The dinner proved to be one long to be remembered by the two Rover boys, and they were sorry to think the twins had not been present to see what took place. There were some speeches and a good deal of merrymaking, and the two Rovers were congratulated over and over again on having been elected.
“I’m mighty glad to think you’re going to be at the head of Company C, Captain Rover,” said Major Ralph Mason. “And glad, too, that yourcousin Fred is going to be a lieutenant of that company. I shall expect great things from both of you.”
“Well, I intend to do the best I can,” announced Jack modestly.
There was but one drawback to the affair. Gabe Werner did not show himself, nor did he send any letter of regret to Captain Dale.
“Gabe is sore, all right enough,” declared one of the under officers.“When I asked him if he was coming to the spread, he merely shook his head and looked like a thundercloud.”
Sunday proved rather a busy day for all of the cadets, yet the Rovers, along with a number of others, went to Haven Point where they met some of the girls. All attended services at one of the local churches. Then the young folks paired off, the boys walking with the girls to Clearwater Hall.
“Oh, Jack, you can’t think how proud I am to know they have made you a captain!” said Ruth, who was walking beside the newly-elected officer.“And I think you ought to be very proud yourself.”
“I admit it makes me feel pretty good, Ruth,” he answered.
“But you’ll have to be careful,” went on the girl anxiously. “Randy told me on the way to church that a cadet named Werner is very angry because you cut him out of one of the captaincies.”
“I’m not afraid of Werner or any of his crowd!”
“Yes, but he may try to make trouble, Jack. Don’t forget how Brown and Martell acted—and are acting still.”
“I won’t forget, Ruth.” And then, making sure that none of the others was noticing, he pressed the girl’s fingers tightly within his own.“It’s awfully nice to have you so interested,” he whispered. And, although she did not answer to this, she gave him a bright look that lingered in his memory for many a day afterward.
In the meantime Fred was walking along with May Powell, and had also been congratulated on attaining a lieutenancy. May was full of fun, and her eyes showed it.
“I suppose some day it will be Major Fred Rover!” she exclaimed. “My, won’t you look grand with a whole lot of gold lace, and a cockade hat, and all that sort of thing!”
“No gold lace for mine, May!” he laughed.
Spouter and Gif were walking with Martha and Mary, and soon the whole crowd reached Clearwater Hall. Here the boys had to say good-bye to the girls, and this was rather a lingering process, since the young folks did not know exactly when they would get together again.
“But don’t forget we expect to march past here to-morrow morning about ten o’clock,” said Jack. “If you are really patriotic you’ll be watching for us and have your flags out.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” answered Ruth. “We’re going to ask Miss Garwood for a special recess in honor of the occasion.”
The evening was spent by the boys in packing their things and in otherwise getting ready for the encampment. There was, however, the usual song service at eight o’clock in the assembly room of the Hall, on this occasion presided over by a minister who had stopped at the Hall to visit his two nephews, who were pupils there. The minister was a good speaker, and he made an address which the cadets listened to with close attention.
Early in the morning came a sound that told all the cadets that the annual encampment was now at hand. Instead of the school bell ringing, there were the notes of two bugles ringing through the corridors. Then from outside came the vigorous rattle of several drums.
“Hurrah! No more studying! From now on we are soldier boys!” exclaimed Andy, and he bounced out of bed. “Get up, you sleepyheads!” And in the exuberance of his spirits he threw a pillow at his twin’s head. Randy returned the compliment by throwing a shoe at him, hitting Andy in the stomach.
“Hi! What’s this?” exclaimed Fred, scrambling up at the confusion.
“Over the top at the Huns!” shouted Andy, charging on Randy and sending him backward into a stand loaded with books. “Forward, the light brigade, and on to the gas attack!”
“Hi! You fellows are making altogether too much noise,” came from Jack. “Attention, company! Line up! Eyes right!”
“My! but don’t the bugles and drums sound fine?” was Fred’s comment, as he hurried into his new uniform, of which, it may be said privately, he was exceedingly proud.
“I suppose we won’t have a bit of fun at this outing, with a captain and a lieutenant keeping their eyes on us,” grumbled Andy; but, of course, he did not mean what he said.
“Sure, I’ll make you line up and toe the chalk mark,” answered Jack, with a grin. “You won’t dare to call your souls your own. If you infringe one fixed rule the sixteenth of an inch, I’ll place you in the guardhouse.”
“Yes, and we’ll feed you on nothing but dry bread and dry water,”added Fred.
“Good-night!” came solemnly from Randy. “Please lead me to the dungeon at once! What’s the use of looking at the sunshine and trying to smile!”
It had been decided that the cadets should march to Barlight Bay, which was about thirty-five miles distant. They were to take two days for the journey, stopping over night on the outskirts of the village of Rackville, where Captain Dale had already rented a farm field for that purpose. All of their belongings were to be transported in several motor trucks, engaged for that purpose, these trucks being under orders from the battalion quartermaster.
Of course, it must be understood by my young readers that Colby Hall was only a military school for boys, and that the military matters there, while conducted somewhat on the lines of those at West Point, were by no means so strict. The officers, from the young major down, were expected to do their duty the same as if they were at a government camp, but all were under the supervision of Captain Dale and the Hall professors.
More than this, the boys did not pretend to do any of the camp cooking or any of the menial camp labor, this being accomplished by hired helpers. And again, the officers were only officers while on parade or during special hours of duty—otherwise they were just like the other cadets and were treated accordingly.
There was the usual morning roll call, and also the drill and inspection, this time the latter being unusually severe, for Captain Dale wanted to make sure that everything was right before the cadets left the Hall. The parade around the grounds, however, was omitted, and the lads went in to their breakfast half an hour earlier than usual. Then it was announced that they would leave the Hall at exactly nine o’clock.
At the roll call and inspection it was a new thing for Jack to take command of Company C, and for Fred to fill the position of a lieutenant; but both acquitted themselves creditably, and for this received a nod of approval from Captain Dale.
On Sunday evening it had been rumored about that Gabe Werner had decided not to attend the encampment. This rumor had its foundation in the fact that the angular ex-lieutenant had sent a telegram to his father explaining the situation and stating he wanted to come home. In return, however, Mr. Werner commanded his son to remain at Colby Hall, and so, much against his will, Gabe was on hand when the cadets were ready to march away.
“But I ain’t going to do anything that I don’t want to do,” growled Gabe to Bill Glutts. “You just wait and see!”
“Maybe you’ll get a chance to make it warm for Jack Rover and his bunch,” suggested the wholesale butcher’s son.
“You bet!” answered Werner laconically.
The cadets were all assembled on the parade ground, and the motor trucks, piled high with all of their belongings, as well as the camping paraphernalia, had already left the
grounds. There was a final rattle of drums to call any cadets who might still be missing.
“Battalion attention!” commanded the young major, after he had received his orders from Captain Dale.
At once the three companies came to attention.
“Shoulder arms!” came the command a few seconds later.“Forward—march!”
Boom! Boom! Boom, boom, boom! went the drums, and the Colby cadets stepped off gaily, while the professors and helpers left behind at the Hall cheered loudly and waved their hands. From the big flagstaff on the campus floated a large American flag, this being run up every morning at sunrise and taken down at sunset.
Soon the drums gave a preliminary rattle, and then the shrill fifes struck up into a lively marching air, and one company after another passed out of the Hall grounds and on to the road leading to Haven Point.
“Hay foot, straw foot!” murmured Andy jokingly to Randy, who was marching by his side. “I wonder how our feet will feel after we have covered the eighteen miles we have to do to-day?”
“Oh, that will be all right, I think,” answered his twin. “I’ve done more than eighteen miles in a day, and so have you.”
It did not take long for the cadets to reach the outskirts of Haven Point. Their coming was expected, and quite a crowd of town folks were out to see the parade. Some few had put out flags, for all were proud to have such an institution as Colby Hall in that vicinity.
The moving-picture theater was decorated with flags from top to bottom, and across the street the enterprising manager had hung a big banner inscribed with the words:
Good-bye
COLBY HALL
Have a good time, boys
Captain Dale was marching beside Major Mason, and as the school came in sight of this banner the major whispered a few words to the elderly military man, who nodded in approval. Then the young major turned and, walking backward, cried:
“Battalion attention! Three cheers for Mr. Felix Falstein!”
The cheers were given with a right good will, and a number of the cadets swung their caps at the manager of the moving-picture theater, who stood in the doorway, smiling at them. The cheer had been totally unexpected, and Mr. Falstein grew exceedingly red in the face. But he bowed and smiled, and kept on bowing, in the meantime waving his hat at the cadets, until they had passed up the street.
Leaving Haven Point behind, and with a generous following of small boys, the cadets continued their march by taking to the road leading past Clearwater Hall. Here another surprise awaited them. The girls of the school had strung long lines of colored paper across the roadway, and had decorated the entire front of the school grounds with small flags. More than this, all of the girls were out in a long line facing the roadway, and many of them carried flags and wore red, white and blue ribbons.
“Good-bye! Have a good time!” called out Ruth.
“Don’t forget to write!” came from Martha.
“Oh, but you do look nice!” called May.
And then there was such a babble of exclamations that hardly a word of what was said could be understood. And in the midst of this the cadets gave a rousing cheer for Clearwater Hall and everybody connected with that school.
“Oh, but don’t they look lovely!” cried May, when the boys had passed.“Did you see Jack at the head of the third company?” she asked of Ruth.
“Why, of course! And he certainly looked every inch a captain.”
“I wish I were a boy and could go along!” sighed Mary.
“Oh, I guess we all wish that,” declared Ruth. “But come—let us give them another cheer!” And this rent the air just as the cadets reached a turn in the road and passed out of sight.
CHAPTER XVII
A NIGHT ON THE ROAD
“This is the life, boys!”
“Ho for a life under canvas!”
“Beats rooming in a school all hollow, doesn’t it?”
“Exactly so! And think—we haven’t any studying to do. Oh, boy!” and Andy, who was the speaker, felt so light-hearted that he turned several cartwheels on the grass.
“Say, you look out, Andy, or somebody will grab you and put you in the circus,” was Spouter’s comment.
The Colby Hall cadets had finished their first day’s march and were now in camp on the outskirts of Rackville. They had made the hike without mishap, stopping at noon for lunch along the roadside.
The encampment consisted of three long lines of tents, one for each company. As was the usual practice, the cadets had erected the canvases themselves, doing it with real military precision. They were in the center of a large, sloping field, one end of which bordered the road running into Rackville. The field was a pasture lot belonging to a large farm owned by a man named Oliver Appleby. Appleby owned a dairy farm, and employed about a dozen hired hands.
“I know one thing we’ll get here,” remarked Fred, after a look around.“We’ll probably get all the milk we want to drink.”
And in this surmise he was correct. Captain Dale had made the necessary arrangements with Oliver Appleby, and that evening and the following morning the cadets were furnished with the best of cream and also all the fresh milk they desired.
After the setting up of the tents came supper, and my readers can rest assured that none of the boys were “backward about coming forward,” as Randy expressed it. All were as hungry as wolves, and the amount of food they stored away was simply astonishing. But Captain Dale had received orders from Colonel Colby that the students should be well treated, so everybody got all he wanted.
“Gee! this is so different from a school I used to attend,” remarked Fatty Hendry, with a sigh of satisfaction. “At that place we only got about half enough to eat, and many a time I had to go down to the village and buy something extra to keep from starvation.”
Having spent so many of their vacations at the old Rover homestead at Valley Brook, the Rovers were much interested in the Appleby place, and after the evening meal Jack and Fred took a stroll up to the cow barns to inspect the herd. Oliver Appleby had a number of prize cattle, of which he was very proud.
“They are certainly beautiful cows,” remarked Fred, when they were walking through the shed which housed the best of the herd. “They must have cost a mint of money.”
The two young officers were on the point of leaving the cow sheds when, quite unexpectedly, they ran into Jed Kessler.
“Hello! I thought I’d see some of you fellers,” cried the old dockman.“Out for your annual encampment, I understand.”
“Yes,” answered Jack. “How are you these days? Have you got over the effects of that explosion?”
“I’m about over it—although I haven’t returned to work yet,” answered Kessler. “You see, those awful shocks, and being thrown into the lake that way, kind of got on my nerves. My folks don’t want me to go back until I’m feelin’ stronger.”
“Have they resumed work at the shell-loading plant?” questioned Fred.
“They’re startin’ up to-day. One gang is clearin’ up the wreckage, while a number of the old hands are at work in the places that wasn’t damaged very much. And say! I’ve got something to tell you that I know you’ll be interested to hear,” went on old Jed Kessler.
“What is that?” questioned Jack.
“I saw those two German-lookin’ fellers again early this morning, when I was on my way here to visit my brother who works on this farm.”
“You did!” cried the two Rovers simultaneously.
“Where were they?” added Jack.
“They was down on the road that runs to Barlight Bay.”
“Walking?” queried Fred.
“No, they was in an old wagon pulled by the sorriest lookin’ nag I ever set eyes on. They had the wagon piled high with packages.”
“Were you sure they were the same men?”
“I thi
nk they was the same. Of course, I wouldn’t like to swear to it until I got a better look at ’em. They was just goin’ past as I came in from a side road, and as soon as they saw me they whipped up their horse and started down the road in a cloud of dust.”
“You ought to have stopped them,” said Jack.
“How could I do that? I wasn’t close enough to catch hold of the horse. And besides that, what chance would an old feller like me have against two husky men? More than likely, too, they was armed, while I didn’t have anything—not even a cane.”
“But you should have notified the authorities,” said Fred.
“Oh, I did that, knowing that they was on the lookout for those fellers. I hurried to Rackville just as fast as I could, and called on the justice of the peace and the town constable. Then they got busy and telephoned to the next town and notified the police. They got a gang of six or eight men lookin’ for the men and the wagon, but up to this afternoon they hadn’t got any trace of ’em.”
“Well, that certainly is interesting,” remarked Jack. “You say you are pretty sure they are the same fellows who were around the plant just previous to the explosion?”
“Well, as I said before, I wouldn’t like to swear to it until I got a better look at ’em. But those two fellers on the wagon had the same bushy black hair and whiskers and the same round faces. More than that, they wore the same slouch hats that the other fellers had.”
“Have you any idea what was in the packages in the wagon?” questioned the young captain.
“Sounded to me as if it might be iron, or something like that. It jangled just like hardware.”
“It’s queer they would be on that back road with such stuff,” said Jack slowly. “Did the folks at Rackville think they might live down near the bay?”
“They said there wasn’t any folks around there so far as they knew that wore bushy black hair and black beards. They knew about everybody who lives within several miles of here,” answered Jed Kessler.
The two Rovers talked the matter over with the old man for a few minutes longer, the foreman of the dairy also having his say. Then the boys had to hurry back to the camp, to fulfill their duties as captain and lieutenant.
The Rover Boys Megapack Page 376