CHAPTER I OUT ON THE ICE
"Line up, fellows, line up!"
"Wait a minute, Jack, my skate strap is loose."
"Well, don't take all the afternoon to fix it, Pep. Remember, we haveonly three-quarters of an hour off to-day."
"Oh, I'll remember it right enough," grumbled Pepper Ditmore, as hefixed the skate strap. "And such good skating, too! Isn't it a shame! Iwish we had a whole holiday to-morrow."
"Make it a week," put in a cadet named Dale Blackmore. "I declare, Ialmost love skating as well as I do baseball and football."
"Are you all ready?" came from Jack Ruddy, a moment later. "I am notgoing to wait any longer."
"All ready!" was the answering cry, and six boys lined up on the smoothice of the lake.
"Then go!" shouted Jack, and away went the half-dozen, with Jack attheir side, down the lake, which the keen wind of the day before hadswept almost entirely clear of snow.
They were a merry, light-hearted set of boys, all bent upon having thebest possible time on the present occasion. Coming out on the ice but afew minutes before, a race had been quickly arranged, the winner to betreated to some pie whenever the others should visit the town and beable to get it for him.
Of the seven boys making such rapid progress over the frozen surface ofthe lake, Jack Ruddy was the leader in more ways than one. He was awell-built fellow, with bright, earnest eyes, and only a few monthsbefore had been chosen major of the school battalion.
In another volume of this "Putnam Hall Series," entitled "The PutnamHall Cadets," I related the particulars of how the military academy wasorganized by Captain Victor Putnam, who had received his own militarytraining at West Point, that grand government institution of ours, andwho had also seen strenuous service under Uncle Sam in the far west. Afall from a horse had put him in a sick bed, and after his recovery hehad decided to retire from the army and go to teaching.
The captain had had considerable money left to him, and with this hepurchased a beautiful plot of ground on Cayuga Lake, in New York State,and there he built Putnam Hall, a handsome structure of brick and stone,shaped like the letter E, and containing many fine classrooms,dormitories, a library, messroom, office, and numerous other apartments.
The academy stood in the middle of a ten-acre plot. In front was asmooth, grassy parade ground and also a well-kept wagon road, runningoff in the direction of Cedarville, the nearest village on the lake. Tothe rear of the school the grounds ran down to the lake, and here werethe barns and a storehouse on one side, and a gymnasium on the other,backed up by thick woods, and on the lake shore a boathouse and a lineof bathing-houses.
The school was organized upon military lines, and each cadet was attiredin military uniform and was given instruction in military matters daily.The regular studies were similar to those at any first-class preparatoryschool. Captain Putnam was at the head of the school, and his firstassistant was Josiah Crabtree, and his second assistant George Strong.The majority of the boys liked the captain and George Strong very much,but Crabtree was a sour and morose individual they all but despised,even though they had to admit that he was well educated and could teachwhen he set his mind to it.
Jack Ruddy and Pepper Ditmore were chums, hailing from the western partof New York State. Jack was a trifle older than Pepper, but both were ofthe same size. Jack was a whole-souled fellow and it was small wonderthat, at the first election for officers, the cadets chose him as themajor of the school battalion. Pepper was full of fun, and this hadgained him the nickname of Imp. He was content to remain "a high privatein the rear rank," as he expressed it, but nobody loved him any the lesson that account.
At the academy, Jack and Pepper had speedily become acquainted with anumber who had since become their warm friends. There was DaleBlackmore, just introduced, who was a great football player, and alsoHenry Lee, who was captain of Company A, Bart Conners, who was captainof Company B, Paul Singleton, generally called Stuffer because of hisfondness for eating, Andy Snow, an acrobatic youth who was the bestgymnast at the Hall, Joseph Hogan, usually spoken of as Emerald onaccount of his Irish brogue, and a score of others whom we shall meet asour story progresses.
These were Jack and Pepper's friends. The chums had also made someenemies, of whom the worst was Dan Baxter, the bully of the school. Thebully at this time had two cronies almost as bad as himself named GusCoulter and Nick Paxton, and also a toady, John Fenwick, called by allthe students Mumps.
Rivalries had been keen almost from the start, and it had galled DanBaxter exceedingly to see Jack made major of the battalion, he himselfhaving plotted and schemed to obtain that honor, but without avail. Fromthat hour on the bully did all he could to get Jack and his chum intotrouble. This at last led to a fight between the bully and Jack, and theyouthful major came out practically a victor, although the fight wasbroken off before it was finished. But Dan Baxter boasted that he wouldyet whip Jack and whip Pepper, too.
During the early part of the winter George Strong, the second assistantteacher, had mysteriously disappeared. Two strange men had been seenaround the Hall several times by Jack and Pepper, and it was at lastlearned that the strange men had something to do with the disappearanceof the assistant teacher. A hunt was instituted by Captain Putnam, inwhich he was joined by Jack, Pepper, Andy Snow, and Dale Blackmore. Themissing instructor was found a prisoner in a cabin in the woods, hiscaptors being the two mysterious men, who proved to be relatives ofGeorge Strong. They had lost their fortunes and this had turned theirbrain, so that they were not responsible for their doings. As soon asthe teacher was rescued, he sent the demented men to the west, arelative from that part of the country coming on to take them away.
George Strong had been very grateful to the boys for what they had donefor him, and he did what he could to help them along in their studies.The insane relatives had imagined that the teacher had hidden away afortune belonging to the family. The teacher told the boys that it wastrue that, during the Revolutionary War, his ancestors had buried a potof gold, to keep it out of the hands of the British.
"But it was not worth anything like a million, as my unfortunaterelatives believed," had been George Strong's statement to Jack andPepper. "At the most it would be worth eight or ten thousand dollars."
"That's a tidy sum," Jack had answered.
"You are right."
"I'd like to pick up eight or ten thousand dollars," Pepper had put in."Mr. Strong, have you any idea where this fortune you speak of islocated?"
"A very faint idea."
"If you'll tell us,--and the place is close by,--we might look for itfor you."
"A letter was left by my great-grandfather in which the pot of gold wasmentioned as resting at the foot of the tree with the stone in itsroots, twenty paces north of the old well. I have never been able tolocate either the well or the tree."
"But was it around here?" Jack had questioned with interest.
"Somewhere in this vicinity, for the farm belonging to mygreat-grandfather was located not many miles from here."
"I thought the Indians were here at that time."
"So they were, but my great-grandfather had some Indian blood in hisveins and was a frontiersman, and the red men did not molest him verymuch."
"Haven't you ever hunted for the pot of gold?"
"A great many times--years ago. But I at last gave it up as useless.More than likely the old well mentioned has fallen in and the treerotted away, so the landmarks are all gone and nothing is left by whichto locate the treasure."
And there the talk had come to an end, but the boys had not forgottenabout the pot of gold.