The Putnam Hall Champions. Stratemeyer Edward

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      “Gus Coulter.”

      “What, that bully! I thought you were done with Coulter, Ritter, and that crowd.”

      “I thought I was,” said Andy. “But Coulter said I was afraid to meet him in a hand-walking and chinning-the-bar contest, and bragged to all the others what he could do, so I had to take him up.”

      “Is he so good at lifting his own weight?”

      “I don’t know. Henry Lee told me he saw him chinning the bar nine times.”

      “Well, I hope you can do better than that.”

      “Perhaps I can. But we are to do some walking on our hands first,” went on Andy. “I’d rather do some stunts on the bars and rings – it is more in my line,” he added. “I wish he would challenge me to do the giant’s swing against him – then I’d feel sure I could beat him.”

      CHAPTER IV

      SHORTCAKE AND LEMONADE

      It was a jolly crowd that gathered that evening in the dormitory occupied by Jack, Pepper, and their chums. Besides Dale and Stuffer there were Andy, big Bart Conners, the captain of Company B, Joe Nelson, Henry Lee, and Joseph Hogan, an Irish youth who was the soul of good humor and wit.

      Of course Jack and the others had to tell every detail of the adventure on the lake and tell all they could about the Pornell Academy sloop.

      “Did those chaps say anything about Roy Bock?” asked Andy. He referred to a student of Pornell who had on several occasions caused our friends considerable trouble.

      “Not a word,” answered Pepper.

      “Maybe they are not friends of Bock and his crowd?” put in Dale.

      “Carey and Sedley are that,” answered Hogan. “Didn’t I see them all at Cedarville a couple of Sunday nights ago.”

      “On Sunday?” queried Jack. “I didn’t know they were allowed out on Sunday.”

      “And how did you come to be out, Emerald?” questioned Pepper.

      “I went to see me uncle, who was sthoppin’ at the hotel till Monday marnin’. Coming home I passed that new tavern on the shore road. I met Roy Bock comin’ out, and he had Sedley, Carey, and four or five others wid him. They was all smokin’ and cuttin’ up in a lively fashion.”

      “I don’t believe Doctor Pornell approves of that,” came from Joe Nelson. He himself rarely did anything against the rules and was a good deal of a model for the other boys.

      “I don’t believe that new tavern is a very good place, either,” said Jack. “Last week they arrested three men there, for getting into a quarrel over a game of cards. They said the men were drinking heavily and gambling. That kind of a resort is no place for any students to visit.”

      “Roy Bock is sore on us,” was Andy’s comment. “Every time I meet him he glares at me as if he’d like to chew me up.”

      “I know he is down on us,” answered Pepper.

      “That’s because Pepper is sweet on those Ford girls,” said Bart Conners. “Say, Imp, which are you going to choose when you grow up?”

      “Pep has got to stand aside for Jack and Andy,” put in Dale. “Ever since – ”

      “Oh, change the subject!” cried Andy, growing red in the face.

      “That’s what I say,” added Pepper. “By the way,” he continued. “Somebody said there was to be a surprise to-night.”

      “Exactly – at ten-thirty,” answered Henry Lee.

      “What is it?” questioned several.

      “Well, if you must know, my cousin from Boston was in town to-day, and just for the fun of it he had the Cedarville baker make two big strawberry shortcakes for me. He told me to treat my friends. The baker is to leave them in a box at the apple-tree on the corner of the campus. He had a party to cater to, and he said he would leave the cakes at just ten o’clock.”

      “Hurrah for the shortberry strawcakes!” cried Pepper. “Hen, your cousin is a fellow after my own heart.”

      “I wanted to keep it a little quiet,” continued Henry Lee. “For I didn’t want to invite too many to the spread. I don’t really know how big the cakes will be – although I know my cousin Dick doesn’t do things by halves.”

      “It is half-past nine now,” said Jack, consulting the time-piece he carried.

      “I’d like one of you to go out with me, after the cakes,” said Henry. “Each may be in a separate box, you know.”

      All volunteered at once, for all loved strawberry shortcake. At last it was decided that Pepper should go with Henry.

      “What’s the matter with making some lemonade to go with the cake?” ventured Andy. “I know there is a basket of lemons in the storeroom downstairs, and there is plenty of sugar there, too – and water costs nothing.”

      This plan met with instant approval, and Andy and Dale were appointed a committee of two to provide the lemonade. By this time the monitor was coming around, and they had to put out lights. The Hall became very quiet, for all the cadets were supposed to be in bed.

      The four boys slipped downstairs by a back way, and while Andy and Dale tiptoed to the store-room, Pepper and Henry slipped out of a side-door. Once outside, the latter put on their shoes, which they had carried in their hands, and hurried across the broad campus in the direction of the apple-tree where the baker was to leave the cakes.

      “Perhaps he hasn’t arrived yet,” said Pepper. “If not, I suppose all we can do is to wait.”

      When they got to the tree no boxes were there, and they sat down on a small grassy bank to wait. Beside the bank grew a clump of bushes, which screened them from the Hall. It was a fairly clear night, with bright stars shining in the heavens overhead.

      “That baker is certainly late,” mused Henry, after a good ten minutes had passed.

      “Getting hungry?” asked Pepper, good-naturedly. “He may have been delayed on account of the party.”

      “I hope he doesn’t forget about the cakes. Perhaps – what’s that?”

      The two cadets became silent, as they heard a door close rather sharply. Looking through the clump of bushes, they saw two figures stealing from the school building towards them.

      “Some of the other fellows are coming,” cried Pepper.

      “Why should they bother, Pep?”

      “I don’t know, I’m sure. But I think – Well, I never! It is Gus Coulter and Reff Ritter! What can they be doing out here to-night?”

      “Let us get out of sight and find out,” answered Henry, and dragged his chum to a clump of bushes still farther back from the campus. He had hardly done this when Gus Coulter and Reff Ritter came up.

      “Anybody here yet?” asked Coulter.

      “I СКАЧАТЬ