“I wouldn’t,” answered Randy quickly.
“Nor I,” came from Fred and Andy.
“I’d never dream of playing such a trick on anybody but a man like Professor Lemm,” announced Jack. The others also agreed that it was not likely any such joke would have been played on anybody else in the Hall.
“Then, evidently, none of you likes Professor Lemm,” said Colonel Colby slowly.
To this there was no reply, but the look on the faces of the various cadets showed the master of the Hall that he had struck the truth.
“Now I’m going to ask you boys another question,” he went on, after a pause, and there was a faint smile on his face when he spoke. “Don’t you think you ought to be punished for what you have done?”
For a moment there was another silence. Then Jack spoke up.
“In one way, yes, sir; but in another, no,” he replied. “Professor Lemm treated us very unjustly in the classroom in making us stay in and making us do extra lessons, and we didn’t know of any other way to get square with him.”
“Looks to me as if we got our punishment before we played the joke,” said Andy, and this reply made some of the cadets grin.
Colonel Colby looked out of the window, which faced the snow-covered campus. Although the boys did not know it, he hardly knew what to say or do. He realized that he could not pass over the occurrence without punishing the lads, and yet he could see their point of view—that Asa Lemm had been the first at fault in not treating them fairly during classes.
“Order has got to be maintained in this school,” he said finally, as he faced them. “If we did not have order, the whole institution would go to pieces. That is my first point. My second is that two Wrongs have never yet made a Right, and instead of taking matters into your own hands, as you did, after having trouble with Professor Lemm, you should have come to me and told me what was wrong.
“I shall take this matter up later, after I have had an opportunity to make further inquiries concerning your conduct. In the meantime, you may go to breakfast, and then to your classes;” and thus he dismissed them.
Of course, as soon as the boys were by themselves, they began to discuss the situation from every possible angle. Several wanted to know how it was that the master of the Hall had learned that Jack and Walt were guilty.
“Somebody sent Colonel Colby a note about us. I saw it on his desk,” answered Jack.
“Yes, and Asa Lemm had another note just like it,” added Walt. “Some sneak in this school must have watched us, and then sent the notes.”
Much to the cadets’ relief, they did not see Asa Lemm in the messroom. Nor did the language teacher show himself during the morning session.
“Perhaps he’s having another talk with Colonel Colby,” suggested Fred.
The youngest Rover was right. The unreasonable teacher was closeted with the master of the Hall for over an hour, and during that time much of what had been told by the cadets was threshed over. Asa Lemm was as unreasonable as ever, and finally Colonel Colby lost all patience with him.
“I am afraid, Professor Lemm, that you are not suited to be a teacher in this institution,” he said. “Your actions here show that you are very irritable and unreasonable. After you left this office, I questioned all of those cadets closely, and all had practically the same story to tell; namely, that you had required more than was fair of them in your classes, and that, on the slightest pretext, you had punished them by making them stay in and do extra lessons. I went into many of the details, and I am convinced that in a good proportion of the cases the students were right and you were wrong. Now, I regret this very much, because I realize that——”
“Sir, I don’t want to be talked to in this fashion!” cried Asa Lemm, bridling up. “I was not in the wrong at all. Those boys are regular imps! They don’t know how to treat a teacher decently! I won’t stand for their nonsense! I want them severely punished, or else——”
“Wait a moment, Professor Lemm,” interrupted the colonel, rising and facing him sternly. “I said I was sorry, and I am; but I feel that you are not the man to teach in this institution, and consequently I must ask you for your resignation. I will pay you your salary up to the first of next month, and you can leave this school just as soon as you desire.”
“Wha—what? This! to me?” ejaculated the professor in consternation.
“Yes, sir. You can draw your pay, and, if you wish, you can leave this morning.”
“But—but—this is outrageous! I won’t stand it! I was hired for the school year!”
“You were—on condition that your services were entirely satisfactory to me. They are not satisfactory, and consequently I am giving you this opportunity to resign.”
“If I have to leave, I’ll have those boys arrested!” stormed Asa Lemm.
“I don’t think I’d be so foolish, if I were in your place, Professor. What they did was nothing but a foolish schoolboy joke, and they did that simply to get square with you for your unreasonable conduct toward them. I think the best you can do is to drop the matter. If you insist on dragging this affair before the public, perhaps the boys, and I, myself, will have something to say that you will not care to hear.”
“We’ll see—we’ll see!” cried Asa Lemm, shaking his head and with his eyes blazing wrathfully. “We’ll see about this!” and thus speaking, he stamped away.
CHAPTER XIV
OVERHEARING A PLOT
“Professor Lemm has left Colby Hall!”
“What do you mean, Jack? Left the Hall for good?”
“Yes, Randy.”
“Who told you that?” questioned Fred eagerly.
“I just got it from Professor Brice. He said that old Lemon resigned, took his pay, and left yesterday afternoon while we were in classes.”
“Hurrah! that’s the best news I’ve heard in a year of Sundays!” cried Andy. “Gone for good! Just think of it!” and, in high spirits, he began to do a jig, and ended with a handspring across the room, landing with a violent thump on the bed.
“Hi, you, Andy!” remonstrated Jack. “Just because you are happy is no reason you should bust up my sleeping place.”
“Wow! I feel fine enough to do almost anything,” returned the fun-loving Rover. “Just to think of it! We won’t be worried by Asa Lemm any more!”
“Don’t you be too sure of that,” went on his cousin. “Asa Lemm is gone, it is true; but we may hear from him, nevertheless. When he went away he was an angry as ever, so Professor Brice said.”
As was usual, the Rovers had congregated in their rooms, along with several of their chums. Outside it was snowing once again, the soft particles whirling in all directions and clinging fast to the window panes. It was the off hour of the afternoon, but none of the lads had cared to go outside, or even visit the school library.
The news that Asa Lemm had left the Hall was true. Following his heated interview with Colonel Colby, he had written out his resignation, accepted his pay for the month, packed his baggage, and left the school, never to return. Only several of the teachers and the man who had driven him away had seen him go; and this was as Colonel Colby wished it, for he was afraid that if the cadets were present at the disliked teacher’s departure, they would make some sort of demonstration against him.
Strange as it may seem, Colonel Colby had said nothing further about punishing the cadets. Evidently he had taken their word for it that they would not have played the trick on any other teacher in the school, and possibly he remembered what Andy had said to the effect that the boys had been punished beforehand for what had been done. A few of the lads were afraid that the matter might be taken up later, but the majority had reached the conclusion that they would hear no more concerning it.
“It’s too bad it’s snowing,” said Jack, after he and the others had tired of speaking about the departed teacher. “I had an idea we wou
ld be able to get in some fine skating before we left for the Christmas holidays.”
The Rover boys had not forgotten the fact that both Asa Lemm and Colonel Colby had received notes concerning the joke that had been played. They remembered well how Slugger Brown, as related in a previous volume, had sent an anonymous communication to Elias Lacy, accusing them of having shot the old farmer’s cows.
“If Slugger was mean enough to send that letter, he’d be mean enough to send these notes,” was the way Jack put it.
“I wish we could see one or both of the letters,” remarked Randy. “We could very quickly tell if they were in Slugger’s handwriting, or Nappy’s either.”
“Oh, you can bet they’d disguise their handwriting as much as possible,” said Fred.
The snow continued the next day, and it was so windy and unpleasant outdoors that the battalion had to dispense with its outdoor parade and spend that time in a drill in the gymnasium. After this was over the Rovers and some of their chums amused themselves on the bars, swinging rings, and with the exercising machines the gymnasium afforded.
The boys were doing all sorts of stunts, when suddenly Fred called Randy to one side.
“Come on with me,” he said in a low voice. “I think I’ve discovered something.”
His manner showed that he had something unusual on his mind, and Randy lost no time in doing as was bidden. The two cousins hurried to a corner of the gymnasium, and then Fred led the way up a narrow stairway, which opened up on the second floor of the building, a place which was heated, but seldom used by the majority of the cadets. It was used more as a storeroom, and contained a lot of disused gymnasium paraphernalia and boxes and barrels.
“What’s going on up here?” questioned Randy, when his cousin placed a hand over his mouth.
“I just saw Slugger and Nappy come up here with Codfish,” whispered Fred. “And those three wouldn’t come to such an out-of-the-way place if there wasn’t something in the wind.”
“You’re right there, Fred,” was the equally low reply. “When those three get together on the sly there is generally something brewing.”
Before emerging on the second floor of the gymnasium, they looked around cautiously. At the far end, near a steam radiator, they saw Slugger and Nappy seated on a couple of boxes, while Codfish rested on the top of an old nail keg. The two older boys were puffing away at cigarettes, something that was against the school rules.
“Might as well have a cigarette, Henry,” Slugger was saying good-naturedly, and, at the same time, holding out a box.
“I—I don’t think I will,” answered Codfish.
“Oh, go ahead. It will make a man of you,” put in Nappy; and, somewhat against his will, the small cadet took a cigarette and lit it.
While this was going on, Fred and Randy had managed to step from the top of the stairs to where a number of boxes were piled up. They moved along cautiously, and soon got to within a few feet of where the other three cadets were seated, without being noticed.
“Now, then, let’s come to business!” remarked Slugger, after puffing away at a cigarette for a moment. He blew a cloud of smoke to the ceiling. “I think now is a dandy time to get square with those Rovers.”
“But you want to be careful—they are awful sly,” said Codfish.
“I think you are mistaken, Henry. They didn’t find out about those notes,” and the bully chuckled.
“Just the same, Slug, I think we ought to take Cod’s advice and be careful,” broke in Nappy, lighting a fresh cigarette. “I have a hunch that the Rovers are watching us like a cat watches mice.”
“Maybe they are. But I guess we know how to fool them,” went on the bully swaggeringly. “And now is just our chance to get them into a hole.”
“Explain, please.”
“It’s just like this, Nappy. Of course, they haven’t admitted it, but you know just as well as I do that Colonel Colby must have punished them pretty severely for the trick they played on Lemm. What he did to them, we don’t know, but probably he has given ‘em some extra lessons to do, and maybe he’s punished ‘em in other ways.”
“Oh, sure! he must have punished them somehow.”
“I haven’t seen any of them going down to town since it happened,” put in Codfish. “Maybe Colonel Colby made them promise to stay within bounds.”
“Perhaps. Well, as I was saying, being punished, they, of course, are pretty sore on the colonel. Now then, if we can only play some dirty trick on Colonel Colby and make it appear as if the Rovers and their crowd did it, they’ll sure get into hot water over it.”
“I’m willing to do anything to square up with those fellows,” grumbled Nappy. He paused for a moment to puff away at his cigarette. “What do you propose doing?”
“That, of course, is something we’ll have to figure out. We’ll want to be careful, so as not to get our own fingers burnt.”
“I’ll tell you what you might do!” broke in Codfish eagerly. “You might drop ashes all over Colonel Colby’s office and his bedroom, and then leave some of the ashes in a box in the Rovers’ rooms, and somebody might say something about having seen Jack Rover getting the ashes from the boiler-room.”
“That’s good as far as it goes, Henry, but it isn’t quite strong enough,” returned Slugger. “We ought to do something that will make Colonel Colby hopping mad.”
“I’ll tell you what let’s do!” broke out Nappy. “We’ll use the ashes, and we’ll use some other things too. I was down past the kitchen a while ago, and I heard one of the cooks complaining about some of the canned tomatoes which were all spoiled and he was going to throw out. Now, suppose we use some of those spoiled tomatoes with the ashes, and maybe a quart or two of ink. How about it?”
“Great!” exclaimed Slugger. “Ashes, ink and decayed tomatoes will make one fine combination, believe me!”
“Oh, you want to be very careful,” remarked Codfish, his voice shaking a little. “The ink will be sure to spoil some things, not to mention the bad tomatoes.”
“Well, we want to spoil something,” returned Slugger. “We want to get Colonel Colby real mad. Maybe then he’ll send the Rovers home.”
“How soon do you suppose we can play this joke?” questioned Nappy, while Slugger lit a fresh cigarette.
“Perhaps we can play it very soon. We’ll have to watch our chance,” was the answer. Slugger held out his box of cigarettes to Codfish. “Here, Henry, have another.”
“N-n-no, th-thank you,” stammered the sneak. “I—I do—don’t care to smoke any more. It—it makes my head dizzy.”
“Oh, you’ll soon get over that. Come on, be a real man and smoke up!” urged Slugger; and much against his will poor Codfish lit a second cigarette, he having dropped the other behind the nail keg.
This talk was followed by an animated discussion between Slugger and Nappy as to just how the proposed trick might be played. Codfish said but little. He was growing pale, and at the first chance threw away the second cigarette.
Of course Fred and Randy had listened to every word that was said. Ordinarily, the Rovers did not favor playing the part of eavesdroppers, but just now they thought they were amply justified in listening to everything that their enemies might have to say.
“They are a fine bunch if ever there was one!” whispered Randy.
“Come on away; I guess we’ve heard enough,” answered his cousin. “The best thing we can do is to report to Jack and Andy, and then make up our minds what we are going to do next.”
CHAPTER XV
AN ALARM OF FIRE
With great care, so as not to make any noise, the two Rover boys tiptoed their way back behind the boxes and barrels until they reached the narrow stairway.
“Come on! But don’t make a bit of noise,” said Randy quickly, and went down the stairs as rapidly as possible, with Fred at his heels. Reaching the
lower floor of the gymnasium, they shut the door, and then lost no time in mixing with the other Rovers and their chums at the far end of the building.
“Where have you fellows been?” questioned Jack, who had suddenly noticed their absence.
“I’ll tell you later,” said Fred.
“Now, don’t say a word more about our being away—especially if Slugger and Nappy and Codfish come this way. Act just as if we had been here right along.”
“I get you, Randy,” said Jack; and a minute later, as the others who had been mentioned came into sight, he continued in a loud voice: “Go ahead, Randy, it’s your turn. Have you been asleep?”
“No; I’m not asleep,” answered Randy, and caught a ball which was being pitched around.
Fred began to practise on an exercising machine, and acted as if he had been at it for some time.
Soon Slugger, Nappy and Codfish came down and passed the crowd, eyeing all of them closely. Then Slugger winked to the others, and the three made their way slowly from the gymnasium building.
“Now then, I’ll tell you fellows something,” announced Fred; and thereupon he and his cousin related to the others what they had overheard in the upper room of the building.
“So that’s their game, is it?” cried Jack wrathfully. “That’s the way they are going to pay us back for agreeing to give them another chance at this school!”
“You ought to tell Colonel Colby about this at once,” put in Spouter, who had listened to what was being said. “Then he can have those rascals watched.”
“I don’t like the idea of going to Colonel Colby,” Jack answered. “I feel more like taking the matter in my own hands.”
“Don’t you do it, Jack,” advised Gif. “Your idea would be all well enough if they were ordinary cadets. But they are not. They should have been dismissed from this school long ago. If I were you, I wouldn’t dirty my hands on them. Report the matter to the colonel, and let him take charge of it.”
“What is this you are saying, Garrison?” demanded a voice from close behind the cadets, and Professor Brice appeared in the doorway of the washroom of the gymnasium. “What is this you just said about Brown and Martell?”
The Rover Boys Megapack Page 355