Chapter XIV: What Happened During a Swim

On the following morning camp duty commenced in earnest and Major Ruddy and his fellow officers had their hands full. Drill and inspection were had, following breakfast, and then the camp was “policed,” that is, cleaned up. After that the cadets had two hours in which to do as they pleased.

Some boats had been sent to the spot by Captain Putnam, and some of the lads went rowing, while others went fishing and bathing. Pepper and his friends preferred a dip into the cool and inviting waters of the lake and were soon in their bathing suits, which had been brought along. Reff Ritter and Gus Coulter went off in a rowboat, followed by some others.

“Say, this is something like!” cried Andy, after a first plunge into the limpid waters. “I am going to have a dip every day I am here!”

“So am I, unless something happens to prevent it,” returned Fred. He missed the use of his sloop very much.

The cadets had found a cove where the water was deep and here they had erected a springboard, and took turns in diving from this. It was great sport and for some time George Strong watched the lads.

“Come on in, Mr. Strong!” cried Andy. “The water is fine!”

“Not to-day,” answered the teacher, with a smile. “But I may come in some other day. I like swimming as well as you do.” And then he walked off, to attend to some camp duties.

“What a difference between him and old Crabtree!” sighed Dale. “If all teachers were like Mr. Strong we’d never have a bit of trouble.”

“Right you are,” answered Pepper. “But old Crabtree is the kind that sets your teeth on edge the minute you rub up against him.”

The boys spent quite some time diving and sporting around, and then Fred proposed a race.

“To the rock over yonder and back!” he cried, pointing with his hand.

“I’ll go you!” said Andy. “What’s the prize?”

“A brass-bound copy of last year’s almanac,” answered Jack, and this caused a general laugh.

Six cadets entered the race, and at a word from a lad on the shore all struck out sturdily for the rock that was to be the turning spot of the contest.

At first Pepper was ahead, with Fred second, but presently Emerald drew to the front, followed by Dale.

“Hi, this won’t do!” cried Jack, good naturedly. “Throw out your anchor!”

“Sure, an’ I can’t sthop, so I can’t!” answered Hogan.

As the six swimmers made the turn at the rock one after the other, a rowboat shot into view. It was that containing Reff Ritter and Gus Coulter.

“Racing, eh?” murmured the bully, crossly. He had not slept well the night before and was all out of sorts.

“I’d like to spoil their fun for ’em,” returned Coulter.

“Maybe we can do it,” went on the bully, craftily. “They have no right to get in the way of our boat.”

“Say, you wouldn’t run ’em down, would you?” asked his crony, anxiously.

“Not very hard, Gus—only enough to break up their race.”

“Stop! stop!” cried Andy, in alarm, as he saw the rowboat being sent in close to the swimmers.

“Get out of the way!” roared Reff Ritter, ungraciously.

“Don’t run us down!” called out Fred. “Turn out, Ritter!”

But Ritter would not turn out. Instead he sent the boat closer to shore. All in the water tried to avoid the craft, some swimming to one side and others ducking beneath the boat. The race was completely broken up.

Hogan heard the cries, but he was too anxious to win the race to pay much attention. Suddenly the rowboat shot beside him and struck him a sharp blow in the shoulder. With a gasp the Irish cadet threw up an arm and then disappeared from view.

“Emerald is struck!” cried Andy.

“Oh, I hope he isn’t hurt,” added Jack

“It was his own fault,” said Ritter. “Why didn’t he get out of the way?” Now that the damage was done he was somewhat scared himself.

“It was your fault, Ritter,” answered Dale.

The rowboat drifted over the spot where Emerald had gone down, and all of the other cadets looked in that direction. The Irish lad was nowhere to be seen.

“Maybe he’s killed!” gasped Andy. “He got struck pretty hard.”

“Oh, don’t say that!” gasped Coulter, and he went white with fear.

All of the boys in the water swam to the spot, and presently Jack and Dale caught sight of Hogan, near the bottom of the lake. They dove down and brought him up. He was unconscious and had swallowed considerable water. He could not aid himself and the others took him ashore.

“This is the worst trick yet,” said Jack, after Emerald had given a gasp and opened his eyes. “How do you feel, old man?”

It was several seconds before the Irish cadet could reply. In the meantime, very much disturbed, Ritter and Coulter had beached their boat and joined the group surrounding the sufferer.

“I—er—I lost control of the boat at the last minute,” said the bully lamely. “I didn’t mean to hit anybody. I was only going to scare you.”

“It was done on purpose! I saw it,” answered Andy firmly.

“See here, Andy Snow, you say that again and I’ll knock you down!” cried Ritter fiercely.

“You have got to spell Able first,” was the acrobatic youth’s reply, as he doubled up his fists.

“Whe—where is that spalpeen, Ritter?” came unsteadily from Hogan. “Where is he, I say?” And he staggered to his feet. There was a slight cut on his neck, from which the blood was flowing.

“Here he is,” answered Pepper. “But, Emerald, you had better keep quiet for awhile. We’ll attend to Ritter later.”

“I’ll attend to Ritter and right now!” roared the Irish cadet, and having recovered himself somewhat he made a sudden leap at the bully. “I’ll be afther givin’ ye a dose o’ your own medicine, so I will!” he added.

He caught Ritter and in his fury shook the bully as a dog shakes a rat. Then he commenced to back Ritter to the lake front.

“Hi, let up!” roared the other. “It was only done in fun, I tell you, Hogan!”

“Thin lit this be fun too,” was the Irish cadet’s answer, and of a sudden he gave Ritter a shove in the breast that sent the bully over backwards with a splash into the lake.

“Serves Ritter right,” murmured Dale.

“An’ now fer you, me little goslin!” went on Hogan and leaped for Coulter.

“Le-let me alone—I didn’t mean to touch you!” whined Coulter.

“You backed up Ritter—an’ ye can cool off wid him, too,” answered Hogan, and catching Coulter by the neck and the seat of his trousers, he ran him down to the lake after Ritter and pitched him in. Coulter landed on top of his crony, and both went out of sight with a great splash. Then Hogan shoved from the shore the rowboat Ritter and Coulter had been using.

“You git into that, an’ be off wid yez!” roared the Irish cadet, when Ritter and Coulter reappeared in the water. “Don’t yez dare to land here!”

Much alarmed at Hogan’s sudden fury, the bully and his crony kept away from the shore. They swam to the rowboat and clambered on board. Then, dripping from head to feet, they picked up their floating caps, and took up the oars.

“You think you’re smart, but I’ll show you!” cried Reff Ritter.

“’Tis your own fault,” answered Emerald. “Supposin’ I had been drowned, what thin, eh? Bad cess to you, Ritter! You’re a bad egg, if iver there was wan!”

To this the bully did not dare make answer, and he and his crony rowed off. They went to a secluded but sunny spot up the lake, and there dried themselves as best they could.

“I told you not to do it,” whined Coulter.

“Oh, dry up, you make me tired,” answered Ritter, and for the remainder of the day he and Coulter had little to do with each other.

“What makes you so wet?” asked Paxton, when the pair went back to the camp.

“Oh, we got into a mix-up with some of the cadets and fell overboard,” answered Ritter, in an off-handed manner. “Where have you been?” he added, quickly, to avoid giving further particulars.

“Went up to the head of the lake,” answered Paxton. “And say, I and Mumps made a discovery,” he added. Mumps was, as my old readers know, a small cadet whose real name was John Fenwick. He was a good deal of a sneak and continually toadying to those bigger than himself.

“What did you discover?”

“We found a good big hornets’ nest.”

“Humph! that’s of no account,” was Coulter’s comment

“Isn’t it though! That’s all you know about it,” cried Paxton. “I once found a hornets’ nest and put a big flour bag over it and took it down and brought it to school and had dead loads of fun with it.”

“Say, can you handle ’em that way?” queried Ritter, with interest.

“Certainly, but you have to be awfully careful.”

“Then, it would be a scheme to secure the nest and introduce some of our enemies to the hornets.”

“Just what I was thinking,” said Nick Paxton.

“When can you get the nest?”

“The best time is at night, when the hornets are all inside.”

“You’ll want a good, heavy bag, otherwise the hornets will get out and sting you.”

“I can make a bag, of paper and paste,” said Paxton.

“Well, keep it quiet and we’ll see what we can do with the nest—after we have it,” answered Reff Ritter. “I think I know of a scheme,” he chuckled.

“What?” asked the cadet who had made the find.

“Sooner or later the Ruddy crowd will have some kind of a feast. When they get together we can watch our chance and throw the hornets’ nest in their midst. I reckon that will wake ’em up!”

“It sure will,” said Paxton with a chuckle, and even Coulter had to smile over the prospect of doing such a thing to the enemy.

In the meantime, while this talk was going on, Jack and Andy were walking in the woods back of the encampment. Presently they fell in with Mumps.

“Hello, Mumps!” cried the young major pleasantly. “Walking out for your health?”

“Oh, I’ve been up the lake with Paxton,” answered the little sneak. He liked to be noticed by such a superior as the major of the battalion.

“Well, did you see anything worth seeing?”

“Oh, lots of things. Saw a hornets’ nest.”

“Fall into it?” asked Pepper. “If you did I guess you got out in a hurry.”

“No, I didn’t fall into it. Paxton and I found it.”

“I’ll wager you threw stones at it,” said Jack.

“No, we didn’t touch it. I wanted to throw a stone but Paxton wouldn’t let me. He said—But never mind that now,” added the sneak hastily.

“What did he say, Mumps?” demanded Pepper.

“Oh, well, if you want to know, he said he might come and get the hornets’ nest some time and play a joke on some of the cadets with it. I guess he wants to get square with some of the fellows.”

“Hum, I see,” mused Jack, and he and Pepper looked knowingly at each other. “Where was the hornets’ nest?”

“Oh, Paxton said I wasn’t to tell anybody.”

“You tell me, Mumps, and I’ll give you my old baseball,” said Pepper. He chanced to know that the sneak wanted a ball.

“Well, I’ll tell you, but you musn’t tell Paxton I did so.”

“We won’t say a word,” said The Imp. And thereupon the sneak took him and the young major to where the hornets’ nest was located.

“I’ll give you the ball to-morrow,” said Pepper, on the way back to the camp. “Now, mum’s the word all around remember.”

“I won’t tell anybody I told you,” answered Mumps.