“The law must take its course, Mr. Crabtree,” said Dick. He turned to Chief Burger. “Take him, and Tom can go with you, to make the charge for us and for Mrs. Stanhope. I think Detective Trigger had better come with Sam and me to hunt for Dan Baxter.”
So it was arranged, and soon Crabtree was walking into Cedarville with the chief of police on one side of him and Tom on the other. The sight of a man being placed under arrest was an unusual one, and soon a crowd began to follow the three.
“It’s Mr. Crabtree that used to teach at Putnam Hall,” said one. “My, but ain’t he a sight.”
“Must have tried to get away by jumping into the lake,” suggested another.
“What’s he arrested for?” asked a third.
Nobody in the crowd knew, and consequently all followed to the police headquarters.
Here Chief Burger, who also acted as justice of police, took down Tom’s charge against the former teacher.
“Breaking in and trying to steal,” said Tom.
“It’s not so!” cried Crabtree. “Boy, this is—ahem—infamous! I never stole a thing in my life!”
“We will prove it when your trial comes off,” answered Tom coolly.
“Let us—ahem—try to patch this thing up,” went on Josiah Crabtree. “Chief, will you kindly send for Mrs. Stanhope? I am certain she will not allow this charge to stand against me.”
“See here, you shan’t try any of your games on that lady!” exclaimed Tom. “I know the peculiar influence you exert over her, and I feel bound to protect her.”
“She is not my enemy, as you are. I know she will clear me.”
“Not much. If she won’t testify against you, her daughter Dora will, and so will I and my brothers, and some other folks, too.”
“I demand to see my accusers!” stormed Crabtree, trying to put on a bold front.
“All right, Dick and Sam will be here after awhile. And then, if you wish, we’ll air all of your doings since the time Captain Putnam discharged you.”
At the last words the former teacher winced and turned pale, for he knew his record would not bear investigating.
“You are a bad boy, Tom Rover—leave me!” he muttered, and turned his back on the cadet. A few minutes later, as he could not furnish bail, he was led to a cell and locked up.
As soon as Crabtree was disposed of, Tom left the jail to find his brothers. This was no easy matter, and it was not until well along in the afternoon that he discovered Dick, Sam, and Detective Trigger down by the lake shore nearly a mile from Cedarville.
“Any luck?” he asked.
“Not a bit,” replied Dick. “He has given us the slip nicely.”
The hunt continued until nightfall, and was kept up all of the next day. But it proved of no avail. Dan Baxter had left the vicinity of the lake entirely, and the Rover boys were destined not to see him again for many days to come.
The arrest of Josiah Crabtree had occurred on Friday. On Monday came a letter from Mr. Anderson Rover, stating that Alexander Pop would arrive in Cedarville on Tuesday and might remain at Mrs. Stanhope’s cottage as long as the lady and the boys wished.
“I wish Aleck to be near you,” wrote Mr. Rover. “It alarms me greatly to hear of the trouble that you are having. It seems to me that our family are bound to be in hot water all the time. I cannot understand Arnold Baxter. As he is in prison at Albany I do not see how he can trouble me, at least for the next few years.
“I have looked up that mining property in Colorado very carefully, and shall go out there as soon as the coming winter is at an end. Perhaps I will take one or all of you with me, but that will depend upon how good you do at your studies this winter. I shan’t take anybody along that can’t show a good report.”
CHAPTER XI
BROUGHT TO TRIAL
“By jinks! we’ll have to be on our good behavior,” observed Tom, after he had read his father’s letter.
“That’s so,” responded Sam. “Father means to have us study, or else we must stay here during the spring term.”
As anticipated, Alexander Pop reached Cedarville Tuesday afternoon. He came first to Putnam Hall, and was warmly received both by the Rover boys and by the others who knew him as an old hand around the Hall.
“Glad you have come, Aleck!” cried Tom. “I declare it looks as if you belonged here.”
“Yes, sah, an’ I dun feel like I belong heah, too, Massah Tom,” answered the colored man.
“Remember the sport we used to have?” put in Sam.
“’Deed I does, Massah Sam—an’ de tricks youse lads used to play on dis yeah coon,” and Aleck smiled broadly.
Captain Putnam also came forward to greet Pop. There had been a time when the captain had suspected Pop of stealing, and the colored man had run away in preference to being sent to jail, but now it was known by all that the faithful negro was innocent, and the master, of the Hall was sorry that he had ever accused the man.
“Pop, I miss you a good deal,” he said kindly.
“If ever you are out of work again, come to me and I will let you stay here as long as you please.”
“T’ank you, Cap’n Putnam, I’ll remember dat. But I dun lub de Robers, ain’t no use ter talk, an’ so long as da wants me to stay by ‘em, why dat’s whar you will find Aleck Pop, yes, sah!” And he bobbed his head to emphasize his words.
“I do not blame you for sticking by them,” answered the captain. “For they always stood up for you.”
Of course some of the boys could not help but have some fun with Pop. Some ran off with his hat, and when they returned it to him it was half full of flour, although he did not know it.
“Mustn’t do dat, Larry Colby,” he said, as he took the hat. “Dis niggah dun cotch cole in his haid widout a hat.” And then they clapped the headgear on his head, very carefully.
“Only a bit of Larry’s sport,” said Frank. “Come in, the captain wants to give you some supper before you start out for the Stanhopes’ place.”
Never suspecting that anything was wrong, Aleck Pop entered the kitchen attached to the academy, where Mrs. Green, the matron, had a nice supper spread for him.
“How do you do, Aleck,” she said pleasantly, as he came in.
“How do yo’ do, Missus Green,” he answered, and took his hat off with such a flourish that part of the flour swept into her face and the balance landed over the supper table.
“Oh! oh!” screamed Mrs. Green. “What in the world have you done? I am covered with flour from head to foot!” And then she began to sneeze with great violence.
“Deed, missus, I don’t—ker—chew!” replied Pop, sneezing. “I didn’t—ker—chew—”
“But you did—ker—chew!” she answered. “You covered me with—ker—chew! Ker—chew!”
“Oh, you—ker—chew!” and then she went off into another prolonged sneeze.
Pop had gotten some of the flour in his eyes, indeed, his face was white from top to bottom, and it was several minutes before he could see what he was doing. His sneezing made him bump his head against the kitchen shelf, and at a point where sat a bowl of rice pudding. Part of the pudding was plastered to his forehead, while the balance turned over on to the cat sleeping on the floor.
“Me-ow!” wailed the cat, and started across the kitchen on a run, nearly upsetting Mrs. Green in its hurry to get away from more trouble.
“Stop! Did you kick my pet cat?” screamed Mrs. Green. “Oh, you—ker—chew! You brute! I never—ker—chew! Ker—chew!” And then she had to stop talking and let the sneezing have full play.
“I didn’t kick—ker—chew—nuffin!” spluttered Aleck. “I’se dun—ker—chew—dem boys dun—ker—chew! Dern boys did it.”
“Did what?”
“Put flour in ma hat, de ole boy take ‘em!” finished Aleck, and then he blundered out of the kitchen and
tried to find Larry and the others. But all of the cadets, who had been watching proceedings through the kitchen window, had vanished and could not be found.
A couple of hours later Tom and Dick took the colored man down to the Stanhope cottage. Mrs. Stanhope already knew the man well, as did Dora, and both were glad that he had come to stay with them. Pop had brought along a pistol, and also a war club he had picked up in Africa, and declared himself ready to meet any and all comers.
“I’se dun learned how to shoot putty straight,” he remarked. “So de fellers wot prowls around bettah look out fo’ demselbes.”
“Crabtree is in jail, so you will only have Dan Baxter to guard against,” said Dick. “And I hardly think he will show up in a hurry.”
That night Dick and Tom had a long conversation with Mrs. Stanhope. The lady was very nervous, and when asked if she would appear against Josiah Crabtree she shivered from head to foot.
“I—I cannot do it,” she said brokenly. “Do not ask it of me! He—he— I cannot face him without he makes me feel as if I were in his power.”
“He is something of a hypnotist,” said Tom. “Cannot you remember that, and nerve yourself against coming under his spell?”
But the lady only shivered again. “No! no! I have tried it—for Dora’s sake—but I cannot do it! I am horrified at his influence, but I cannot withstand it.”
“Then you will keep away from the court room when he is tried?”
“Yes, I must. I will get my doctor to issue a certificate that I am ill.”
“Will you let Dora testify? If she wishes to do so.”
There the matter rested, and the two boys sought out Dora.
“It is too bad,” said Dick, on the way. “Mrs. Stanhope is on the verge of a nervous collapse, and I believe it is all on account of Crabtree’s doings.”
“Yes, and I am afraid she will never get away from his influence. If he hadn’t been something of a hypnotist I don’t believe she would ever have taken to him at the start as she did.”
When Dora was told of what her mother had said, she felt like crying, and the tears stood in her eyes.
“I know it all only too well,” she said. “I am glad mamma mill not face him. Why, he would influence her into declaring that he was innocent!”
“But you will testify, won’t you?” asked Dick earnestly.
“If you wish it, Dick. But I hate the publicity.”
“Crabtree ought to be put where he can do your mother no further harm.”
“Yes, I feel that, too.”
“And you must remember how he helped to abduct you.”
“I haven’t forgot that.”
Vick and Tom remained until it was quite late, and then almost ran back to the Hall, for the captain had told them not to be out after eleven o’clock.
For several days matters ran smoothly at the Hall. Then came Josiah Crabtree’s trial, and all of the Rover boys went to the county seat, to remain several days. With them went Dora and her uncle, John Laning.
The former teacher’s trial lasted longer than expected, and the jury were out the best part of a night before arriving at a verdict. In the end, much to the Rover boys’ surprise, Crabtree was sentenced to six months in the county jail, instead of to several years in the State’s prison.
“I can’t understand it,” muttered Dick, when, they were on the way back to the Hall. “He must have hypnotized the judge who tried the case.” The verdict was a disappointing one, yet it was something to know that Crabtree would be out of the way even that long.
“Before he gets out you can be on your trip to Buffalo and the Great Lakes,” said Dick to Dora. “And perhaps you can hide your whereabouts from him, so that he can’t get at your mother, to try on his game again.”
“I will certainly try to throw him off the track,” answered the girl. “I never want to see him again.”
Captain Putnam was anxious to learn how the trial had ended, and came from the academy on horseback to meet the boys.
“Well, it is something,” he said, half-smiling. “But you are right, he deserved more.”
“I knew he was no good,” said Tom. “Knew it from the first time I met him, when he was head assistant here, and placed me under arrest for shooting off a fire-cracker at the gate.”
At this Captain Putnam laughed outright.
“You have a good memory, Thomas, I must say! Well, you are square now, as you boys call it.”
CHAPTER XII
WINTER DAYS AT PUTNAM HALL
After the trial of Josiah Crabtree the days flew by swiftly at the Hall. Bound to make a good showing, each of the Rover boys applied himself diligently to his studies, and all made rapid progress.
Thanksgiving came and went, and a week later there came a fairly heavy fall of snow.
“Hurrah! winter is knocking at the door at last!” cried Sam joyfully. “Now for some snowballing, skating, and all the rest of the winter fun.”
Snowballing was already going on, and the white balls were flying in all directions. Dick had his hat taken off by Frank, and in return filled Frank’s ear with snow. Tom and Fred got into a regular war at close quarters, and in the end Tom threw his opponent flat and stuffed snow down his neck. But then Larry came up with a huge cake of snow and nearly smothered Tom, and then a dozen leaped in, and a good-natured melee resulted, lasting for the rest of the playtime.
It was very cold that night, and two days later the ice on the lake was two inches thick. Still the captain made the boys wait until the following Saturday, when the ice was strong enough to bear a horse.
In the meantime skates had been brought out and polished up, and soon the edge of the lake was alive with skaters, all moving swiftly from one spot to another, and shrieking and laughing at the top of their voices. George Strong, the assistant master, also came down and showed some of the older boys how to cut fancy figures. Dick was a good skater, and took to the fancy figures with ease. As for Tom and Sam, they preferred straight skating, and entered half a dozen trials of speed down the lake to the old boathouse and back.
“If it gets much colder, so that the ice thickens, I am going to build an ice-boat,” said Frank to Dick that night. “Captain Putnam said I could have all the old lumber I want. You know the carpenters left a lot when they fixed over that burnt part of the Hall.”
“Hurrah, an ice-boat!” cried Dick. “Just the thing. Let me help, you, Frank. Perhaps the captain will let us have an old camping-out tent for a sail.”
“Yes, I’ve asked him about that already, and he told Mrs. Green to get me one from the storehouse.”
“And what about nails and runners?”
“Peleg Snuggers is going to give me the nails and lend me the tools. The runners I will have to buy down to the blacksmith shop.”
“There is an old cask down at the boathouse. We can take the hoops from that and have the blacksmith straighten them out, and they will do first rate for runners.”
So the talk ran on, and on the following Monday, as the cold continued, the boys set to work, during the off-time, to build the ice-boat. Tom, Sam, and Hans joined in, and as soon as the frame was put together the boat was christened the Fiver, because, as Frank declared, it was built to hold just five and no more.
There was a class devoted to manual training at the Hall, so all of the boys were acquainted with the use of tools. The building of the iceboat progressed rapidly, and soon all that were wanting were the sail and the runners. Frank and Dick procured the hoops and had the blacksmith straighten them out and punch holes into them, and Mrs. Green kindly transformed an old tent into a mainsail of no mean proportions. As a matter of fact it would have been better for the boys had the sail been smaller.
It was a rather cloudy Saturday half-holiday when the boys placed the ice-boat on rollers and rolled it down to the lake front. All of the other cadets wa
tched the proceedings with interest, and were sorry they could not go on the proposed trip. But Frank promised that all should have their turns later on.
A fair breeze was blowing, and no sooner was the mainsail raised than the Fiver, moved off in such a lively fashion that Tom, who had lingered behind, had all he could do to run and get on board.
“We’re off! Hurrah!” yelled Sam, and the others took up the cry, and both those on board and those left behind waved hats and caps in the air and set up a cheer.
“And now where shall we go?” asked Frank, as they whizzed along.
“That will depend upon the wind,” came from Tom. “Remember, we must get back before seven o’clock.”
“Yah, der vint is eferydings,” put in Hans. “Supposin’ ve git far avay und der vint sthops plowing, vot den?”
“Then we’ll set you on the rear seat to blow the sail yourself,” replied Frank. “This wind is good for all day, and I know it,” he added emphatically.
“Let us follow the shore for the present,” said Tom. “Perhaps the Pornell students are skating below here and we can show them what we are up to.”
So on they went along the shore, until the wind began to change and carry them out into the lake. Here the ice was, however, far from safe, and they began to tack back.
“It’s snowing!” cried Sam presently. He was right, and ere long the flakes were coming down thickly. With the coming of the snow the wind died out utterly.
“Here’s a pickle,” muttered Tom, in disgust. “Frank, I thought you said this wind was good for all day?”
“Frank must haf had his schleepin’ cap on ven he said dot,” put in Hans, and the others set up a laugh.
“Well, I did think the wind would hold out,” replied Frank, with a wry face. “This is going to spoil everything. Did anybody bring his skates?”
Nobody had, although all had calculated to do so. In the excitement every pair had been forgotten.
“Now we can’t even skate home,” said Dick.
“And I rather think it will be a long walk—at least three miles.”
“That’s not the worst of it,” came from his youngest brother. “Look how heavily it is snowing.”
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