“Here is where I got in fine!” murmured Spouter.
Codfish glanced further, and his eyes fell on the interior of the closet of the room, the door to which stood wide open. Then he gave a gasp.
“My gracious! if they haven’t taken all my clothing, and my hats, and even my shoes!” he groaned. “This is the worst yet!” He rushed to the closet, and another look convinced him that the place was entirely empty. Then he ran to a corner where stood a clothes tree, which had contained some of his athletic outfit. This was likewise empty. Then he rushed to his chiffonier.
“Gone! Everything gone! Not a thing left!” he groaned. “Oh, if this isn’t the worst yet! If I don’t tell on somebody for this!”
Coming back to the middle of the room, he surveyed the pile of boxes suspiciously. Then a sheet of paper resting on the top box claimed his attention.
“‘For anything that is missing look in the boxes,’” he read from the slip of paper. “Oh, dear! I suppose those fellows were just mean enough to stuff all my things in those packing cases. I wonder what they did that for? Maybe they thought they were going to cart them down to the bonfire and burn them up, and burn all my stuff, too. Just wait and see if I don’t fix somebody for this!”
There was rather a small box on top of the others, and this Codfish started to open first. One end of the lid was nailed down, but the other was loose, and he pulled up on this with vigor.
And then the sneak got the first of a series of surprises. The lid of the box held down a large rubber frog, and this bounced out of the box, hitting him full in the face. He staggered back and fell over on his bed.
“Hurrah! First round!” whispered Andy delightedly.
“Just wait for the second,” said Randy.
There was nothing else in the box but excelsior, and having rummaged about in this, Codfish threw the box aside and started to investigate the next receptacle.
The lid to this was screwed on, and he had quite a job opening it. The other cadets watched with interest, doing their best to keep from laughing. When the box was opened, Codfish found that it contained a layer of excelsior. Under this, however, were a number of bundles wrapped in newspapers, each containing a small portion of the stuff taken from his chiffonier.
“Huh! thought they were smart, didn’t they?” he muttered, as he put the things where they belonged. “Just wait! I’ll fix ’em for this.”
The next box contained some of his clothing, which he hung in the closet. Then he tackled a rather large box which was bound up with an old clothesline. He had to tug at the line quite a little to get it loose, not thinking in his excitement that it would be easier to cut the line. The top of the box was filled with all sorts of rubbish. Beneath this were some more of his things, and then at the very bottom a rather small wooden box with a sliding cover.
Any ordinary school boy would have suspected some trick in connection with this box. But not so Codfish. He looked at it carefully, and then, bringing it close under the light, proceeded to pull the sliding cover back.
And then he was treated to another surprise, this time far more disagreeable than the other. The box contained a large codfish, one which, as Andy afterwards explained, had seen better days.
“Phew, what a smell!” cried the sneak, as he allowed the decayed codfish to fall out on the floor.
The odor when released from the air-tight box was so overpowering that he had to go over and throw open the window.
“Codfish for the Codfish!” sang out Andy gaily, unable to keep quiet any longer.
The sneak of the school whirled around suddenly, and there beheld in the doorway of the next room the Rover boys and their chums in a group, all grinning at him.
“How’d you like the fish, Codfish?” questioned Fred.
“Thought you said you didn’t have any boxes in your room,” came from Jack.
“I didn’t know you were raising frogs for a living,” remarked Randy.
“Why don’t you take those boxes down and put them on the bonfire?”questioned Gif.
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself—littering up your room with all that straw and excelsior,” was Walt’s comment. “If you aren’t careful, you’ll get some mighty bad marks for doing that.”
“What did you do with the man who wanted to see you?” questioned Spouter. “Did you tell him that you were too busy to talk?”
“You’re a fine bunch of fellows!” howled Codfish, not knowing what to say. “You had no business to play a trick like this on me!”
“Play a trick on you?” questioned Andy innocently. “Who has been playing a trick? Why, we don’t know what it is to do anything like that!”
“I think somebody said you wanted to see us, but I don’t know what for,” added Randy.
“If anybody should ask me, I would say you had a queer way of cleaning house, Codfish,” remarked Fred calmly.
“And to think he stole one of the codfish from the pantry!” said Jack.“By the way it smells, he must have taken it the day he enrolled here.”
“Maybe he likes codfish good and strong,” suggested Gif.
“I’ll ‘codfish’ you fellows if you don’t leave me alone!” howled the sneak. He was so vexed he almost felt like crying. “You just wait till Colonel Colby or Captain Dale hears about this!”
“Yes, I wonder what the colonel will say when he finds out you stole one of the codfish belonging to the school,” said Andy. “You oughtn’t to have done it, Henry, my boy. If you wanted anything to eat, why didn’t you ask one of the teachers for it?”
“Maybe he chews on codfish in the middle of the night when he can’t sleep, or when he is trying to solve a problem in algebra,” suggested Randy.
“I don’t do any such thing, and I didn’t take that codfish from the pantry, and you know it!” howled Codfish, in anger. “It’s a put-up job, and you are the fellows who did it! All of you ought to be sent away from this school.”
“If he took a codfish, maybe he took some other things, too,” said Jack. “I think this ought to be investigated.”
“And how did you happen to get all these boxes?” demanded Fred. “I know them. They were collected for the bonfire some days ago.”
“You certainly have no right to have them in your room, Codfish,” said Gif. “Better hustle ’em down and put ’em on the fire before the rest of the fellows hear of this.”
“And if you’ve got things belonging to the school victuals besides that codfish, you’d better fork ’em over,” admonished Jack.
“You clear out, every one of you! I don’t want to hear another word!”screamed Codfish, in a rage. “You just wait until I report you! I think you’re all too mean for anything! Go on away!” And he tried to close the door to the other room in their faces. But they held it back so he could do nothing.
“Come on, fellows, let’s put those boxes where they belong!” cried Jack. And, marching into the room, he picked up one of the packing cases, and the others quickly followed suit. Then they marched out into the hallway, leaving Codfish staring after them in bewilderment.
“I know you’ve got some other things belonging to the school besides that fish!” cried Andy. “You’ve got the pockets of your overcoat just stuffed with good things!”
“Haven’t any such thing!” declared the sneak. And then, struck by a sudden idea, he ran to the clothing closet and brought forth his overcoat, which had been in one of the boxes. He rammed his hand into one of the pockets, and then suddenly withdrew it with a yell of fright and pain.
And his fright and pain were not without good reason, for clinging to the thumb of the hand he had inserted into the pocket of the overcoat was a small, but exceedingly active, snapping turtle!
CHAPTER VIII
AN INTERRUPTED FEAST
“Oh, oh, oh!” yelled Codfish, dancing around the room wildly. “Take that thin
g off! Oh, I’ll be bitten to death! Take it off, somebody! What is it, anyhow?”
“Hello! Codfish has been fishing,” cried Andy gaily.
“Maybe he got that from the cook’s pantry, too,” broke in Randy.
“What’s the dear creature’s name, Codfish?” questioned Fred.
“You haven’t got to let go of him if you don’t want to, you know,”came from Jack.
All this while the sneak of the school was dancing around the room, doing his best to shake off the snapping turtle. But the creature, though small, had a hold that was very tenacious, and refused to budge.
“Say, he won’t be seriously bitten, will he?” questioned Spouter, in a low tone.
“No, it’s only a baby snapping turtle,” answered Andy slowly.“Codfish is far more scared than hurt.”
The sneak of the school was so frightened that he did not dare to take hold of the snapping turtle. He held the creature out at arm’s length and continued to dance around, asking the others to take it off.
“He’ll eat my finger!”
“Put it in some water and it will let go quick enough,” suggested Fred presently.
“Yes, give him a chance to swim around in a bathtub,” added Randy quickly, when he saw Stowell make a move toward the washbowl in one corner of the room. “That isn’t big enough for a good healthy turtle.”
“Oh, oh! I’ll have the law on you for this!” yelled the sneak, and then bolted for the door and ran down the corridor in the direction of the nearest bathroom.
As it happened, at that moment Job Plunger, the school janitor, was coming along the corridor carrying an armful of old magazines which he had been ordered to store away in the attic. As my old readers know, Plunger, who had been nicknamed “Shout,” was quite deaf, and with eyes in another direction he did not see Codfish coming. The two collided violently, and the janitor was sent over backward, scattering the magazines in all directions, while Codfish came down on top of him.
“Hi you! what you mean by knockin’ me down that way?” shrilled the janitor, when he could regain his breath.
“I—I didn’t mean to do it,” stammered the sneak, as he arose to his feet. “I was in a hurry.”
“You ain’t got no right to race through these halls like a crazy horse,” went on Plunger. “I ought to report you.”
“I told you I was in a hurry,” explained Codfish.
“Worry?” queried Plunger, not hearing aright. “Ain’t I got a right to worry if a feller like you sends me sprawlin’?”
“I didn’t say worry—I said I was in a hurry. A snapping turtle had me by the finger, and I wanted to get rid of it.”
“Rappin’! Well, you ain’t goin’ to rap me. I’ll let you know that!”growled the deaf janitor.
“I said snapping—not rapping—a snapping turtle!” Codfish put his mouth close to the janitor’s ear. “A snapping turtle!”
“What’s that? No, I ain’t got no snappin’ turtle. What would I be doin’ with a snappin’ turtle?” queried Plunger blankly.
“I said I had one here—on my thumb!” cried Codfish. “It’s gone now. I guess my fall knocked it off,” and he looked around in the rather dim corridor to see what had become of the turtle, but without locating the creature.
“I’m off, am I?” snarled Plunger, who had been asked that day to do a large amount of extra work by the cadets, and was consequently in no good humor. “I ain’t half as much off as you are, you young rascal!”He grabbed Codfish by the arm. “You jest pick up them magazines and put ’em in my arms ag’in, or I’ll report you.”
At this the sneak muttered something under his breath. But he was afraid of the deaf janitor, and so he began to pick up the various magazines that had been scattered around and piled them high in Plunger’s arms. While he was doing this, he continued to look around for the snapping turtle, but the little creature had disappeared.
“Now you be careful after this,” said Plunger, when the task of gathering up the scattered magazines had been completed. “After this when you want to run through the halls, you walk!” And then he continued on his way.
The Rovers and their chums had witnessed the scene in the corridor, but as soon as Stowell turned to come back to his room they ran off and down a side stairs, carrying the packing cases with them.
“Say, but that was rich—the way he thumped into Shout,” was Andy’s comment.
“Yes, and the way Shout took him up for what he said,” returned Randy.“Gosh! it seems to me as if poor old Shout is getting deafer every day.”
“I wonder what became of the snapping turtle,” said Fred.
“If they fell on it, they must have crushed the poor creature,”returned Jack.
The boxes were soon placed on the various bonfires, and then the boys mingled with the other students in having a good time generally. The cadets sang songs and danced around the fires, and then organized an impromptu parade up and down the river front and around the Hall.
“How about that little feast we were going to have before we went to bed?” questioned Randy presently.
“Just what I was thinking about,” answered Fred. “I’d like to have it first rate; but where are we going to get the eats?”
“Perhaps we can get something from the Hall pantry,” suggested Jack.
“Nothing doing in that direction,” came from Ned Lowe, who was present.
“What makes you say that?” questioned Spouter.
“Bart White and I tried it a little while ago, and everything is locked up as tight as a drum. I guess the head cook and the head waiter got on to the fact that we might make a raid.”
“Then there is only one other thing to do,” said Randy quickly. “And that is to go down to town for something.”
“That would be easy enough, especially if we could get some one on the road to give us a lift,” said Jack.
The Rovers and their chums talked the matter over for several minutes, and then it was decided that Jack, Fred, Spouter, and Gif would pay a hurried visit to Haven Point, bringing back with them such good things as they could pick up quickly in the stores and carry back. A cap was passed around, and eight dollars was collected for the proposed feast. The cadets who had been selected as a committee lost no time in leaving the school grounds, and then hurried off down the road leading to the town.
“Let’s watch our chance for a ride,” said Jack. “We don’t want to waste any time on this trip.”
He had scarcely spoken when they heard the rumble of a truck approaching. It was a motor truck belonging to a dairy company doing business in Haven Point and other towns around the lake.
“Hello there! Give us a ride into town, will you?” questioned Fred of the driver, as the truck came to a halt at their signal.
“Sure! Climb on board,” said the good-natured driver. He had only a small load and was glad of their company, feeling sure that they would treat him well for the accommodation.
By means of the truck it did not take the cadets long to reach the town, and there they left the driver, Jack tossing him a quarter for his kindness. Then the lads hurried to such of the stores as were still open.
They had already made up their minds as to what they wanted if the things could be obtained. At a delicatessen store they purchased a pasteboard box lined with waxed paper and filled with chicken salad, and also some ham and tongue sandwiches. Then they rushed into a bakeshop, the proprietor of which was just closing, and purchased several layer cakes and also a generous supply of ginger snaps. Then they hurried to a confectionery, and there obtained some bottled soda water and ginger ale, and likewise several quarts of ice-cream.
“Now I guess we’re pretty well fixed for a little spread,” declared Jack, when they were once more on the street, each loaded with several bundles.
“I hope we can get a ride back to the school,” said Fred. “
These bundles are pretty heavy.”
“I’ve got an idea,” said Andy. “See that automobile yonder? Well, that belongs to the man who owns the moving-picture theater. There he is in front of his place. I wonder if he wouldn’t let his chauffeur run us down to the Hall? He knows all the boys at the Hall are pretty good customers at his show place.”
“It wouldn’t do any harm to ask him, Andy,” answered his cousin.
The crowd crossed the street and was soon interviewing the owner of the moving-picture theater. He had seen the boys there a number of times, and remembered them, and was keenly alive to anything that might aid his business.
“Sure, my man can run you down to the school,” he said readily. “Here he is now.” He turned to his colored chauffeur. “Joe, take these young gentlemen to Colby Hall and then come back here just as soon as you can.”
The run to Colby Hall in the automobile took but a few minutes, and the driver very condescendingly agreed to take them around to the rear entrance of the building. The cadets paid him for his trip, and then lost no time in sneaking what they had bought up a back stairway and into the rooms occupied by the Rovers.
By this time the celebration over the defeat of Hixley High had about come to an end. The cadets were disappearing in all directions, some going to their rooms and others to the library of the school, a large room which was often used as a general meeting place.
Word had been passed around to a number of others, so that a crowd of about a dozen assembled in the Rovers’ rooms to take part in the feast.
“I’ll tell you one thing we ought to do,” said Randy. “We ought to square ourselves somehow with Codfish. Otherwise he may be just mean enough to give us away.”
“I guess I can fix it for you,” said Ned Lowe, who in the past had been a bit more friendly with the sneak than any of the others present. “Just give me a plate of ice-cream and a piece of cake, and I’ll go and smooth it over with the little sneak.”
“Go ahead and do it, by all means, Ned,” answered Andy quickly. “I don’t begrudge the little sneak a bit of something good. It will make him forget how his thumb hurts.”
The Rover Boys Megapack Page 370