Chapter XIII: A Challenge Accepted

Captain Putnam looked at both cadets sharply.

“Both of you suspect somebody, is that it?” he said, slowly.

“We do,” said Pepper.

“But you are not certain?”

“We are not certain, and therefore it would not be right for us to mention any names,” said Jack.

“Now tell me the truth of your trouble with Mr. Crabtree,” pursued the captain, after a thoughtful pause.

Thereupon, the two boys told how they had been taken from the cold storeroom and placed in the cellar, and how they had escaped through the clothing closet above. At the recital the captain had to turn away his face, to conceal a smile that hovered around his mouth.

“We didn’t think it was fair at all,” went on Jack. “So when we got out we determined to hide until you got back and then come to you. And that is just what we have done.”

The captain was silent and nodded slowly to himself several times. Then he took a deep breath and rubbed his chin reflectively.

“Boys!” he exclaimed, decisively. “I am going to take you at your word. You can return to your studies and forget what has passed. Does that suit you?”

“It suits me!” exclaimed Jack, and his heart gave a bound.

“Suits me, too,” added Pepper. “I am much obliged, sir.”

“There is some mystery here, and some day perhaps we shall get at the bottom of it. I expect you to help me all you can to clear it up.”

“Captain Putnam, am I to—re—to——” Jack could not go on.

“To what, Ruddy?”

“Mr. Crabtree said I was to—er—to give up being major of the battalion——”

“You will take your place as formerly, Major Ruddy.”

“Oh, thank you!” And now the youthful major’s face fairly beamed.

“I will attend to this matter so far as it concerns Mr. Crabtree,” went on the master of the Hall. “You may go.”

“Thank you!” cried both cadets, and ran off with hearts as light as air.

“Hullo, glad to see you back!” whispered Andy, as they took their seats. “How did you get out of it?”

“I’ll tell you after school,” said Jack, and Pepper said the same.

Josiah Crabtree tried to question them, but they referred the assistant teacher to Captain Putnam. Later in the day the master of the Hall and Crabtree had a long session together, but what was said none of the students ever learned. But after that Josiah Crabtree was decidedly meek for a long while to come.

“I think he got a calling-down,” said Pepper, to Jack.

“Well, don’t you think he deserved it?” returned the young major.

After this affair Dan Baxter and his cronies were more bitter than ever against Pepper, Jack, and the others. Of course the plot to injure the boys had been gotten up by the bully, to pay them back for spoiling the proposed feast.

“Crabtree must have made a mess of it,” growled Dan Baxter.

“That’s it,” answered Reff Ritter. “Well, we’ll have to try something else.”

“Right you are,” answered the bully. “And next time we’ll make a sure thing of it.”

Several weeks passed along rather quietly. During that time the weather changed rapidly. The rain had washed away the snow and most of the ice, and now the grass began to grow green and the trees pushed forth their leaves and the bushes their buds.

“I am glad spring and summer are coming,” cried Andy. “I’ve had enough of winter.”

“Right you are,” said Pepper. “Hurrah for baseball!”

“And rowing,” put in Dale.

Nearly all of the boys loved to row, and at the earliest opportunity the boats at the new boathouse were repaired and gotten out. At first the lads were a bit stiff at the oars, but soon limbered up.

“This is something like,” said Andy, while he and some of the others were out in two of the boats.

“Let us have a little race,” suggested Jack, and off the two boats started, up the lake a distance of half a mile. They kept side by side, and presently the race was declared a tie, and then the rowers stopped to rest.

“I’ve got news,” said Dale. “Some of the students from Pornell Academy want to row us a race.”

“Didn’t they get enough last summer?” asked Andy.

“This is something of a new crowd,” went on Dale. “Do you remember Roy Bock, and Grimes, and Gussie?”

“Do we?” cried Pepper. “The chaps who stopped us in the woods one night and wanted us to promise that we would not visit the Fords again. I rather guess we do!”

“What a bully that Roy Bock was!” put in Jack. “Almost as bad as Baxter.”

“That’s so,” said Stuffer. “And that chap Grimes is about his equal. The Pornell students must be sick of that crowd.”

“Some of the Pornell students are nice enough,” was Dale’s comment.

“So they are!” said Emerald. “So they are! But not Bock—no, not Bock!”

“Well, what about this race, Dale?” questioned Jack.

“Roy Bock, Grimes, Gussie, and four others of their crowd want to race a crew of seven, composed of you, Pepper, Andy, Emerald, Stuffer, Henry Lee, and myself, and they want to race us for two miles.”

“When do they want to race?” asked Pepper, with interest.

“Next Saturday afternoon.”

“Humph; that’s rather short notice,” was Andy’s comment. “For all we know they may have been practicing on the rowing-machine in their gym.”

“Better put it off until the following Saturday,” said Jack.

“No, Bock says he can’t put it off, because they have got to row elsewhere.”

“Do they want to put up any prize?”

“Yes, a silver cup worth fourteen dollars, each fellow to chip in a dollar for the trophy.”

“Well, that is fair enough,” said Hogan. “But if they have been after practicin’ on their rowin’ machine——”

“Never mind, let us row them anyway!” cried Pepper. “If we refuse they’ll think we are afraid.”

“I don’t think we’ll lose,” said Jack. “That is, not if we practice hard between now and racing time.”

“We can do that,” said Stuffer, with determination.

“We’ll put you on a diet, Stuffer,” said Pepper, with a wink at the others.

“All right—anything to win,” said the boy who loved good eating. “I am glad it is only four days off instead of three weeks!”

That night a letter was sent accepting the challenge from the Pornell Academy students, and on the following day the Putnam Hall cadets started to practice in earnest. Dale was made the coxswain, and he coached those under him to the best of his ability.

It soon became noised about that our friends were going to row a race against Roy Bock and his crowd, and at once nearly all of the cadets of the Hall became interested. As a consequence some other races were arranged, one between Baxter, Ritter, Coulter, and Paxton on one side and four boys from the rival school. The bully and his friends went around everywhere declaring that they would surely win.

“But Dale Blackmore and his crowd will lose, mark my words,” said Dan Baxter.

“I don’t think so,” answered Henry Lee, who chanced to hear the remark.

“Well, you will, I’ll bet on it.”

“Thank you, but I don’t bet,” said Henry, quietly.

“That’s because you are afraid,” sneered the bully, and walked off.