Chapter XVI: Prisoners in the Dormitories

“Well, one thing is certain,” observed Pepper, as he and half a dozen others left the mess hall. “We are getting into this thing deeper and deeper. I wonder how it is going to end?”

“I doubt if it ends before Captain Putnam gets back,” answered Jack. “Crabtree is just headstrong enough to attempt something even worse than getting men with whips. Maybe he’ll have all of us locked up.”

“Will you stand for being arrested, Jack?” asked Andy.

“No.”

“Old Crabtree is a fool!” burst out Henry Lee. “I’d give half my spending money to ship him to—to Africa or the North Pole.”

“Say, I’ve got an idea!” burst out Stuffer. “Why not send him a bogus telegram, saying his grandfather or second cousin is dying of brainstorm, or something like that, and ask him to come right on? That might take him away until the captain got back.”

“We might try that,” mused Jack. “But let us see first what happens to-morrow. Maybe by morning Crabtree and Cuddle will cool off—and perhaps the fellows will cool off too.”

What had become of the teachers and the strange men none of the cadets knew, and the absence of all made the boys worry somewhat, although they tried not to show it. They wondered if the teachers had really gone off to summon more help, or make a formal complaint to the authorities. There was very little playing or studying done that evening.

“Might as well go to bed,” said Pepper, when the usual time for retiring was at hand. “I must say, I am dead tired. Such strenuous times are too much for me.”

One by one the cadets went to their various dormitories. A few were inclined to “cut up,” but Jack soon stopped this in every room but that occupied by Reff Ritter and his cronies.

“I want you to be on your good behavior,” said the young major. “Remember, when Captain Putnam gets back I am going to give him a full and true report of what happened.”

“Don’t you dare to say anything to him about inkwells and plates,” growled Ritter. “If you do you’ll get into trouble.”

“I expect every student to confess to just what was done,” answered Jack.

By ten o’clock the majority of the cadets went to bed, and an hour later the Hall was wrapped in stillness. Then, from the barn, there came a number of strange men, Josiah Crabtree and Pluxton Cuddle.

“Now make no noise,” cautioned Crabtree. “If you do some of them may wake up and make trouble.”

“We understand,” answered one of the strange men, who appeared to be something of a leader. Then the whole party entered the school building by a back door, and went about carrying out a plan they had arranged.

“Hello!” cried Pepper, as he woke up in the morning and looked at his watch. “Half-past seven! I didn’t hear any bell.”

“Neither did I,” came from Andy, who sat up at the same time. “I fancy it didn’t ring.”

“Everything is going wrong in this school,” put in the young major, as he slipped out of bed and commenced to dress.

“Maybe old Crabtree and Pluxton Cuddle, Esquire, have given it up,” suggested Pepper, as he rubbed his eyes and yawned.

Jack was the first to be dressed and Andy quickly followed.

“Let us take a look around and see how the land lays,” suggested the young major.

“I’m with you,” responded the acrobatic youth promptly.

“Beware of traps!” sang out Pepper. “Crabtree may be waiting for you with a club.”

“Or a shotgun,” added Dale, with a grin.

Jack walked to the door and turned the knob. To his surprise the door refused to open. He tried to shake it, but it remained firm.

“What’s the matter?” cried Pepper.

“The door is locked.”

“Locked?”

“Yes.” Jack stooped down and looked into the keyhole. “The key is on the outside,” he added.

“Perhaps somebody is playing a trick on us,” suggested Dale.

“Yes—Crabtree and Cuddle,” murmured the young major.

“Let’s try the door to the next room,” suggested Andy.

Several of the dormitories were connected by side doors, and hurried into the next room, Andy tried the door leading to the hall.

“This is locked too!” he said.

“We’re locked in, that is all there is to it!” cried one of the cadets. “The enemy has locked us in while we slept!”

“This must be a new idea for bringing us to terms,” said Stuffer. “Wonder how long Crabtree and Cuddle expect to keep us here?”

“Long enough to make you go without your breakfast, Stuffer,” said Pepper, with a grin. “Not much! I’ll break down the door first!”

“No, you won’t break down no door!” cried a harsh voice from the outer side of the barrier. “If you try it, you’ll get hurt, remember that!”

“Who are you?” demanded Andy, in astonishment.

“I’m a man hired to watch this door, and I am going to do it. Don’t you try no funny work, or you’ll get hurt.”

“Are you one of the fellows who was in the mess hall yesterday?” asked Jack.

“Yes.”

“Then you’ve been hired by Mr. Crabtree and Mr. Cuddle?”

“That’s it.”

“Where are they?”

“That ain’t none of your business,” answered the strange man, roughly.

“It is my business,” returned the young major, warmly. “You send for Mr. Crabtree at once.”

“I ain’t a-going to do it. I was told to stay here and watch these doors. Now you jest keep quiet and mind your own business.”

“Supposing we break down the door?” asked Pepper.

“The first boy who tries it, will get a good licking, and he’ll be tied up in the coal cellar in the bargain.”

“Are you alone?” asked Fred Century.

“Not much I ain’t! There are ten of us here and outside, and we are actin’ under orders from the teachers. They are going to show you that you can’t run this school during Captain Putnam’s absence.”

“I wonder if he is telling the truth?” whispered the young major to his chums. “Ten of them! It doesn’t seem possible!”

“Wait till I take a look out of a window,” said Dale, and ran to the nearest opening. He poked out his head and looked down on the campus. “Well, I declare!” he ejaculated.

“What do you see?” asked several in a chorus.

“Three men down there, and they are armed with clubs and guns!”

“Never!” burst out Jack, and ran forward to take a look himself. Soon every window was crowded with cadets, all gazing down to the ground below. There were three strange men, including one of those who had been in the mess hall the evening previous. As Dale had said, each had a club in one hand and a gun in the other. They walked up and down the side of the building, every once in a while glancing upward.

“This is the limit!” cried Pepper. “Why, you’d think we were prisoners in a penitentiary!”

“Yes, and some of those men were the keepers,” added Andy. “Oh, I say,” he went on, “let us give them something to let them know we are awake.”

“Right you are!” cried Pepper, quick to catch on to a joke. “Everybody hand them a souvenir!”

In a moment more each cadet present in the two rooms had armed himself. One had a cake of soap, another an old pair of shoes, another a pitcher of water, and the rest old books and odds and ends of various kinds.

“Now then, all together!” cried Pepper. “One, two, three!” And down went the miscellaneous collection on the heads of the guards. Yells of pain and wonder arose, for each of the men was struck. Before the guards could recover from the unexpected attack, each cadet withdrew from sight.

“Hi, you! We’ll get square, see if we don’t!” yelled one of the men. “Don’t you attempt to git out o’ them windows or you’ll git shot!”

“Do you think they’d attempt to shoot us?” asked one of the boys, in consternation.

“I don’t know what to think,” answered Jack, and his tone was very grave. He realized that the situation had become a truly serious one.