“And then make those whites blacks!” burst out Spud Jackson, gaily. “Come ahead, and no turning back.”
Up the snowy hillside sped the crowd of students, while a number of professors and visitors watched the advance from a distance.
“Get ready for ’em! Don’t let them come too near!” came in a rallying cry from behind the snow wall. And then, as the attacking party came closer, a volley of white spheres came flying through the air into the faces of the juniors and seniors.
It was a sharp and heavy volley, and for the instant the air seemed to be filled with flying snowballs. Many of them, of course, went wild, but others landed on the heads and bodies of the attacking party, and for the moment the advance was checked.
“Wow!” came from one of the juniors who had been hit in the ear. “Why can’t we do some throwing ourselves?”
“That’s the talk! Give it to ’em!” came from another student who had had his cap knocked off by a snowball.
“No, no,” answered Stanley. “Save your snowballs until we get closer.”
“Come on, we’ll soon be up there,” put in Sam Rover. “Only a hundred feet more, fellows!”
There was a yell of assent, and forward the charging party went again in the face of another volley of snowballs. By bending low the juniors and seniors protected themselves as much as possible from the onslaught, but many were hit, two so stingingly that they had to retire to the rear.
“Hurrah! We’ve got ’em on the run!” came from the leader of the fort contingent, who had mounted a tree stump located behind the wall. “Give it to ’em, fellows! Give it too ’em hot!”
“Now, then, boys, all together!” yelled Stanley at the top of his voice, and then the eager juniors and seniors launched their snowballs with all the swiftness and accuracy of aim at their command.
The two previous attacks which had been repulsed had taught the advancing students a lesson, and now in this third attack scarcely a snowball was wasted. Those in the front ran directly up to the wall of the fort, while those farther back spread out, as directed by their leader, to the right and to the left, sending in cross fires at points where the fort was supposed to be weakest.
It was a thrilling and spirited fight, but, although the students were greatly excited, there was little more actual roughness than there would have been at a football or other athletic contest.
“Over the wall, boys! Over the wall!” burst out Sam Rover, and the next instant he was up on the wall of the fort, quickly followed by Stanley, Bob, Spud, and several others.
“Back there, you rebels! Back!” came in a yell from the interior of the fort, and then a wild fusillade of snowballs struck Sam and his chums in various parts of their bodies.
“Jumping hambones!” spluttered Spud, as a snowball took him directly in the chin. “What do you think I’m built of, iron?”
“Get back or you’ll get worse!” was the cry from the fort, and then another snowball took Spud in the ear.
In the meantime, Sam Rover had dodged a ball which was coming directly for his face, and now he returned the fire with a hard one that took the sophomore below him in the ear. Then Sam jumped down into the fort, quickly followed by eight or ten others.
“Clear them out! Don’t let them stay here!” was the wild cry.
“Everybody around the flagpole!” was the command of the fort leader.
The flagpole was a small one located in the center of the enclosure, and from it fluttered the banners of the freshmen and the sophomore classes. Those making the attack would have to haul those banners down before they could claim a victory.
Snowballs were now flying in all directions, and it was quite probable that in the excitement many of the students let fly at their friends instead of at the enemy; but it was all good, clean sport, and everybody enjoyed it greatly.
“Now, then, fellows, for a center rush!” came from Stanley, when he and Sam and about twenty others had forced their way to within ten yards of the flagpole.
“Avalanche them, boys! Avalanche them!” came suddenly from one of the sophomores, and then without warning huge chunks of loose snow were sent flying through the air on the heads of those who were battling to get to the flagpole.
“Great Cæsar’s ghost!” spluttered Bob, as some of the snow went down inside his collar. “What is this; a snowslide?”
“Oh, you mustn’t mind a little thing like that,” answered Sam Rover. “Come ahead, everybody! Push!”
There was a wild scramble, with many yells and shouts. Student after student went down in the mêlée, a few to be trampled upon, but fortunately nobody was seriously hurt. There was such a congestion that to make or throw more snowballs was out of the question, and the most a fighter could do was to snatch up a handful of loose snow and thrust it down the neck of the student opposing him. Sam and Stanley, with four others close by them, had now managed to get within a few feet of the flagpole. Here, however, the freshmen and sophomores had planted themselves in a solid mass, and it looked for the moment as if nothing could budge them.
“Only six minutes more, boys! Only six minutes more!” came from one of the sophomores who had been detailed as a timekeeper. “Save those banners for six minutes and we’ll win.”
“Hit ’em, fellows, hit ’em!” roared Stanley. “We’ve got to get those banners this year.”
“And we’re going to do it,” added Sam. He turned to Bob and Spud. “Boost me up, fellows, and I’ll walk right over their heads to the pole.”
“All right, if you want to take the chance,” answered Spud, and in a twinkling Sam was shoved up into the air onto the shoulders of the boy in front of him.
This student let out a cry of alarm, but before he could do anything Sam made a leap forward, landing on the shoulders of two students close to the pole.
“Fire him back! Don’t let him reach the pole!” came in a yell from several throats.
“Hold him by the ankles! Don’t let him jump!” cried out the leader of the fort defenders.
Several students turned to clutch at the ankles of Sam Rover, but he was too nimble for them, and with another leap he reached the flagpole and clutched it tightly.
“Hurrah! Rover has reached the pole!”
“Get those banners, Sam! There is no time to spare!”
“Hold him!” “Pull him down!” “Maul him!” cried the fort defenders. “Don’t let him climb up the pole!”
Several turned to clutch at Sam’s legs and feet, but he thrashed out wildly and all but one fell back, fearing injury. The undaunted student caught Sam by a heel and held on very much as might a bulldog.
“Let go there,” came from Spud, and the next instant he raised a chunk of snow and shoved it directly into the open mouth of the boy who had the grip. This was too much for the student, and he fell back among his fellows.
“Only two minutes more!” yelled the timekeeper. “Two minutes more!”
“We won’t need more than fifteen seconds,” came triumphantly from Sam, and as he spoke he commenced to climb the pole.
A sophomore followed, clutching again at one of his feet, but now the Rover boy had his hand on the first of the banners, and down it came in a twinkling, and the second quickly followed.
“Here you are, boys; catch them!” Sam cried and, wadding the banners into something of a ball, he hurled them out into the midst of a group of seniors.
“Hurrah! we’ve got ’em!” was the triumphant cry. “We’ve got ’em!”
“Time’s up!” yelled the timekeeper.
A cheer arose from the juniors and seniors, who quickly held the captured banners aloft. The freshmen and sophomores were, of course, keenly disappointed, and a number of them showed it.
“Let’s drive them out of the fort, anyway!” was the sudden cry. “Give it to ’em! Send ’em flying!”
“Wait, wait, t
his contest is at an end,” said a professor who was one of the umpires.
“Never mind, let’s have some fun anyway.” This cry was taken up on every side, and while some of the seniors retired with the two captured banners, the other students continued the contest, those who had held the fort doing all they possibly could to overcome and expel their enemies.
As soon as he had thrown the banners Sam slid down the pole, and was now trying his best to make his way out of the crowd of freshmen and sophomores. These students were very bitter against the Rover boy, and several did all they could to trip him up and cover him with snow.
“Say, Sam, that was great!” cried Spud. “Best I ever saw!”
“Out with ’em! Out with ’em!” was the yell. “Don’t let ’em stay in the fort even if they did get the banners.”
“Come on!” cried Sam quickly. “Now we have the banners let us drive them clean down the other side of the hill.”
This suggestion received instant approval and, in spite of all that some of the professors could do to stop it, the fight went on as furiously as ever. Some of the students who had retreated to a safe distance came back with a fresh supply of snowballs, and the air was once more filled with the flying missiles.
“Come on, let us teach them a lesson,” cried Bob Grimes. “They should have stopped fighting as soon as the banners were captured. Let us give the sophomores and freshmen all they want.”
This cry was taken up on all sides, and around and around the enclosure which had been designated the fort went the various crowds of students. The blood of the juniors and seniors was now up, and slowly but surely they forced the younger students to retreat. Then came a break and something of a panic, and a few minutes later the fort defenders were retreating down the other side of the hill, which led through some brushwood to a road that ran to Ashton.
“After ’em! After ’em! Don’t let ’em get away!” cried Sam, and was one of the first to go down the hill after the retreating students. On the way he paused only long enough to make several snowballs.
Having reached the road which led to the town, the freshmen and sophomores divided, some going behind a barn and others taking to the woods beyond. Not knowing exactly what to do next, Sam and several with him halted to consider the matter.
“There they go!” was the cry a moment later, and a number of students were seen speeding around a corner of the road.
“That’s Bissel, the fellow who hit me in the ear,” cried Sam. “I’m going after him.”
“And, yes, there is Dutz, who filled my mouth with snow,” cried Spud. “Come on!”
Sam was already on the run, and, coming to the turn in the road, he let fly several snowballs.
“Here! Here! What do you mean by such actions?” came suddenly from behind some brushwood which lined the roadway and then, as the students advanced still further, they were surprised to find themselves confronted by a tall man wearing a heavy, fur-lined overcoat. He had likewise been wearing a beaver hat, but the tile now lay in the snow.
“Belright Fogg!” exclaimed Sam in dismay. “That lawyer who tried to get the best of us! And I thought he was one of the students!”
“Ha! so it is you,” snarled the man in the fur overcoat harshly. “What do you mean, Rover, by attacking me in this fashion?”
CHAPTER II
SOMETHING ABOUT THE ROVER BOYS
“Say! that isn’t one of the students.”
“Not much! Why, that’s the lawyer who used to do business for the railroad company—the man the Rovers had so much trouble with!”
“Who knocked his hat off?”
“I don’t know—Sam Rover, I guess.”
Such were some of the remarks made as a number of the juniors and seniors began to congregate around Sam and Mr. Belright Fogg. All of the students could readily see that the lawyer was very much put out over what had occurred.
“I say, Rover, what do you mean by attacking me in this fashion?” repeated Belright Fogg, with a savage look at the youth before him.
“If I knocked your hat off, Mr. Fogg, I am sorry for it,” answered Sam, as soon as he could recover from his surprise.
“Knocked my hat off?” roared the lawyer. “You hit me a hard one on the head; that is what you did!”
“Let me see if you are hurt,” put in Stanley, stepping forward. “Where did the snowball hit you?”
“You keep your hands off me,” returned Belright Fogg. “I’ve a good mind to have the law on such loafers as you.”
“We are not loafers, Mr. Fogg,” answered Sam, the color coming quickly to his face. “We were having our annual snowballing contest, and we did not know that any outsider was on this back road. If I hit you and hurt you I am very sorry for it.”
“Humph! I think you will be sorry for it if I bring a suit for damages,” muttered the lawyer. “I don’t know why Dr. Wallington permits such rowdyism.”
“This isn’t rowdyism, nor are we loafers,” put in Stanley, somewhat sharply. “You seem to forget, Mr. Fogg, that this road runs through the property belonging to Brill College, and we have a perfect right to hold our snowballing contest here. If you want to report the matter to Dr. Wall—”
“Bah! I know you students, and I wouldn’t expect any sympathy from your teacher. He’s too afraid of losing any of his students.” Belright Fogg snatched his beaver hat from the hands of Spud, who had picked it up. “I’ll settle with you for this later, Rover,” he added, and then turned on his heel and hurried down the road.
“I wonder what brought him on this back road on foot?” observed Bob.
“He isn’t on foot. He has his horse and cutter beside the barn,” answered another student. “There he is now, picking up a robe out of the snow. It must have fallen out of the cutter and he walked back to get it.” Which surmise was correct.
“This looks like more trouble for me,” said Sam, soberly. “I’m mighty sorry it was Mr. Belright Fogg I hit with that snowball.”
“You can wager he’ll make out a case against you if he possibly can,” remarked Spud. “Lawyers of his calibre always do.”
“Well, this settles the snowball fight for us,” put in Stanley, as he looked up and down the road. “The freshies and sophs are clear out of sight. Let us go back to the campus and celebrate our victory;” and then, as Belright Fogg drove away in his cutter, the students walked over the hill in the direction of Brill.
To my old readers the youths already mentioned in these pages will need no special introduction. For the benefit of others, however, let me state that Sam Rover was the youngest of three brothers, Dick being the eldest and fun-loving Tom coming next. They were the sons of one Anderson Rover, a rich widower, and had for years made their home with their Uncle Randolph and their Aunt Martha at a beautiful farm called Valley Brook.
From the farm, and while their father was in Africa, the three Rover boys had been sent by their uncle to school, as related in the first volume of this series, entitled “The Rover Boys at School.” This place was called Putnam Hall Military Academy, and there the lads made many friends, and likewise several enemies, and had “the time of their lives,” as Tom Rover often expressed it.*
* For particulars regarding how Putnam Hall Military Academy was organized, and what fine times the cadets there enjoyed even before the Rover boys came on the scene, read “The Putnam Hall Series,” six volumes, starting with “The Putnam Hall Cadets.”—Publishers.
The first term at school was followed by an exciting trip on the ocean, and then another trip into the jungles of Africa, where the boys went looking for their parent. Then came a trip to the West, followed by some grand times on the Great Lakes and in the Mountains. Then the boys returned to Putnam Hall, to go into an encampment with their fellow-cadets.
This term at Putnam Hall was followed by a never-to-be-forgotten journey on Land and Sea to a far-away isl
and in the Pacific. Then they returned to this country, sailing down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. After leaving the Father of Waters, they took an outing on the Plains, and then went down into Southern Waters, where they solved the mystery of a deserted steam yacht.
After so many exciting adventures the three brothers had been glad to journey to the home farm for a rest, after which they returned to Putnam Hall, settled down to their studies, and graduated with considerable honor.
“Now for college!” Dick Rover had said. But before setting out for Brill, a fine institution of learning located in the Middle West, the boys had become involved in a search for a fortune left on Treasure Isle.
During their days at Putnam Hall the Rover boys had become well acquainted with Dora Stanhope, who lived near the school with her widowed mother, and also with Nellie and Grace Laning, Dora’s two cousins, who resided a short distance farther away. It had not been long before Dick and Dora showed a great liking for each other, and at the same time Tom often paired off with Nellie and Sam was frequently seen in the company of Grace.
A few miles away from Brill College was located Hope Seminary, an institution for girls, and when the Rover boys went to Brill, Dora, Nellie and Grace went to Hope; so that the young folks met almost as often as before.
A term at Brill College was followed by an unexpected trip Down East, where the Rovers brought to terms a rascally ex-schoolteacher, named Josiah Crabtree, who had given them much trouble while at Putnam Hall.
In those days the art of flying was attracting considerable attention and, through the indulgence of their father, the Rover boys became the possessors of a biplane and took several thrilling trips through the air, their experiences in that line coming to an abrupt finish when the flying machine was one day wrecked on the railroad tracks. This had brought on a sharp contest between the Rover boys and the railroad lawyer, Mr. Belright Fogg. The Rovers had claimed all that was coming to them, and the railroad had been made to pay up, much to Belright Fogg’s disgust. Later, the lawyer had been discharged by the railroad from its services.
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