Chapter XXV: News of Interest

“And so you’ve really and truly run away!” cried Laura Ford, after Pepper and Andy had told their story. “What fun! I wish I was a cadet!”

“How angry that Mr. Crabtree must be!” came from Flossie, as she tossed back her curls. “Of course he’ll tell Captain Putnam it was all your fault.”

“Most likely,” said Pepper.

“Where are you going now?” asked Laura.

“To Cedarville—to buy some things we need. You see, we came off in such a hurry we forgot some things,” and The Imp grinned.

“Can’t we help you?” asked Flossie. “I’d dearly love to—you boys have done so much for us.”

“Might bake us some pies,” suggested Andy, with a twinkle in his eye.

“Just the thing—only we’ll get the cook to do the baking. We’ll have the pies for you to-morrow. Where shall we bring them?”

“Oh, that will be too much trouble,” cried Andy. “I didn’t really mean what I said.”

“But we’ll get the pies for you—and some cake too. Just tell us where to bring them,” said Laura. “Can we visit your camp? I’d like to see what it looks like.”

“We’ll feel honored,” said Pepper, and then he told where the camp was located. The girls said they would have the coachman drive them as close as possible to the spot and would get there early enough, so the cadets could have the pies for dinner. Then the two parties separated.

“Now those are girls worth knowing!” cried Pepper. “Always willing to treat a fellow just right.”

“I guess Stuffer would think so—if he knew about the pies,” returned Andy. “Well, I’d like a piece of good pie myself.” And he smacked his lips.

The boys hurried to Cedarville and there procured the articles they wanted. Then they asked several people if any chicken thieves had been around lately.

“Yes, indeed!” said one man. “Tom Robinson lost some chickens last week, and so did Billy Peters and the Widow Lilly.”

“Were any lambs stolen?” asked Andy.

“I heard that Landerson the butcher, had a lamb stolen a couple of weeks ago. He just bought it from a man over to Hoetown. What do you want to know for? Do you know anything about the thieves?”

“I think I do. I’ll go over and ask the butcher about the lamb.”

At the butcher shop the two cadets had quite a talk, the upshot of which was that the butcher said he would visit the camp on the following afternoon, bringing two farmers who had lost chickens with him. He let the boys have some fresh meat on trust, and smiled broadly when they asked him not to tell anybody where their camp was located.

“I know something about the trouble up to the school,” he said. “One of them teachers—I think his name is Crabapple, or something like that—wanted my cousin, Jim Pepperhill, to go up there to keep order. But Jim didn’t like the looks of the teacher and wouldn’t go.”

“Did Mr. Crabtree say what the trouble was?” asked Pepper.

“Said some of the boys wouldn’t behave themselves, and that they had to be locked in their bedrooms and kept there.”

From the butcher shop the two cadets visited the post-office, to see if there was any mail for themselves and their fellow students. To their surprise they were told that another cadet had called there only half an hour before and taken all the cadets’ mail away.

“Who was it?” asked Andy, and the clerk described the person.

“I think his name is Coulter,” he said. “He has been here for mail before. Wasn’t it all right to give it to him?”

“Not just now,” answered Pepper. “After this you keep some of the mail here until one of our party calls for it.” And he wrote down a list of names. Then he and his chum hurried off in the direction of camp.

“It was mighty cheeky of Coulter to take all the mail!” grumbled Andy. “Why didn’t he sort it out and hand our mail back? Now we have got to wait until he gets ready to bring it to us.”

“Maybe he won’t bring it, Andy.”

“Then we’ll have to go for it.”

“You forget that we don’t know where the Ritter crowd is located.”

“Gracious, that’s so! Well, we will have to find out. If he’s got any of my mail, I want it.”

When the boys got back to camp the others listened with interest to what they had to tell.

“It will be fun to go after those tramps and clean them out,” said Dale. “And if the fellow is there who attacked Andy I hope we catch him and get back the stolen things.”

“Home-made pies!” murmured Stuffer, referring to what the boys said about the Ford girls. “Yum! yum! That’s the best ever!”

“I knew that would make a bull’s-eye hit with you!” said Pepper, with a merry laugh.

“I hope they bring enough to go around. Did you tell them how many there were of us?” asked the boy who loved to eat, anxiously.

“I told them there were over half a dozen of us,” answered Pepper, with a wink at the others.

“Oh, Pepper! Half a dozen! Then they’ll only bring two or three pies, and we won’t get more than a mouthful apiece!” And Stuffer’s face took on a mournful look.

“Well, you know, Master Singleton,” said The Imp, imitating Pluxton Cuddle’s tone of voice. “Too much eating is bad for a youth. It makes him stupid and incapable of studying properly. If one ate less——”

“Oh, stop your tommy-rot about eating less!” roared Stuffer. “I guess you must really believe in it—or you wouldn’t let those Ford girls bring only two or three pies.” And he turned to walk away.

“Stop, Stuffer, Pep was only fooling,” cried Andy. “They’ll bring enough pies, don’t you worry.” And then the youth who loved to eat felt relieved.

A campfire was kept going during the evening, and around this the runaway cadets gathered, to tell stories, sing songs and speculate upon how the whole affair was to end. A few were nervous, but others felt certain that Captain Putnam would not blame them for what they had done.

“If he does, he is not the man I take him to be,” said Dale.

“If he sides with Crabtree and Cuddle I shall ask my father to send me to another school,” said another.

“If we stick together he is bound to side with us,” added Fred.

“Now, don’t make such a mistake as that,” said Jack, to the last speaker. “Captain Putnam will not be influenced by our sticking together, even if it breaks up his school. He will decide this case solely on its merits. But I hope he will see that we were in the right—at least, that we were not as much in the wrong as Josiah Crabtree and Pluxton Cuddle.”

Among the boys to be placed on guard when the cadets retired was Fred Century. He was stationed at the east side of the camp, not far from where the wagon stood and the horse was tethered. In the wagon were a goodly part of the provisions, covered with a tarpaulin that had been brought along.

Fred had not slept well the night before and was consequently sleepy. He tramped around for a while and then sat down on a rock to rest.

He had been sitting still for several minutes, with his eyes partly closed, when he heard a slight noise behind him. Before he could move a cloth was clapped around his mouth and his hands were caught and held. Then a rope was brought into play, and he was made a close prisoner and carried away into the woods.