After this Colonel Colby talked to the cadets for fully ten minutes, trying to show them that what they had done was not what he expected of them. He was kind almost to the point of being fatherly, and made several remarks which caused the boys to do considerable thinking.
“I am afraid some of you lads do not like Professor Duke,” said he. “I am afraid you consider him rather quick-tempered and irritable.”
“Well, he certainly isn’t as nice as most of the other teachers,” declared Randy flatly.
“He always seems to be waiting for a chance to get in on a fellow,” broke out Fred. “In some ways he’s even worse than Asa Lemm was.”
“But he’s a splendid teacher, I will say that for him,” declared Jack. “Only, the way he sometimes jumps on a fellow is terrible.”
“I shouldn’t like to have you boys compare Professor Duke with that scalawag, Asa Lemm,”declared Colonel Colby. “Lemm had a good education—if he hadn’t had I should not have engaged him to teach here—but he was not the honest and upright man Snopper Duke is. I will admit that at times he is quick-tempered, but, believe me, boys, he has good reasons for it—or, at least, there is quite some excuse for his acting that way at times. I do not feel like discussing his personal affairs with you, but you will be doing a real act of kindness if at times you don’t notice his actions when he seems rather sharp. I am quite sure he doesn’t always mean it.”
“Well, of course, if there’s some reason——” began Jack.
“There is quite a reason, Captain Rover. But, as I said before, I do not care to discuss Professor Duke’s personal affairs further. Only, if I were one of you boys, I should go very slow in judging him. And now to come back to this present affair: I have had a talk with Professor Duke and I will have another talk this evening, and, all told, I think you have been punished enough. So we will call the matter off and you can return to your classrooms.”
“Thank you very much, Colonel Colby,” cried Jack, and, starting forward, he offered his hand, and the master of the school shook it warmly. Then all of the other cadets came forward to do likewise.
“I hope you won’t punish those other fellows for getting some extra food up to us,” said Fred, as he and Andy brought out the hidden things and placed them on one of the trays. “They only tried to do us a good turn.”
“You may rest assured, Rover, that I shall treat them only as they deserve,” answered Colonel Colby, and led the way downstairs. Here the cadets separated, each to pay a brief visit to his own room before going down to the classrooms on the lower floor.
“I wonder what Colonel Colby meant when he said Duke had reasons for being irritable?” remarked Randy.
“I don’t know, I’m sure,” answered Jack thoughtfully.
“Maybe he’s suffering from some sickness,” suggested Fred. “Perhaps he ought to have an operation and hates to have it done.”
“Maybe he’s worried about money matters,”came from Randy.
“It was certainly something worth while or Colonel Colby wouldn’t have been so serious about it,” said Fred. “Gee! I’m sorry if I misjudged him, if there is really something wrong.”
“I don’t believe Colonel Colby would caution us if it wasn’t so,” said Jack. “And after this I’m going to give Duke as much consideration as I possibly can.”
The boys had been told to go to their classrooms, but this was hardly necessary, for they had just about presented themselves when the afternoon session of the school came to an end. Then they followed some of their friends down to the gymnasium, where they were at once surrounded and asked to give the particulars of what had happened to them.
“It wasn’t a great deal,” said Jack. “And first of all I want to know what was done to Dan and the others.”
“Oh, Colonel Colby read us a little lecture, that’s all,” answered Walt Baxter, one of the cadets. “He told us we had no right to take any of the food without asking for it.”
“I offered to pay for it,” put in Ned Lowe, “and so did Dan. But the colonel said that wasn’t the point. That he wanted the discipline of the Hall maintained.”
“Did he say anything about Professor Duke?”questioned Fred.
“Not a word.”
“Well, he told us something,” continued the youngest Rover, and then related what had been said on the subject.
“Say, that squares with something I once heard,” cried Walt Baxter. “I met Professor Duke down at the barn one day where he was waiting to have Nixon drive him down to town. The professor was walking around, wringing his hands and muttering to himself. He looked all out of sorts, and he said something that sounded to me like ‘I don’t see how I can do it! I don’t see how I can really attempt it!’”
“And what do you suppose it was that bothered him, Walt?” questioned Jack curiously.
“I’m sure I don’t know. I watched him walk up and down and wring his hands. And then he took a notebook out of his pocket and began to study some of the figures in it. Then Nixon came along with the auto, and he jumped in and rode off.”
“Well, that sure is a mystery,” declared Randy.
This news concerning Snopper Duke gradually spread throughout the school, and many of the boys watched the teacher curiously. In the meantime Colonel Colby had a conference, not only with Duke, but also with Professor Grawson; and when the classes opened the next day Jack and the others found themselves treated just as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
“Colonel Colby said he would let the matter pass, and I guess he’s going to keep his word,”remarked Fred.
There was only one boy who remained troubled, and that was Codfish. He avoided the Rovers and the others as much as possible, often running away at the sight of them.
“Codfish is just about scared stiff,” remarked Randy. “He knows he got himself in wrong.”
“What a poor fish he is,” answered his twin.
On Saturday afternoon a number of the boys obtained permission to visit the town and attend the moving picture performance if they so desired. Jack had telephoned to his sister, and Martha had answered that probably a number of girls from Clearwater Hall would be in town at the same time.
“And I’ve got something to tell you, too, Jack,”said Martha over the wire. “Something I’m sure you’ll be interested in hearing.”
“Why don’t you tell me now?” he replied.
“Oh, this isn’t something to tell over a public telephone,” his sister answered.
The snowstorm had come to an end, and it was clear and bright overhead when the four Rovers and some of the others tramped to Haven Point. Here, at the railroad station, they met Martha and Mary, and also Ruth Stevenson, May Powell, and several other girls from the academy.
“How are your eyes feeling, Ruth?” questioned Jack anxiously, as he walked side by side with the girl on the way to the moving picture theater. As my old readers know, Ruth had once suffered dreadfully through getting some pepper into her eyes, and it had been feared that she might go blind.
“Oh, my eyes are quite all right again, Jack,”answered the girl. “Sometimes they feel the least bit scratchy. But I bathe them with a solution the doctor gave me and then they feel quite natural.”
“I’m mighty glad to hear that,” Jack returned warmly. For of all the girls who were friends of his sister he liked Ruth the best.
As luck would have it, there was a very good show on that afternoon, and as a consequence a crowd had assembled to obtain tickets of admission. Randy went ahead to get all the tickets needed, and while he did this Martha plucked her brother by the coat sleeve and drew him a little to one side.
“What’s this you’ve got to tell me, Martha?”questioned the young captain in a whisper.
“It’s about a fellow at your school—a chap named Lester Bangs,” replied the girl.
“Oh, you mean th
e fellow we call Brassy Bangs! What about him?”
“He and one or two of his particular chums have been up to Clearwater Hall three times. They took some of the girls out in a sleigh they hired, and that Bangs did his level best to get Ruth to go along. And now he has invited her to attend some kind of a party next week,” was Martha’s reply, words which for some reason he could not explain even to himself cut Jack to the heart.
CHAPTER VII
SOMETHING ABOUT A SLEIGHRIDE PARTY
“What kind of a party is it, Martha?”
“I don’t know, except that it’s somewhere out of town and some of the girls and fellows are going to the place in sleighs. I wasn’t asked to go, and I got the information in a roundabout way.”
“Then Ruth hasn’t said anything to you about it?”
“Not a word. But I’m sure she received this Lester Bangs’ invitation.”
“And you think she may accept it?”
“I hope not, Jack. Because I don’t like Bangs. He wears such showy clothing and jewelry.”
“That’s the reason we call him Brassy—he is brassy in looks and brassy in manner. He’s just as much of a hot-air bag as Tommy Flanders,”went on the young captain, referring to an arrogant youth who the summer before had pitched for Longley Academy and been knocked out of the box.
“Isn’t it queer, he put me in mind of Flanders?”whispered Martha. “I hope you don’t have any trouble with him, Jack.” And then, as some of the others came closer, the private conversation had to come to an end.
While in the moving picture theater Jack sat with Ruth beside him. They occasionally spoke about the scenes presented to them and also about school matters in general, but not one word was said by either about the party Martha had mentioned.
“Mr. Falstein certainly gets good pictures,” remarked the girl, when the performance had come to an end and the crowd of young people was moving out of the theater. “They’re just as good as one can see in the big cities.”
“They’re the same thing, only he gets them a little later,” answered Jack.
“I like the comic pictures better than anything,”declared Andy. “I hate those serious ones. They’re generally so awfully mushy.”
“Why, Andy Rover, how you talk!” cried Alice Strobell. “I think that picture they showed today of Life in a Big City was perfectly grand.”
“Especially where the heroine sobbed herself to sleep over the sewing machine in her garret room,” went on Andy, with a snicker. “Wasn’t that just the tear-bringer?”
“I don’t care! It was just as true to life as it could be,” answered Alice sturdily.
“Well, maybe,” was the airy return of the fun-loving Rover. “Come to think of it, I never did run a sewing machine in a garret room with the snow blowing through a busted window. I’d rather sit in the shade of the old apple tree reading a good book and getting on the outside of some ripe pears,” he continued, and at this there was general laughter.
As was their custom, the young folks drifted from the theater to a nearby candy and ice-cream establishment. Here they split up into various groups at some tables in the rear. Of course, the boys insisted on treating the girls, and there was quite a discussion over what each would have. Martha and Mary had paired off with Gif and Spouter, and Fred and the twins were with some of the other girls, and this left Ruth and Jack by themselves.
Several times the young captain wanted to bring the conversation around to the question of the party that had been mentioned. But every time he checked himself.
“What were you going to say?” questioned Ruth, when he caught himself once. “You act as if you had something on your mind of special importance, Jack.”
“Not at all! Not at all!” he returned hastily.“How are you getting along with your studies, Ruth? Do your eyes interfere much with them?”
“Not a great deal. But, of course, I have to be more or less careful. But I’m doing finely, so the teachers say.”
“We’re going to have an election of officers soon,” continued the young captain. “Some of the fellows are urging me to run for major of the battalion. Ralph Mason is going to drop out, you know.”
“Oh, Jack! why don’t you run?”
“Do you want me to run, Ruth?”
“Why, of course! if there’s any chance of getting it, and I don’t see why there shouldn’t be,”she returned quickly.
Her manner was so intimate that once again he was on the point of mentioning the party. But then he shut his teeth hard and pretended to be interested in something taking place at the other tables.
“Don’t you think you could win the election if you tried?” Ruth continued, after looking at him questioningly for a moment.
“Oh, I guess I’d have as good a chance as any one in command. Of course, there are a number of other officers who would have as good a chance as I’d have. But I’m not altogether sure that I want to be major. If I held that office Colonel Colby would expect me to toe the mark all the time just as an example to the others. Even as it was, he didn’t like to have me as a captain and Fred as a lieutenant mixed up in that snowball affair.”
“Oh, but, Jack! think of the honor of being major of the battalion,” cried the girl. “I’m sure Martha and your folks will be very proud of you.”
“Would you be proud, Ruth, if I should win the position?” he asked in a low tone.
“Why, of course—we all would,” returned the girl, her face flushing slightly. “I always like to see my friends make something of themselves.”
Ruth’s tone was cordial enough, and once again Jack was on the point of switching the talk to the party. But now some of the young folks had finished, and the little gathering began to break up and he and Ruth were surrounded by the others.
“We’ve got to do some shopping,” declared Mary, when they were out on the sidewalk. “So we can’t remain with you boys any longer.” And a few minutes later the crowd separated, the girls hurrying in one direction and the cadets in another.
“You let me know if you hear any more about that party,” whispered Jack, on parting from his sister.
“I will,” she answered.
On starting back for the Hall Jack paired off with Fred and purposely lagged behind.
“Did you hear anything about a party in which Brassy Bangs was interested?” he asked of his cousin.
“Mary said that Brassy was getting up some sort of party, to come off either Thursday or Friday of this week. The crowd is going somewhere in two big sleighs.”
“She didn’t say where?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Did she say who was going?”
“As far as she knew the crowd of fellows consisted of Brassy and two or three of his chums at the Hall and some young fellows around town.”
“And what about the girls, Fred?”
“They asked Jennie Mason and Ida Brierley to go and a number of the other girls from Clearwater.”
“Did they ask May?”
“Mary wasn’t sure. But she rather thinks that May and Ruth both got an invite, although in some kind of roundabout way. Did Ruth say anything to you about it?”
“Not a word. But Martha did. She, too, thought Ruth had an invitation, but she didn’t mention May.”
“I wonder if May and Ruth will go?” questioned the youngest Rover. He was almost as chummy with Spouter’s cousin as Jack was with Ruth.
“I’m sure I don’t know, Fred. But I do know I’d hate to see either of them going out with such a fellow as Brassy.”
“It will be a shame to have any of those girls associate with him!” burst out Fred indignantly.“He’s not in their class at all—he’s altogether too loud and flashy.”
“He certainly sports a lot of cheap jewelry,”was Jack’s comment. “And that suit of clothes that he had on when he first cam
e to the Hall was a scream.”
“Let’s go around to the livery stable and see if we can find out something about the party.”
The place Fred had in mind was located on a side street less than a block away, and it did not take the two young officers long to reach it. They found the livery-stable keeper out, but one of his assistants came forward to see what they wanted.
“Hello, Waxy,” cried Jack cordially, for he had met the young fellow many times before.“How are you these days?”
“Fine as a spider’s web,” answered Waxy, with a grin.
“I understand you’re going to use your two big sleighs for a party this week for some of our fellows?”went on the young captain.
“Yes, both sleighs are hired for Thursday or Friday night,” was the answer. “But you could get ’em for any other night you might want,”went on Waxy, with an eye to business.
“Where is the party to be held?” questioned Fred.
“I don’t know exactly. They’re to go about twelve miles out of town, so I was told.”
“Some young fellows from town helping to get it up, I believe?”
“Yes. Tom Drake, Bill Fenny, Joe McGuire, Ted Rosenblatt, and a bunch of others are interested. They’ll have one high old time, you believe me,” went on the livery-stable keeper’s assistant, with a grin.
“Rather a lively bunch, are they?” questioned Jack.
“About as lively as this town affords.”
“It’s a wonder some of our fellows are going with them,” was Fred’s comment.
“Oh, that’ll be all right. There won’t be anything out of the way,” put in Waxy hastily, afraid that he had said too much. “They’ll have a lively time, but everything will be perfectly all right.”
“Maybe,” answered Jack, and then, after a few more words with the assistant, the two cadets hurried off after their chums.
“If McGuire and Rosenblatt have anything to do with that party it will certainly be a lively one,” said Fred, on the way to the school.“They’re the liveliest fellows this town affords.”
“It won’t be any kind of a party for our girl friends to attend,” remarked Jack. “I certainly hope May and Ruth don’t go.”
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