CHAPTER XVIII ON A FORAGING EXPEDITION
The announcement that Andy made was received with keen interest by all.Every cadet crowded around to get some of the food brought in and tolearn the particulars of his foraging and exploring expedition.
“Getting down the back stairs was easy,” said the acrobatic youth. “Butonce I was in the lower entryway I had to keep my eyes open, to escapethe cook and the waiters. I found the bags on a hook behind the door andI got the grub from the pantry when nobody was near. I was careful whatI took, for I didn’t want anybody to discover what had been done. I maywant to go back for dinner, you know,” and Andy grinned broadly.
“Andy, you have saved my life!” cried Stuffer, with his mouth full ofbread and cheese. “I shall remember you in my will.”
“Leave some for me,” was the reply. “I am just as hungry as anybody. AllI had in the pantry was one cold sausage and a cracker.”
“Here, we’ll divide the stuff equally,” said Jack, and this was done.Fortunately the paper bags held quite some food, so there was more thanenough for all.
“It’s a pity we can’t get some of this stuff to the fellows in the nextdormitory,” said Pepper. “I suppose they are as hungry as we are.”
“I’ve got an idea!” cried Dale. “Put all your contributions for the nextroom into this bag,” and he held up the receptacle as he spoke.
“How are you going to get it to them?” questioned Henry Lee.
“I have a brand new, patented and copyrighted way,” went on Dale. “Justfork over, everybody, for the benefit of the heathens in Hungry Land.”
The bag was soon filled with bread, cheese, crackers and chipped beef,and then Dale tied it fast to the end of a hockey stick. This done, hewent to one of the windows and looked out cautiously. Not one of theguards below was looking up. He shoved the bag outside and swung it tothe left as far as possible—directly in front of another window.
“Hello, what’s this?” a voice cried, and then the bag was caught andtaken in. Then the head of a cadet appeared. “Much obliged,” he said toDale. “Just what we were wishing for. How did you get it?”
“That’s a secret,” answered Dale. “Maybe, if you keep mum, there will bemore coming later.” “Are you fellows going to give in?” went on thecadet from the next dormitory.
“Never!”
“Just what we’ve decided. We’ve got a plan.”
“What’s that?”
“If we are kept here until to-night we are going to run away.”
“Perhaps we’ll be with you,” answered Dale, and then, as a guard lookedup, he drew in his head.
“That’s a great idea, Dale,” said Jack. “By means of the windows we cancommunicate with every dormitory on this side of the building. Queer wedidn’t think of it before.”
“We were too much upset by the talk with Cuddle and Crabtree,” answeredStuffer.
“Let us pass along some notes and see how the different rooms feel overthis affair,” continued the young major.
Soon the notes were written, each having on it the number of thedormitory for which it was intended. Then the communications were pinnedto the hockey stick, and by this means passed from one room window tothe next. Thus five rooms were reached, and soon notes began to comeback.
“We are certainly of one mind,” said Jack, after the variouscommunications had been read. “Everybody says, ‘No surrender!’ That’splain enough.”
“Barringer’s room is giving out apples,” said Bart. “That’s not so bad.I shouldn’t mind an apple myself.”
“They are all waiting for food, and I suppose it is up to us to supplythem with some,” continued Jack. “I have half a mind to go down myselfand look around.”
“I’ll go with you,” put in Pepper. “I am tired of being boxed in here.”
“Well, be careful, or you’ll give the snap away,” cautioned Andy. “Someof the steps of the back stairs squeak terribly. I left my shoes in thetrunk room when I went down.”
“We’ll leave them here,” answered The Imp, and took off the footwearthen and there, and Jack did likewise.
It was no easy thing to climb through the ceiling opening into the trunkroom, and once above they had to feel their way through the darkness tothe door. Pepper stubbed his toe on a trunk and drew a sharp breath ofpain.
“Hurt?” whispered Jack.
“No, but I put an awful dent in the trunk,” was the joking reply. “Letus get a candle when we go down. I hate this darkness.”
With bated breath the two cadets walked out into the deserted hall andthen down the back stairs. Once they heard somebody close at hand slam adoor and their hearts leaped into their throats.
“If anybody sees us, run like mad for the trunk room and fasten the doorsomehow,” said Jack. “We don’t want a soul to know what we are up to. Ifwe can get food we can stand Cuddle and Crabtree off indefinitely.”
At last the boys reached the back entryway, and through a crack of thedoor peered into the kitchen. Nobody was present, and the big pantry wasalso deserted, and so was the mess hall.
“We’ve got it all to ourselves!” whispered Pepper joyfully. “Jack, thisis a cinch, a picnic! Let us take up all the food we can carry!”
“Here is just what we want,” replied the major, and took from a hook twobig waiters’ aprons. “We can bundle up a lot of stuff in these.”
“And here are two fresh tins of crackers, ten pounds in each tin. Wemust take these by all means—and that fresh chunk of cheese!”
“You take what you can carry to the trunk room,” answered Jack. “I’llhunt up something a little more appetizing.”
While Pepper was on his errand the young major made a careful survey ofthe pantry, and into a wooden box he found there placed a freshly-boiledham, some cold roast beef, several loaves of bread, some butter, threebottles of pickles, some cans of sardines and some bottles of milk.Then, from a barrel, he filled a wash basin with apples.
“This will do for the present, I’m thinking,” he said, as he surveyedthe stuff. “Now for a candle and some matches,” and he procured them.
He carried the wooden box on his shoulder and Pepper came down and gotthe apples, and also two loaf cakes which had been baked the day before,and some knives, forks and several glasses and tin plates.
“You’d think we were getting ready for the annual encampment,” said TheImp, while he and Jack were on the way upstairs with the last of thethings.
“Listen!” exclaimed the young major, suddenly. “Somebody is coming!”
“It’s the cook!” gasped Pepper, as he caught sight of a well-knownfigure coming along the upper hallway. “Jack, what shall we do?”
“I—I don’t know! We’ll have to run past her, I guess.”
“We can’t do it—the hall is too narrow.”
The cook came closer, and the two cadets turned back and tried to crouchout of sight in a doorway. The boys’ hearts were, figuratively speaking,in their throats.
But just as the cook was almost on them she paused and turned back.
“Oh dear, I meant to bring that clean apron down!” the cadets heard hermurmur, and then she passed out of sight.
“What a lucky escape,” gasped Pepper.
“Don’t stop any longer—get up to the trunk room before it is too late,”urged his chum, and together they sped on as if a ghost was at theirheels. Having arrived there they shut the door and pulled a trunk infront of it, first, however, lighting the candle, that they might notbreak anything.
It took some time to transfer all the food to the dormitory below. Thequantity made all the boys smile, and Stuffer’s eyes fairly glistened.
“This is the best yet,” said the youth who loved to eat. “Say, isn’t itmost dinner time?”
“I wish Bob Grenwood was in this room,” said Jack. “I’d appoint himquartermaster once more—to divide the rations.”
“Make me quartermaster,” pleaded Stuffer.
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“He’ll be sure to look out for No. 1!” said Fred, with a laugh.
“This food is to be divided among all the rooms we can reach,” saidJack. “And it is to be a fair division, too.”
The division then commenced, and for the best part of an hour the cadetswere busy, passing stuff from one window to another. They had to do thiswith care, so that none of the guards on the campus might discover whatwas going on.
“And now for dinner!” cried Pepper, as he looked at his watch and sawthat it was twelve o’clock. “Boys, I think we can all be truly thankfulfor the good things provided.”
“So we can,” answered Dale.
At that moment there sounded footsteps in the hallway and then came aknock on the door.