CHAPTER XXII JOSIAH CRABTREE IS WORRIED
While Andy and those with him were getting out the things in thestorehouse, Jack and some others were searching the pantry and kitchenfor such articles as they thought they needed. These included knives,forks and spoons, and also pepper, salt, lard and several smoked hamsand tongues, and all the bread in the big wooden bread box.
“Let’s take some jam too,” said one cadet, and several glasses wereadded, and also such cake as chanced to be in sight. The boys also founda small cheese, some lemons and oranges and a box of raisins.
“I reckon we’ve got all we can carry,” said Fred Century. “Talk aboutmoving day! This looks like one to me!”
As silently as shadows the cadets took the things outside and hurriedwith them in the direction of the storehouse, where they met some of theothers.
“Where is Andy?” asked the young major, anxiously.
“Gone for a horse and wagon,” answered Dale. “It is simply out of thequestion to carry all this stuff by hand.”
“But the risk!” cried Pepper. “I’m going to see how he is making out.”
He ran for the stable and saw Andy bringing forward one of the horses. Aspring wagon stood near by, under a shed, and Pepper ran it forward, andhelped his chum to hitch up the horse.
“Listen, somebody is coming!” said Pepper, presently, and a moment laterthey heard Peleg Snuggers calling from his room over the horse stable.
“Who’s down there? What ye doin’?” bawled the man. And then he appearedat a window in his nightdress.
“Stop your noise, Snuggers!” ordered Pepper. “If you don’t they may finda dead man around here in the morning.”
“Land sakes alive! Don’t shoot me!” spluttered the man of all work, anddropped out of sight in a hurry.
“Don’t you say a word and you won’t be touched,” went on The Imp. “Ifyou open your mouth there will be trouble, and lots of it, Peleg!”
“I ain’t sayin’ nary a word!” answered the man, in a voice filled withterror. The doings of the day had filled him with apprehension.
As quickly as they could the cadets loaded up the spring wagon, puttingin all of the things collected and adding such additional stores as thewagon would hold. Then Andy drove off, taking Dale, Stuffer and someothers with him.
“I’ll go up to Daly’s clearing,” said the acrobatic youth. “I’ll driveright into the woods beyond. I don’t think anybody will find us there.”And so it was arranged.
The outfit having been sent on its way, the cadets left behind breathedmore freely. If an alarm came they could take to their legs, and theydoubted if any of the teachers or guards could catch them.
“Now for the demonstration near the gym.,” said Jack. “Make as muchnoise as possible, so the other fellows will have a chance to get out ofthe dormitories, but don’t let the enemy catch you.”
In less than five minutes after that a loud yelling arose back of thegymnasium and several cadets could be seen running in as many differentdirections. There were calls for “Come this way, boys!” and “Look out,there’s a guard after you!” and a lot of other cries that seemed to meanmuch.
“What is that?” ejaculated Josiah Crabtree, who had fallen asleep in aneasy chair in his room. “Are they breaking out?”
“To the gymnasium!” was the call outside. “Catch them, men, at yonderbuilding!”
Then came a rush from the guards, and they were quickly joined byCrabtree and Cuddle. All ran in the direction of the gymnasium, leavingthe school building, for the time being, to take care of itself.
It was what those left in the dormitories were watching and waiting for,and in a twinkling cadet after cadet came sliding down the rope and aline made of torn-up sheets. They threw out their bundles in advance,and then, picking up the baggage, darted for a back path, leadingthrough the vegetable garden attached to the Hall.
“Hi! hi! Look!” shrieked Pluxton Cuddle, as he chanced to gaze behindhim.
“What is it?” demanded Josiah Crabtree.
“The boys! They are leaping from the dormitory windows!”
“Impossible! Some of them will be killed. Ha! I see. They have ropes!Come, this is a trick—to get us from the school!” And the teacher ranback toward Putnam Hall.
By this time the guards were thoroughly bewildered and did not know whatto do. Crabtree gave orders, and Cuddle told them to do something else,and, as a consequence, nothing was accomplished. The teachers werefrantic.
“They have—have run away!” gasped Josiah Crabtree, as, having reachedthe school, he threw open the door of one dormitory after another.
“All of them?”
“No, but the majority. What shall we do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mr. Cuddle, you are responsible for this!”
“I, sir?” gasped the new teacher.
“Yes.”
“Not at all, sir, not at all, Mr. Crabtree! You started the affair. Youare responsible.”
“It is not true. If you had not cut down the food——”
“Tut! tut! tut! If you had not made a mistake in that Latin lesson, sir,the cadets——”
“Don’t talk to me, sir! I say it was your fault, Mr. Cuddle,” growledJosiah Crabtree.
“And I say, sir, it was your fault.”
And then the two teachers glared fiercely at each other.
“Please, sir, what do you want us to do?” asked one of the guards,somewhat sheepishly.
“Do!” cried Josiah Crabtree. “You can’t do anything! You allowed thosecadets to run away! You are a set of blockheads!”
“So they are, blockheads!” added Pluxton Cuddle.
“I’m not a blockhead and I want you to know it,” answered the manangrily. “You fellers brought us up here on a fool’s errand, I think. Ifyou’ll pay me off I’ll go home.”
“Yes, pay me off and I’ll go home too,” added another of the guards.
“What, are you going to desert us!” exclaimed Josiah Crabtree, in suddenfear.
“I ain’t no blockhead. You pay me and I’ll go.”
“But see here, you promised to stay here as long as wanted,” pleadedCrabtree.
“You don’t want me any longer—now the boys have run away. And let me sayone thing—I think the boys had a right to run away.”
“Bah!”
“You teachers ain’t treatin’ ’em right,” went on another guard. “Justyou wait till Captain Putnam gits back—I reckon he’ll make it warm foryou!”
At this plain talk Josiah Crabtree almost collapsed. He realized that hehad gone too far. He wondered what the result would be when the captaindid get back. He was getting a fine salary and he did not wish to losehis position.
“My dear fellows, you are making a mistake,” he said, in a milder voice.“Those cadets have broken the rules of this institution and must bepunished. I was simply going to keep them in their rooms until to-morrowand then I was going to give them a lecture, nothing more.”
“What about the grub they wanted?” asked another guard, who had come upduring the talk.
“A little hunger would do them good. They would have gotten their fillto-morrow, and——”
“No! no! that’s a mistake!” burst out Pluxton Cuddle. “Too mucheating——”
“Mr. Cuddle, I no longer agree with you on that point,” said JosiahCrabtree coldly. “If they return they shall have the same quantity offood as they got when Captain Putnam was here.”
“Humph! Then you have not the boys’ welfare at heart,” snorted the newteacher.
“I want you men to stay here, at least for the present,” continuedJosiah Crabtree. “Let me see, I believe I promised you two dollars aday, didn’t I?”
“You did,” said one of the guards.
“Your work has not been pleasant and therefore I’ll make the pay threedollars a day. I did not mean to call you blockheads—I—er—was excited.Let us get down to—er—busi
ness now—and see if we cannot find thoserunaway cadets and persuade them to return to the Hall. If we can dothat and—er—hush up this whole unpleasant matter I will—er—reward youhandsomely.”
This talk was “pouring oil on the troubled waters,” and in the end theguards promised to stick by Josiah Crabtree and do what they could tobring the cadets back to school. They also promised, in view of aliberal reward, to tell Captain Putnam that the students and not theteachers were to blame for the outbreak.