“Stand up in the bow, Fred, and see if you—can—ward—them—off!” gasped Jack as well as his semi-exhausted condition would permit. “I’ll stick to—the—oars.”
He knew he must keep the rowboat headed up into the wind, for the squall had not yet subsided sufficiently to allow of their taking it sidewise.
A moment later came a cry from the other rowboat as the craft slipped up and over several large sticks of timber.
“Gosh! that was a narrow escape!” was Andy’s comment, as the craft finally righted itself.
“Oh, dear! if only we were on shore once more!” wailed Annie, for at least the tenth time.
“I never dreamed that we would have such a dreadful experience as this!” came from Alice.
Randy said nothing, but continued to row, while Andy did the same as Fred was doing, both trying their best to ward off the heavy sticks which came floating towards them every minute or two.
Not far away was a steam tug, and presently two other boats came from the shore, both bent upon saving all that was possible of the broken-apart lumber raft.
“We’ll pick you up if you have much trouble,” cried the captain of the steam tug, as he ran a course between the two rowboats. “But don’t ask us to do it unless it’s necessary, for we want to round up this floating lumber before it gets away from us, if it can be done.”
“Thank you!” gasped out Jack, in return. “Maybe we can—make—the—shore. The wind seems—to—be—going—down.”
“Sure, we’ll make it!” put in Randy. The fright of the girls in his boat had somewhat nettled him and he was resolved to land them safely without assistance.
But it was a time of peril as well as exhausting effort; and all of the Rovers were glad enough when the last of the drifting lumber was passed and they came within hailing distance of the shore. The wind had now gone down considerably, and most of this was to be felt farther out on the lake.
“Let us take them right down to the school dock,” sang out Randy. “We can turn down the lake, and the wind will be just strong enough to help us;” and so it was arranged.
When the two rowboats came within sight of the school dock, those on board found fully a dozen of the scholars there, along with two of the teachers.
“Are you safe?” cried one of the teachers, as soon as the boats came within hailing distance.
“Yes, Miss Glover. We are all right,” answered Ruth.
“Only we are rather wet,” added May.
“And I’m awfully glad to get back,” broke in Annie, who was fairly shivering over her trying experience.
“Well, anyway, I think you cadets did perfectly splendid,” remarked Alice.
“Indeed they did!” broke out Ruth, quickly. “I don’t believe anyone could have managed these boats better;” and she bestowed a glance of admiration first on Jack and then on his cousins.
“It was a terrible blow, and it came up so quickly that we all grew alarmed for your safety,” said Miss Glover.
“And then to think that you must get mixed up with that drifting lumber!” put in the other teacher. “The squall was bad enough without having anything like that happen.”
“It’s too bad the lumbermen had their big raft go apart like that,” was Jack’s comment. “I guess those big sticks of timber are worth a good deal of money.”
“They couldn’t have had the raft chained together very tightly,” said Miss Glover, who had come from a lumbering community where rafting was frequent. “I never heard of a raft going to pieces like that.”
“Well, I don’t know much about lumber rafts,” answered Jack.
“Say, can’t we leave our two rowboats here and ride back to the Hall?” questioned Randy. “I don’t want to do any more rowing if I can help it.”
“Of course you can leave your boats here,” answered Miss Glover, and she showed where the craft might be stowed away in the boathouse. All of the Rovers were glad enough to give up further work at the oars.
“I am awfully sorry our little outing turned out as it did,” remarked Jack to Ruth.
“And it was too bad to frighten you so,” added Randy, to all of the girls.
“Oh, it wasn’t your fault that the squall came up,” answered Ruth. “And, besides that, now it is over I think I rather enjoyed the adventure—that is. I’ll enjoy telling about it,” she corrected.
“Some day I hope we’ll be able to spend a nicer time together,” said Jack.
“Perhaps,” murmured Ruth, and blushed.
Before the Rovers left for Colby Hall, they asked if Jennie Mason and Ida Brierley had returned.
“They have not come back yet,” answered one of the teachers. “We saw them going up the lake against the wind. We were a little bit worried, but I presume the motor boat can take care of itself in quite a blow.”
“All they’ve got to do is to turn on the gasolene, while in a rowboat sometimes a fellow’s muscles give out,” was Andy’s comment, and this caused a smile.
After bidding the girls and the others good-bye, the four Rovers walked towards the town. There they were fortunate enough to find the Hall auto-stage, and were soon at the school once more.
“Gee! but my arms ache!” was Fred’s remark on the way. “The muscles hurt so I can hardly keep still.”
“You’d better bathe them well with witch hazel or alcohol,” returned Jack. “My muscles feel sore, too.”
“It took the wind right out of me,” came from Andy. “Funny, too—with so much wind all around,” he added merrily.
“I can’t help but think of how Martell and Brown treated us,” said Randy, seriously. “It was as mean as dirt!”
“I believe they would have left us there to drown!” added Fred.
“Oh, I wouldn’t like to think that of them,” broke in Jack. “Just the same, it was a very dirty thing to do. Not on our account so much as on account of the girls.”
When the boys got back, the first person they met was Spouter, who wanted to know how his cousin May had enjoyed the outing. He listened in some alarm to the story the Rovers had to relate.
“It was a narrow shave all right,” was the comment. And then his face took on a stern look. “And to think Nappy Martell and Slugger Brown treated you that way! Those fellows ought to be run out of this school!”
The squall on the lake had been noticed by some of the other cadets who had been out on the river; and the news soon spread of the danger into which the Rovers and their companions had run. Gif, Ned, Walt, and several others wanted to know the particulars of the affair, and all were loud in their denunciation of the cadets who had been running the motor boat.
“Spouter is right!” declared Gif. “Those fellows ought to be run out of Colby Hall!”
“After this I want nothing more to do with them!” added Ned.
“I wonder what they would say if some of you had been drowned,” remarked Walt.
“Makes me want to pitch into ‘em,” came from Fatty, who was present. “But then, in one way, it’s a pity to dirty one’s hands on such cattle as that.”
Of course, the Rover boys had come in late for supper. Professor Lemm had started to find fault with Andy and Fred for this, but he was quickly stopped by Colonel Colby, who had come up to learn the particulars of what had occurred.
“I heard you were out in that big blow,” remarked the colonel. “I trust none of you suffered from it.”
“Well, we had rather a narrow escape,” answered Fred. Then he and Andy gave a brief outline of what had happened, not forgetting to mention how Martell and Brown had left them to their fate.
“Too bad! too bad!” murmured the colonel, shaking his head slightly. “I did not think that any of our cadets would do such a thing;” and then he walked away in a very thoughtful mood.
“I wonder what he’ll say to Brown and Martell,” m
used Fred, as, after being dismissed by Professor Lemm, they hurried to the mess hall. As they were late, they had missed the parade.
“Maybe he’ll give ‘em a piece of his mind. I hope he does,” answered his cousin.
Nappy Martell and Slugger Brown did not appear until supper was almost over. Both had a gloomy look, as if something had gone decidedly wrong. They glared sourly at the Rover boys and their chums, and then sat down to their meal without saying a word to anybody.
“I’ll wager something slipped a cog with them,” whispered Fred to Jack.
“I’ve got an idea,” returned the oldest of the Rover boys. “Maybe Jennie Mason and that other girl who were out in the motor boat gave them a piece of their mind for not aiding us.”
“Oh, I hope they did, Jack!”
“It wouldn’t be anything to wonder at. That Jennie Mason seemed to be a nice girl, and I don’t think she would stand for any such meanness.”
Jack’s surmise concerning what had happened to Nappy and Slugger was correct. The two girls had pleaded with the two cadets to go back and give those in the rowboats aid. And after much argument, in which Nappy and Slugger had proved that they were anything but young gentlemen, the girls had politely asked to be taken ashore. This had brought on something of a quarrel, and in the end the two cadets had taken the girls to a dock near the lumber yards and quite a distance from Clearwater Hall.
“Now you can have the fun of walking to the school,” had been Nappy Martell’s final words.
“And I don’t think you’ll go out with us again in a hurry,” Slugger Brown had added.
“I’ll never go out with you again,” Ida Brierley had answered.
“And I’d much prefer to walk to the school alone than to ride any further with you in the motor boat,” Jennie Mason had added; and thus the four had parted, the two girls resolving in their hearts never to have anything more to do with Nappy Martell and Slugger Brown.
CHAPTER XXII
THE MEETING WITH HIXLEY HIGH
Football talk now filled the air at Colby Hall, and for the time being most of the cadets forgot about how the Rovers had been treated on the lake by Nappy Martell and Slugger Brown.
Nappy was particularly angry, because of the way he had been treated by Jennie Mason, on whom he had been sweet ever since they had become acquainted. Slugger, too, was hurt over what the girls had said about his meanness. But he was far more put out over the fact that he could act only as a substitute on the regular eleven, and that Gif Garrison had finally concluded to put Jack in his place. Fred had not won out for the first eleven, but Gif had told him he stood so high on the scrub that he might possibly make the team before the season came to an end.
“It’s all those Rovers’ fault,” growled Slugger Brown to Martell.
“Of course it is!” was the unreasonable reply. “I’ll tell you, Slug, we ought to do something to get square with those chaps.”
“If I break loose and do that, it’ll be something they’ll remember as long as they live!” declared Slugger Brown, vehemently.
Nappy Martell looked at his crony knowingly, and then glanced around to see if anybody was listening.
“Let’s do it right now, Slug,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t care what it is, so long as we can get the best of those Rovers.”
“We’ll think it over, Nap. This isn’t to be any one-cent, every-day affair, you know.”
“Right you are! I’m game for anything—just remember that!” added the other cadet.
As Gif Garrison had said, there were three football games scheduled for Colby Hall that Fall. The first of these was to be with Hixley High School, located in a town at the other end of the lake. Then would follow a game of more importance with the Clearwater Country Club, at their beautiful grounds on the outskirts of Haven Point. And then the last and most important game of all—that with Columbus Academy, located about ten miles away. Whether the last named game would be played at Colby Hall or at the Columbus Academy grounds, was still a question.
In a few days Jack recovered completely from the spiking he had received from Slugger Brown, and then he went at his football practice with greater vigor than ever. He took Slugger’s place on the regular eleven, as already mentioned, and in his first game they beat the scrub team by a score of 32 to 12.
“Now, that’s better!” declared Gif. “You didn’t let the scrub walk all over you.”
Fred had been on the scrub team, and, although that eleven had been defeated, he was in a rather happy frame of mind, for the reason that out of the twelve points scored he had been directly responsible for six points.
“I think Fred is going some,” remarked Jack to Gif, later on when he had a chance to speak to the football captain privately.
“You’re right, Jack,” was the answer. “And I’ve got my eye on him.”
The game with Hixley High was not a very important one, yet it was made the occasion for quite a gala day by not only the boys of both schools but likewise the girls attending the high school and also the young ladies of Clearwater Hall. The Rover boys and some of their chums invited Ruth and her several friends, including Jennie Mason and Ida Brierley, to be present, and this invitation was gladly accepted.
“I don’t wonder that Slugger Brown and Nappy Martell look so glum occasionally,” remarked Spouter to Jack the day after the invitations had been given and accepted. “I just had a talk with my cousin May, and she says Jennie Mason and Ida Brierley are through with those two cadets. They told Nappy and Slugger they thought they were nothing but cowards for the way they treated you Rovers on the lake.”
“Well, I’m glad they’ve given up going with that pair,” announced Jack.
The last game with Hixley High had been played on the grounds of that institution, so that the game this year was to take place at Colby Hall.
“You fellows will have the honor of bringing the girls over from Clearwater Hall,” remarked Jack to his cousins and his chums. “I’ll have to stay here and do a bit of practising.”
The auto-stage and a number of automobiles and carriages had been requisitioned, and also a number of motor boats on the lake, and in these the young folks from Hixley High School and from Clearwater Hall journeyed to Colby Hall.
Jack was on the lookout for Ruth and the others, and lost no time in greeting the girl as soon as she appeared.
“I’m so glad that you’re on hand to encourage us to win,” said he, as he took Ruth’s hand.
“Thank you. But how are you sure I am here to encourage you?” she questioned mischievously. “Maybe I’m going to root for Hixley High.”
“You dare!” he returned earnestly, and then they both laughed and hurried towards the grandstand, where seats had been reserved for the entire party.
“Whoop her up for Hixley High!” was the cry. And then those in favor of the high school took up the slogan:
“Do or die!
Hixley High! Hixley High!”
“They mean to win if yelling will do it,” was May Powell’s comment.
“Oh, I guess the cadets of Colby Hall can yell, too,” responded Fred. And he was right, for a moment later there boomed out this refrain:
“Who are we?
Can’t you see?
Colby Hall!
Dum! Dum! Dum, dum, dum!
Here we come with fife and drum!
Colby! Colby! Colby Hall!”
And this the cadets repeated over and over again until they were hoarse.
“Well, I’ve got to go now,” said Jack, reluctantly, as word came for the team to gather in the dressing room for final instructions.
“Good-bye then,” said Ruth, sweetly. And then, looking Jack full in the eyes, she added earnestly: “Oh, I do hope you’ll win!”
They were simple words, but the way in which they were spoken, and the look that a
ccompanied them, thrilled the youth to the heart, and he went down to the dressing room on feet that seemed to be walking on air.
“Now then, boys, I expect every one of you to do his level best,” said Gif. “Hixley High has been bragging everywhere that it has a superior team this year and is going to walk all over us. I want you to play with vigor from the very start;” and then followed a number of directions concerning plays and signals, to all of which his eleven listened earnestly.
When the Colby Hall team came forth, they were given a loud round of applause, and this was repeated when Hixley High showed itself. The high school boys were nearly all seniors, and a glance sufficed to show that, player for player, they were quite a few pounds heavier than the cadets.
“If our eleven wins this game they will be going some,” was Fatty’s whispered comment to a fellow cadet.
“You’re right there,” was the answer. “Those chaps certainly look pretty husky.”
It is not my intention here to give the particulars of this game with Hixley High, interesting as it proved to be. It was not the big game of the season—that was to come later. During the first quarter, the playing on both sides was rather rough and ragged, each school doing its best to wear its opponent out at the very start. In these onslaughts the weight carried by Hixley High told, so that when the whistle blew the score was 6 to 3.
“Hurrah! Hurrah!” came from the supporters of the high school. And again and again they boomed out with their slogan.
“This game isn’t over yet!” cried one of the followers of Colby Hall.
“We haven’t begun to play yet! Just watch us in the second half!” added another cadet.
“Oh, dear! I thought Colby Hall would score, sure!” pouted Ruth.
“Those Hixley High boys are awfully big fellows,” answered May.
The second quarter opened with a good deal of cheering for each side. The playing now became more settled, and the ball went back and forth from the 20-yard line on one side to the 30-yard line on the other. Then came a mix-up, in the midst of which Jack managed to get the ball and start with it for the goal.
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