Chapter XXII: Josiah Crabtree Is Worried

While Andy and those with him were getting out the things in the storehouse, Jack and some others were searching the pantry and kitchen for such articles as they thought they needed. These included knives, forks and spoons, and also pepper, salt, lard and several smoked hams and tongues, and all the bread in the big wooden bread box.

“Let’s take some jam too,” said one cadet, and several glasses were added, and also such cake as chanced to be in sight. The boys also found a small cheese, some lemons and oranges and a box of raisins.

“I reckon we’ve got all we can carry,” said Fred Century. “Talk about moving day! This looks like one to me!”

As silently as shadows the cadets took the things outside and hurried with them in the direction of the storehouse, where they met some of the others.

“Where is Andy?” asked the young major, anxiously.

“Gone for a horse and wagon,” answered Dale. “It is simply out of the question to carry all this stuff by hand.”

“But the risk!” cried Pepper. “I’m going to see how he is making out.”

He ran for the stable and saw Andy bringing forward one of the horses. A spring wagon stood near by, under a shed, and Pepper ran it forward, and helped his chum to hitch up the horse.

“Listen, somebody is coming!” said Pepper, presently, and a moment later they heard Peleg Snuggers calling from his room over the horse stable.

“Who’s down there? What ye doin’?” bawled the man. And then he appeared at a window in his nightdress.

“Stop your noise, Snuggers!” ordered Pepper. “If you don’t they may find a dead man around here in the morning.”

“Land sakes alive! Don’t shoot me!” spluttered the man of all work, and dropped out of sight in a hurry.

“Don’t you say a word and you won’t be touched,” went on The Imp. “If you open your mouth there will be trouble, and lots of it, Peleg!”

“I ain’t sayin’ nary a word!” answered the man, in a voice filled with terror. The doings of the day had filled him with apprehension.

As quickly as they could the cadets loaded up the spring wagon, putting in all of the things collected and adding such additional stores as the wagon would hold. Then Andy drove off, taking Dale, Stuffer and some others with him.

“I’ll go up to Daly’s clearing,” said the acrobatic youth. “I’ll drive right into the woods beyond. I don’t think anybody will find us there.” And so it was arranged.

The outfit having been sent on its way, the cadets left behind breathed more freely. If an alarm came they could take to their legs, and they doubted if any of the teachers or guards could catch them.

“Now for the demonstration near the gym.,” said Jack. “Make as much noise as possible, so the other fellows will have a chance to get out of the dormitories, but don’t let the enemy catch you.”

In less than five minutes after that a loud yelling arose back of the gymnasium and several cadets could be seen running in as many different directions. There were calls for “Come this way, boys!” and “Look out, there’s a guard after you!” and a lot of other cries that seemed to mean much.

“What is that?” ejaculated Josiah Crabtree, who had fallen asleep in an easy chair in his room. “Are they breaking out?”

“To the gymnasium!” was the call outside. “Catch them, men, at yonder building!”

Then came a rush from the guards, and they were quickly joined by Crabtree and Cuddle. All ran in the direction of the gymnasium, leaving the school building, for the time being, to take care of itself.

It was what those left in the dormitories were watching and waiting for, and in a twinkling cadet after cadet came sliding down the rope and a line made of torn-up sheets. They threw out their bundles in advance, and then, picking up the baggage, darted for a back path, leading through the vegetable garden attached to the Hall.

“Hi! hi! Look!” shrieked Pluxton Cuddle, as he chanced to gaze behind him.

“What is it?” demanded Josiah Crabtree.

“The boys! They are leaping from the dormitory windows!”

“Impossible! Some of them will be killed. Ha! I see. They have ropes! Come, this is a trick—to get us from the school!” And the teacher ran back toward Putnam Hall.

By this time the guards were thoroughly bewildered and did not know what to do. Crabtree gave orders, and Cuddle told them to do something else, and, as a consequence, nothing was accomplished. The teachers were frantic.

“They have—have run away!” gasped Josiah Crabtree, as, having reached the school, he threw open the door of one dormitory after another.

“All of them?”

“No, but the majority. What shall we do?”

“I don’t know.”

“Mr. Cuddle, you are responsible for this!”

“I, sir?” gasped the new teacher.

“Yes.”

“Not at all, sir, not at all, Mr. Crabtree! You started the affair. You are responsible.”

“It is not true. If you had not cut down the food——”

“Tut! tut! tut! If you had not made a mistake in that Latin lesson, sir, the cadets——”

“Don’t talk to me, sir! I say it was your fault, Mr. Cuddle,” growled Josiah Crabtree.

“And I say, sir, it was your fault.”

And then the two teachers glared fiercely at each other.

“Please, sir, what do you want us to do?” asked one of the guards, somewhat sheepishly.

“Do!” cried Josiah Crabtree. “You can’t do anything! You allowed those cadets to run away! You are a set of blockheads!”

“So they are, blockheads!” added Pluxton Cuddle.

“I’m not a blockhead and I want you to know it,” answered the man angrily. “You fellers brought us up here on a fool’s errand, I think. If you’ll pay me off I’ll go home.”

“Yes, pay me off and I’ll go home too,” added another of the guards.

“What, are you going to desert us!” exclaimed Josiah Crabtree, in sudden fear.

“I ain’t no blockhead. You pay me and I’ll go.”

“But see here, you promised to stay here as long as wanted,” pleaded Crabtree.

“You don’t want me any longer—now the boys have run away. And let me say one thing—I think the boys had a right to run away.”

“Bah!”

“You teachers ain’t treatin’ ’em right,” went on another guard. “Just you wait till Captain Putnam gits back—I reckon he’ll make it warm for you!”

At this plain talk Josiah Crabtree almost collapsed. He realized that he had gone too far. He wondered what the result would be when the captain did get back. He was getting a fine salary and he did not wish to lose his position.

“My dear fellows, you are making a mistake,” he said, in a milder voice. “Those cadets have broken the rules of this institution and must be punished. I was simply going to keep them in their rooms until to-morrow and then I was going to give them a lecture, nothing more.”

“What about the grub they wanted?” asked another guard, who had come up during the talk.

“A little hunger would do them good. They would have gotten their fill to-morrow, and——”

“No! no! that’s a mistake!” burst out Pluxton Cuddle. “Too much eating——”

“Mr. Cuddle, I no longer agree with you on that point,” said Josiah Crabtree coldly. “If they return they shall have the same quantity of food as they got when Captain Putnam was here.”

“Humph! Then you have not the boys’ welfare at heart,” snorted the new teacher.

“I want you men to stay here, at least for the present,” continued Josiah Crabtree. “Let me see, I believe I promised you two dollars a day, didn’t I?”

“You did,” said one of the guards.

“Your work has not been pleasant and therefore I’ll make the pay three dollars a day. I did not mean to call you blockheads—I—er—was excited. Let us get down to—er—business now—and see if we cannot find those runaway cadets and persuade them to return to the Hall. If we can do that and—er—hush up this whole unpleasant matter I will—er—reward you handsomely.”

This talk was “pouring oil on the troubled waters,” and in the end the guards promised to stick by Josiah Crabtree and do what they could to bring the cadets back to school. They also promised, in view of a liberal reward, to tell Captain Putnam that the students and not the teachers were to blame for the outbreak.