The Rover Boys Series. Stratemeyer Edward

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      CHAPTER V

       FUN AND AN EXPLOSION

       Table of Contents

      Several days slipped by, and the boys waited anxiously for some news from the authorities. But none came, and they rightfully surmised that, for the time being, Dan Baxter had made good his escape.

      On account of the disastrous ending to the kite-flying match, many had supposed that the feast in Dormitory No. 6 was not to come off, but Sam, Tom, Frank, and several others got their heads together and prepared for a "layout" for the following Wednesday, which would be Dick's birthday.

      "We'll give him a surprise," said Sam, and so it was agreed. Passing around the hat netted exactly three dollars and a quarter, and Tom, Sam, and Fred Garrison were delegated to purchase the candies, cake, and ice cream which were to constitute the spread.

      "We'll do the thing up brown," said Sam.

      "We must strike higher than that feast we had, last year."

      "Right you are!" came from Tom, "Oh dear, do you remember how we served Mumps that night!" and he set up a roar over the remembrance of the scene.

      Hans Mueller had become one of the occupants of the dormitory, and he was as much, interested as anybody in the preparations for the spread. "Dot vill pe fine!" he said. "I like to have von feast twist a veek, ha I ha!

      "He's a jolly dog," said Tom to Frank.

      "But, say, I've been thinking of having some fun with him before this spread comes off."

      "Let me in on the ground floor," pleaded Frank, who always wok a great interest in Tom's jokes.

      "I will, on one condition, Frank."

      "And what is that?"

      "That you loan me that masquerade suit you have in your trunk. The one you used at that New Year's dance at home."

      "You mean that Indian rig?"

      "Yes."

      "Hullo, I reckon I smell a mouse!" laughed the senator's son. "I heard you giving Hans that yarn about us training to fight Indians."'

      "Did you indeed."

      "I did indeed; and I heard Hans say that he wanted nothing to do with the Indians."

      "Well, he's going to have something to do with at least one Indian," grinned Tom. "What do you say I get the suit?"

      "Yes; if you'll fix it so that I can see the sport."

      "All of the crowd can see it, if they don't leak about it," returned the fun-loving Rover.

      Tom soon had the masquerade suit in his possession and also, some face paints which Frank had saved from the New Year's dance mentioned. Shortly afterward Tom joined the crowd in the gymnasium, where Hans Mueller was trying to do some vaulting over the bars.

      "I dink I could chump dem sticks of I vos taller," the German youth was saying.

      "Or the sticks were lower," replied Tom, with a wink at the crowd. "That's right, Hans, you had better learn how to jump now, and to run, too."

      "The Indians have come," put in Frank.

      "Indians?" repeated Hans Mueller. "Vere is da?"

      "They say a band of them are in the woods around here," answered Tom. "If you go out you want to be careful or they may scalp you."

      "Cracious, Rofer, ton't say dot!" cried Mueller in alarm. "Vot is dem Indians doing here annavay?"

      "They came in East to hunt up some buffalo that got away. They had something like half a million in a corral, and about two thousand got away from them."

      This preposterous announcement was taken by Hans Mueller in all seriousness, and he asked Tom all sorts of ridiculous questions about the savage red men, whom he supposed as wild and wily as those of generations ago.

      "No, I ton't vonts to meet any of dem," he said at last. "Da vos von pad lot alretty!"

      "That's right, Hans, you give them a wide berth," said Tom, and walked away.

      Later on Tom persuaded Dick to ask Hans if he would not walk down to Cedarville for him, to buy him a baseball. Eager to be accommodating, the German youth received the necessary permission to leave the academy acres and hurried off at the full speed of his sturdy legs.

      "Now for some fun!" cried Tom, and ran off for the Indian suit and the face paints. These he took down to the bam and set to work to transform himself into a wild-looking red man.

      "You're a lively one!" grinned Peleg Snuggers, who stood watching him. "We never had such a lad as you before Master Thomas."

      "Thanks, Peleg, and perhaps you'll never have one like me again — and then you'll be dreadfully sorry."

      "Or glad," murmured Peleg.

      "Mum's the word, old man."

      "Oh, I never say nuthin, Master Thomas; you know that," returned the man-of-all-work.

      A number of the other pupils had been let into the secret, and, led by Dick, they ran off to the woods lining the Cedarville road. Tom came after them, skulking along that nobody driving by might catch sight of him.

      Not quite an hour later Hans Mueller was heard coming back. The German boy was humming to himself and at the same time throwing up the new ball he had purchased for Dick.

      "Burra! Burra!" thundered out Tom, as he СКАЧАТЬ