolutely nothing ofthe missing food and had had no communication whatever with the cadets.
“We are following your ordars, sah,” declared the head waiter. “Right orwrong, we are following ’em.”
“Don’t you think I am in the right?” demanded Josiah Crabtree, sourly.
At this the colored man shrugged his shoulders.
“That is fo’ Cap’n Putnam to say, sah.”
“Ha! then you side with the boys, eh?”
“I ain’t sidin’ at all, sah. I obeys orders, that’s all, sah.”
“Humph!” growled the teacher and walked off, followed by Pluxton Cuddle.Then the teachers held another conference.
In the meantime the imprisoned cadets ate what they had for dinner withkeen satisfaction, and then put away the rest of the food for futureuse.
They had hardly finished when they heard footsteps in the hallway andheard somebody talk to the guard.
“There is Peleg Snuggers,” said Pepper. “Wonder what he wants?”
“I say, in there!” called out the man of all work, pounding on the doorwith his fist.
“Hello, Peleg! What’s this, a bombardment?” asked Jack, pleasantly.
“No, it ain’t no bombardment,” answered the man. “I want to talk toMajor Ruddy.”
“You’re talking to him now, Peleg, my son.”
“You are to come down to the office to onct,” went on the generalutility man.
“Who wants me?” asked the young major, in considerable astonishment.
“Mr. Crabtree. He wants to talk to you.”
“Does he want anybody else?” asked Pepper.
“No, only Ruddy.”
“Jack, look out,” whispered Dale. “This may be some trick.”
“I don’t think I’d go,” came from Bart. “There is no telling what thoseteachers may be up to.”
“I am not afraid of them,” answered the young major bravely. “Perhapsthey want to compromise.”
“Are ye comin’ or not?” demanded Peleg Snuggers, impatiently.
“I can’t come unless the door is unlocked.”
“I’ll unlock it. But, remember, nobody but Ruddy is to come out,” wenton the man of all work.
With great caution the door was unfastened by Peleg Snuggers and theguard, and Jack was allowed to pass into the hallway. Then the door wasfastened as before.
“I say, Jack!” called out Pepper. “If everything is O. K. we’ll look foryou back inside of an hour.”
“Very well,” answered the young major.
He was accompanied downstairs by Peleg Snuggers. Several times thegeneral utility man seemed to be on the point of speaking, but he didnot say a word until the door of the office was gained.
“Take care o’ yourself!” he whispered hoarsely. “Sorry I can’t donuthin’ for ye!” And then he opened the door and allowed Jack to enter.
The young major found Josiah Crabtree seated at Captain Putnam’s desk.The teacher had a slip of paper in his hand.
“Major Ruddy, I wish you would read that,” he said, shortly.
Wondering what the paper would contain, Jack took it and started toread. As he did so he was attacked from behind and a rope was quicklypassed from one wrist to another. In the meantime a folded towel washeld over his mouth, so that he might not cry out. Although he struggledhe was no match for Pluxton Cuddle and the guards, and in a very fewminutes he was a helpless prisoner. A loose gag was placed in his mouth,so that to call out was impossible.
“I am very sorry to have to treat you in this fashion,” said JosiahCrabtree, with a wicked gleam of triumph in his eyes. “But your conduct,and the conduct of your associates, has rendered it necessary. I trustby to-morrow you will be in a proper frame of mind to come to terms. Mr.Cuddle, you may h
ave him taken away.”
Then Jack was led from the office to the rear of the Hall, where therewas a sort of guardroom. This was an apartment not over ten feet squareand having a single window, high up from the floor. Outside, a tall ironfence ran around the window in the form of a semi-circle. In theguardroom were two chairs and a washstand. The place was damp andgloomy.
“You’ll stay here for the present,” said Pluxton Cuddle, as he thrustJack inside. Then the gag was removed, and his hands were unfastened.
“I shall report this outrage to Captain Putnam,” answered the youngmajor. And then the door was closed and locked on him, and he was leftalone.