CHAPTER XI A CHALLENGE FROM PORNELL ACADEMY
It was not until midnight that Jack began to feel something likehimself. He was still weak, but he could now breathe regularly, andDoctor Fremley pronounced him out of danger.
Pepper and Andy had begged to be allowed to remain with their chum, andthey were in the room with Captain Putnam. Leaving some medicine to betaken regularly every hour, the physician departed.
"Major Ruddy, the next time you take any medicine beware and not take anoverdose," said Captain Putnam.
"I haven't taken any medicine, Captain Putnam," answered Jack.
"Didn't you take some powder for headache, or for nervousness?"
"No, sir."
"What!"
"I haven't taken a thing, sir. Why should I? I felt first-rate up to thetime I went to the gym. Then, all of a sudden, I seemed to get dizzy andsleepy," explained the sufferer.
"I knew he hadn't taken anything," broke in Pepper. "I mean knowingly,"he hastened to add.
"Do you mean to say, Ditmore, that you think Major Ruddy took the powderwithout knowing what it was?" demanded the master of the Hall.
"Doesn't it look like it, sir?"
"I didn't take a thing, I tell you," declared Jack. "Why do you say Idid?"
He was told of what the doctor had discovered and was much astonished.He laid back on the bed, but suddenly sat up.
"That water! I felt funny right after I drank that water!" he cried, andthen explained what had occurred at the supper table.
"I will inquire into this in the morning," said Captain Putnam. "Ifsomebody played a trick on you----" He did not finish, but his usuallypleasant face grew hard and stern.
The school was very quiet that night when the door of one of thedormitories opened and a cadet crept forth and tip-toed his way throughthe semi-dark hallway. He advanced with caution, trembling greatly forfear of being discovered. The midnight prowler was Reff Ritter.
The affair at the foot of the stairs earlier in the evening hadastonished Billy Sabine, but Reff had quickly recovered and said it wasdue to a cramp in the stomach, brought on by a false twist whenperforming on the swinging-rings. Then the bully had gone to bed--but notto sleep. Only one thought filled his mind--that Jack might die and thathe might be accused of the awful crime. He shivered and shook under thebedclothes and could scarcely conceal his fear from his cronies whenthey came in.
Now the others were asleep and he was determined to find out the truthabout Jack. If the young major was really dying--well, perhaps it wouldbe best to run away from Putnam Hall rather than run the risk ofexposure and arrest. This showed that at heart Reff Ritter was athorough coward.
Scarcely daring to breathe, the bully tip-toed his way along one hallwayafter another until he came to the door of the room in which Jack lay.Listening, he heard a murmur of voices.
"He is alive, he is talking, he is not going to die!" he thought, and awave of relief swept over him. Then, with bated breath, he listened towhat the cadets and Captain Putnam had to say. When the captain preparedto retire, he sped back to his dormitory and got into bed.
"Where have you been, Reff?" came from Gus Coulter, who had awakened.
"I--er--I went for a--er--a drink," stammered Ritter, not knowing what tosay.
"Why didn't you drink the water in the pitcher on the stand?"
"Oh, that's stale and warm. I got a fresh drink out of the tank in themain hall."
"Humph! I just drank from our pitcher and thought it was all right. Hearanything more about Ruddy when you were out?"
"No," growled Reff, and turned over and pretended to go to sleep.
He felt relieved in one way, but not in another. His enemy was not goingto die, but on the other hand Captain Putnam had promised a rigidinvestigation. What if he should be discovered? What if somebody hadseen him taking the powder from the medicine closet, or seen him puttingit in the glass of water?
"I've got to face it out," he told himself. "I've got to face it out, nomatter what comes. My word is as good as anybody's."
Captain Putnam's investigation revealed but little. No person had beenseen near the medicine closet for several days back, and what had becomeof the box of headache powder nobody seemed to know. Regarding the glassof water drunk by Jack, and the food eaten at supper, the cook and thecolored waiters declared they knew of nothing wrong.
"Was any cadet in the mess-room just previous to supper?" asked themaster of the school.
At first the waiters said no. But presently one scratched his headthoughtfully and said he now remembered that somebody had passed throughthe dining-hall after everything was in readiness for the eveningrepast. It had been somebody in uniform, but who he could not remember.
"I believe that person doctored that drinking-water, or my food," saidJack, when he heard of this.
"Do you suspect anybody?" asked the master of Putnam Hall.
At this Jack shrugged his shoulders. Yes, he could suspectseveral--Coulter, Paxton, Ritter, and their cronies--but what good wouldthat do if he could not prove somebody guilty?
The next day the young major felt quite like himself again and rejoinedhis chums. All went for a sail on the _Alice_, and on the trip theytalked the affair over from every possible standpoint.
"If it was a trick--and I don't see how it could be anything else--it isthe most dastardly thing I ever heard of," declared Pepper.
"That's true," answered Andy, "and the fellow guilty of it ought to berun out of Putnam Hall."
"I suspect Ritter," said Stuffer, "for he wanted to win that contest."
"You may be right," answered Dale. "But it is one thing to suspect afellow and another thing to prove the crime. I wouldn't say anythingabout it until I could prove it."
"Wonder if it is possible those fellows with the green masks and hoodshad anything to do with this?" mused Andy.
"I don't think so," answered Pepper.
Out on the lake they met Fred Century and a number of the boys fromPornell Academy. Century was sailing his sloop and told them he had hadlittle trouble in righting the capsized craft and in getting her intotrim for use.
"I still think the _Ajax_ can beat the _Alice_," he declared.
"Well, I'll give you a regular race in the near future," answered Jack.
"How soon?"
"I can't tell you now--I want to have my mainsail altered a bit, and geta new tiller. As soon as I'm ready I'll let you know."
With Century were Will Carey, the youth who had lost the blue tin box,and Roy Bock, and a student named Grimes. Bock and Grimes had caused thePutnam Hall boys much trouble in the past, and Jack and Pepper did notlike them in the least.
"Say!" cried Roy Bock, presently. "You fellows are so full of challengesI'd like to know if any of you can bowl?"
"I can," answered Dale, promptly.
"So can I," added Stuffer.
"Well, we've got a brand-new alley at our gym., and any time you want toget up a team and bowl we'll be ready for you."
"And we'll wipe up the alley with you," added Grimes.
"Maybe you will," retorted Dale, who did not fancy this style oftalking.
"Come over next Saturday afternoon," said Roy Bock. "Bring over the bestteam Putnam Hall can put out. We'll show you how to bowl." And helaughed.
"Perhaps we will come over," answered Stuffer; and then the two sloopsseparated.
"Bock makes me tired," said Pepper. "I'd not bowl with him, even if Iwas good at knocking over the pins."
"I'd like to beat the Pornell team," answered Dale. "They are suchblowers!"
"They like to blow because they are all rich boys," said Andy. "I'dcertainly like to bowl against them and defeat them."
"We could put Emerald on our team," said Dale. "I know he can bowl realwell."
"All right, go ahead if you want to," said Jack. "I'll root for you."
"Then you don't want to bowl, Jack?" asked Andy.
"No, you and Dale and Stuffer c
an manage this. With Emerald you'll makefour, and you'll only want one more man."
"Harry Blossom said he could bowl--and so did Bart Conners."
"Well, then you'll have the pick of them," said Pepper. "I'll do likeJack, root."
There was a bowling alley in the Putnam Hall gymnasium. It was not avery elaborate affair, but some of the cadets got much enjoyment fromknocking over the pins. Dale was something of an expert, often getting astrike or a spare, and it was but natural, therefore, to make him thecaptain of the bowling team.
When spoken to on the subject, Hogan readily agreed to join the team andso did Bart Conners. Harry Blossom said he was not in good condition,but would go along as a substitute.
On the following day Roy Bock sent a formal challenge by specialmessenger. He asked for a game on the Pornell Academy alleys on thefollowing Saturday at two o'clock. He said the bowling room would holdabout one hundred persons and half the space would be reserved for thePutnam Hall cadets and their friends.
Permission to accept the challenge was readily granted by CaptainPutnam, and George Strong was placed in charge of the cadets to visitthe rival school.
"When you are at Pornell Academy I want you all to act like gentlemen,"said Captain Putnam. "I want no tricks played, for Doctor Pornell doesnot approve of them."
"Oh, we'll be as meek as lambs," whispered Pepper, and grinned to Jack.
Some of the students to visit the rival institution went over on theirbicycles while others took the carriage and the carryall. Pepper went inthe carryall, and on the sly concealed under one of the seats afair-sized box.
"Hurrah, we're off!" shouted Andy, as the carryall with the team andhalf a dozen others moved away from Putnam Hall.
"Everybody sing!" cried Pepper, and started up a song one of thestudents had composed some time previous:
"Do you want to know who we are? We are boys from Putnam Hall, We can row, we can swim, we can skate, And we can play baseball! Our school's the best in the land, Believe it, it's no mistake! You'd better come and join, For we are wide-awake!"
This was sung to a lively air composed especially to fit the words. Thenfollowed something new, made up by Pepper himself:
"Zip! Zam! Here we am! Hikeadoodle din! Give a cheer, for we are here And we are bound to win!"