CHAPTER VI
BOXWOOD HALL
Imagine a great, green, grassy bowl, nestled snugly amid a successionof green hills, set, more or less regularly, in a circle. And at thebottom of the great, green, grassy bowl, which is miles across, imaginefurther a silvery sheet, irregular in outline and sparkling in the sun.
Up on one of the sides of the green, grassy bowl, where it leveled outinto a sort of plateau, is a group of dull, red buildings, their marooncolor contrasting pleasingly with the emerald tint of the surroundings.Across the tip of another hill lay a country town, and from a vantagepoint one could see a railroad, like a shiny snake, winding its way upto the town, stopping there, in the shape of a station, and then goingon across the valley.
The town is that of Fordham--a city some called it. It was in NewEngland, about half way between Boston and New York. The green bowlwas Fordham valley, and the shining, glittering bottom of it was LakeCarmona, a beautiful sheet of water, some miles in extent.
The group of red buildings was Boxwood Hall with which we shall soonconcern ourselves, and which was very much in the minds of Ned, Boband Jerry at this moment, as it had been for some time. The collegebuildings were about a mile, or, say a mile and a half to be exact,from the Fordham railroad station, and were practically on the shore ofLake Carmona, for the college owned the land running down to the lake,and had on it a boathouse and a dock. But the buildings themselves layback a quarter of a mile from the water, and this quarter of a mile,somewhat less in width, formed the college campus--one not surpassedanywhere.
Upon this campus, strolling about here and there this fine fall day,was a group of lads attired in the more or less exaggerated costumeseffected by college youth the world over.
“Say, fellows, I’ve got news for you!” cried Frank Watson, who, as onecould tell by the manner he used toward some of the other students, wasa sophomore. “Great news! Come here, Bill Hamilton--Bart Haley--youtoo, Sid Lenton and Jim Blake. Come here and listen to me.”
“What’s the matter now?” asked Bill Hamilton, a flashily dressed lad.“Has some one left you money?”
“I wish some one had,” remarked Frank.
“Same here,” drawled Bart Haley. “I never knew how much a fellow couldspend until I came here. I’m up against it hard!”
“No, it isn’t money,” remarked Frank. “It’s worse than that. What doyou know about this. There’s a bunch of new fellows coming here in aweek or so, and they’re about the limit--or at least I think they’ll bethat.”
“What do you mean?” asked Bart, slightly interested.
“This. There are three fellows coming into the freshman class. And fromwhat I hear they have been around pretty much, so they’ll probably befresher than usual and will try to run things here to suit themselves.The know-it-all class, so to speak.”
“Who are they?” asked Bart.
“How’d you hear about this?” demanded Sid Lenton.
“They are--let me see. I jotted down their names so’s we’d have ’emhandy to use in case we had to. Here they are--Jerry Hopkins, Bob Bakerand Ned Slade. They’re from Cresville, and they’re going to bring theirauto with them. Fawncy now!” and Frank assumed a mocking air and tone.
“I asked you how you heard it,” came from Sid again.
“Professor Snodgrass told me. He’s a friend of theirs, it seems, and hesent one of them a college catalogue. That’s how they came to be wishedon to us. It seems that Professor Snodgrass, who isn’t a bad sort bythe way, used to travel about with the Motor Boys, as their friends athome call them,” said Frank, sarcastically.
“Motor boys?” repeated Bart Haley.
“Yes, that’s what they used to call themselves. Think of that--motorboys!”
“Why was that?” asked Sid.
“Oh, because they did a lot of motoring. Had motor cycles first, itappears, then they got an auto, then a motor boat, and then they evenhad a submarine!”
“Get out! You’re stringing us!” cried several.
“No, it’s straight!” declared Frank. He sat down on the grass andcontinued: “Why, some fellow even wrote a book--two or three of them Iguess--about these same motor boys. When Professor Snodgrass told methey were coming here I pumped him for all he was worth. Thinks I tomyself, if we’re going to have fellows like that here, who sure willtry to walk over us, the more I know about them the better.
“So he told me all he knew, which was a lot. It seems he used to gooff on bug-hunting expeditions with them in the auto, the boat or theairship.”
“Airship!” cried Jim Blake. “You don’t mean to say they had an airship,do you?”
“That’s what the professor said.”
“Oh, he’s daffy! I’ll never believe that. They may have had an auto anda motor boat--I’ve got one of them myself,” said Bill Hamilton. “But anairship--never!”
“Well, we’ll find out about that later,” declared Frank. “Anyhow, somefellow did write about the motor boys. He made up a story of how theywent overland, and even down into Mexico.”
“Mexico!” exclaimed Harry French.
“Yes, Mexico. And there they discovered a buried city, or somethinglike that. The professor made a big find there--some new kind of bug Iguess. And then there’s a book telling how these motor boys went acrossthe plains, and how they first went cruising in their motor boat. Theywere on the Atlantic, on the Pacific, and in the strange waters of theFlorida Everglades. Some trip, believe me!”
“Do you s’pose it’s all true?” some one asked.
“The professor says so, and you know what a stickler he is,” respondedFrank.
“Well, if that’s the case, these fellows sure will try to put it allover us,” declared Sid.
“They may try, but they won’t succeed,” declared Frank, and there wasa vindictive ring to his voice. “But this isn’t all. Ned, Bob andJerry--the motor boys--did go above the clouds in some sort of motorship, according to the professor. They went across the Rockies, and outover the ocean. Then they went after some kind of a fortune, and evenhelped capture some Canadian smugglers up on the border. And it’s allin books, too.
“And, as I said, according to Mr. Snodgrass, these lads went down in asubmarine. I didn’t believe that at first, but he told me of the thingshe saw and the specimens he caught, so I guess it’s true enough.
“Now they’re coming here. They got back from a long trip on road andriver just before Professor Snodgrass came here to teach, and they hadsuch lively times that their folks packed them here for us to lookafter,” and Frank grinned.
“Oh, we’ll look after ’em all right!” cried Sid.
“That’s what we will,” added Bart Haley.
“If they try to run things here they’ll find that they’re runningthemselves into the ground,” declared Jake Porter.
The group of students around Frank nodded assent. The boys were, as hasbeen said, sophomores, and most of them were on the baseball nine.
“I wonder if they’ll go out for football?” asked Ted Newton, captain ofthe eleven. “We need some good material.”
“You wouldn’t have new fellows--butters-in like these three--on theteam; would you?” asked Frank.
“Well, they’d be eligible for the varsity under the rules here, whichare different from those of most colleges. I wouldn’t turn any fellowdown just because he’d had some adventures. Cracky! I’d like a taste ofthem myself!”
“I tell you these motor boys will be impossible!” cried Frank. “You’llsee! They’ll think they’re the whole show, and that we don’t amount toanything. We can haze them and then we can sit on ’em good and proper,and that’s what I say let’s do!”
“I’m with you,” drawled Bill Hamilton.
“Are they rich?” asked Sid.
“I s’pose they are,” admitted Frank, “or they couldn’t afford to do allthey have done. But that won’t make any difference to me. I’m going tosnub ’em and sit on ’em, for they’ll be sure to try to run things.”
r /> “That’s right!” agreed some of his cronies. “We’ll show these motorboys a thing or two at Boxwood!”
Thus, without having seen our heroes, the coterie led by Frank Watsondecided on a verdict against them--a verdict that was destined to causeno end of trouble.