I don’t want to ask too many questions in public,” stammered Bert Field. “You see I – that is – can I trust you with my secret? You’ve trusted me with yours.”
“Certainly,” came from both of the Putnam Hall cadets.
“Well then, I want to find this Jabez Trask without his knowing anything about it.”
“Why, what in the world – ” began Pepper, for he scented a mystery connected with the youth with whom he and his chum had just become acquainted.
“I can’t explain it – or at least I don’t wish to, now,” answered Bert Field, quickly. “Please don’t say anything about it to anybody.” He pulled a silver watch from his pocket. “Phew! after ten o’clock! I’ll have to be going! Goodbye! Maybe we’ll meet again!”
“Good-bye!” answered Pepper.
“Much obliged!” added Jack. And then the tall, thin boy turned out of the churchyard and hurried along the country road, some bushes and trees soon hiding him from view. The young major gazed after him curiously and so did Pepper.
“That’s a strange fellow,” was Jack’s comment. “But he certainly did us a good turn.”
“He sure did,” answered Pepper. “Wonder what he wants of this Jabez Trask?”
“Something important, you may be certain of that, or he wouldn’t be so secret about it.”
The two cadets walked to the roadway and then both stopped short and looked at each other. The same thought had occurred to each.
“We came for that clapper and we might as well have it,” declared Pepper. “I’ll go back and get it, Jack. You can rest behind the bushes, where nobody will see you.”
“All right – and I’ll watch out, – that nobody comes up to fasten that trap door again.”
“By jove! that’s so! Maybe the Ritter crowd is hanging around yet!”
“If they are, it was mighty mean of them not to come to my assistance when I was in peril of my life!”
“Maybe they were too scared and ran away.”
Jack found a convenient spot behind some bushes and Pepper disappeared once more inside the church. In less than ten minutes The Imp reappeared with both the bell clapper and the battered lantern.
“I shoved the broken glass into a corner with my foot,” he said. “And I pulled the rope back into the belfry. The lower end came loose easily when I pulled it up.”
“To be sure,” answered Jack. “A knot was caught in a crotch and that is why it held when the pull was downward. But come on, we’d better be getting back, or we’ll have trouble getting into the Hall.”
“I am not going to carry this busted lantern,” said Pepper, and threw the thing behind some bushes. Then, with the clapper of the bell done up in a newspaper he had brought along, he struck out for Putnam Hall, with Jack beside him.
“There will be a big row when they find the clapper gone, that’s certain,” mused the young major.
“Maybe they’ll lay it to the Pornell fellows,” answered Pepper, with a broad grin. “Hope they do! It will pay back Roy Bock and his crowd for their meanness to us.”
Jack had now fully recovered his strength and both boys kept up a rapid gait until more than half the distance to Putnam Hall had been covered. Then, of a sudden, the young major called a halt.
“What’s the trouble?” demanded his chum.
“Somebody is coming! Maybe some of the teachers!”
Both of the cadets leaped from the roadway to some convenient bushes. It was after hours and they well knew that to be caught by Captain Putnam or any of his assistants would mean severe punishment. Jack might even be reduced to the ranks, something that would have hurt the major’s feelings exceedingly.
A whistle arose on the air, a peculiar whistle, thrice repeated. Pepper answered it at once, and he and Jack stepped back to the roadway. In a moment they were confronted by Andy Snow and Stuffer Singleton.
“Did you get it?” demanded Andy, eagerly.
“What kept you so long?” added Stuffer. “We made up our minds something had gone wrong and we were coming to find out.”
“Something did go wrong,” burst out Pepper. “Somebody locked us in the belfry.” And then he and his chum told their story.
“It must have been Ritter and his crowd,” declared Stuffer. “None of us did it. I was with Dale and the others all the time, and Andy was on his errand for Captain Putnam.”
“If I was certain it was Ritter I’d give him a piece of my mind!” declared Jack. “It was a mean piece of business on his part – after what I did for him a few weeks ago. He might have been expelled from this school if I had not asked the captain to give him another chance.”
“Oh, you can’t rely on Ritter,” came from the cadet who loved to eat. “Why, yesterday, I had an extra piece of pie hidden in a closet, to eat after lessons, and he came along and gobbled it down! He ought to have the daylights hammered out of him!”
“Well, we got the clapper anyway,” said Pepper, grimly. “And it’s up to you, Stuffer, to treat to that ice-cream, and for Dale to find that apple pie that was promised.”
“I’ll keep my promise the first time we go to town, never fear,” answered Stuffer. “But just now I think the best thing all of us can do is to sneak into the school and get to bed, before we are found out.”
“And before Ritter plays some more of his dirty tricks,” added Andy.
The four cadets walked in the direction of the school, but before arriving at the campus turned into a side road bordering the lake.
“No use of going in by the regular entrance,” said Jack. “We’d be sure to be spotted – especially if Ritter or his cronies have told one of the teachers that we are out.”
“I know where Snuggers keeps his key to the kitchen door,” said Andy. “Maybe I can get that.” He referred to Peleg Snuggers, a general utility man around Putnam Hall, who divided his time between the school building and the stables.
“Where is the key?” asked Pepper.
“On a nail in the washshed. I saw him put it there one evening.”
“Then we had better go in by the back way – if we can get the key,” said Stuffer.
With caution the boys skirted the edge of the lake. As they passed the boathouse they heard a murmur of voices. They were about to set off on a run, thinking some teachers were in the building, when Jack called a halt.
“It’s Reff Ritter talking!” he cried, in a low voice, and a few seconds later there issued from the boathouse the forms of the school bully and his two particular cronies, Gus Coulter and Nick Paxton. As soon as the three saw the other cadets they started to walk away rapidly.
“Stop, Ritter! I want to talk to you!” cried Jack, in a low but steady tone.
“What
