about?” and now the seven students came together close to the side of the boathouse. “Don’t give me any of your long-winded speeches, Ruddy, for I am sleepy and want to get to bed.”
“Ritter, you and your gang played a mean trick on me and Ditmore to-night.”
“Did we?” sneered the bully.
“You did.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Maybe you think you weren’t seen near the church?” put in Pepper, meaningly.
“Say, who – er – who saw us?” faltered Coulter.
“Ha, so you admit you were at the church!” cried Jack.
“Coulter, can’t you hold your jaw?” demanded Reff Ritter, angrily.
“Ritter, answer me straight,” said Jack, in a determined voice. “Were you at the church to-night or not.”
“Well, since you want to know so badly, I was,” answered the bully. “Now then, what of it?”
“You fastened the trap door of the belfry, did you?” put in Pepper.
“I did.”
CHAPTER IV
PUNISHING A BULLY
After the frank confession of the bully of Putnam Hall that he had fastened the trap door of the church belfry, there was a moment of intense silence. He faced Jack and Pepper with a sickly grin on his face.
“It was a joke on you all right enough,” he continued. “You were lucky to get away as quickly as you did. What did you do, – force the trap door open in spite of the bolt?”
“Ritter, I think you are about the worst boy that ever came to this school,” said Pepper.
“Oh, you needn’t preach to me, Ditmore.”
“I wouldn’t say so much if you had played that trick on me alone,” went on The Imp calmly. “But to play it on Jack – after all he did to save you from being expelled – well, it’s beyond me. I guess you don’t know what a conscience is.”
“If you are going to talk to me like that I’ll smash you one in the jaw!” fired back the bully. “I know what I am doing, and it’s not for you to teach me manners.”
“Do you know that Jack came close to losing his life at the church and all because you locked us in the belfry?” added Pepper.
“Humph! What are you trying to do, scare me? It didn’t hurt you to be locked in.”
“Ritter, you listen to me,” broke in the young major, and now his voice was so cold and uncompromising that all in the crowd held their breath. “You admit that you locked us in the belfry, don’t you? You know what it would have meant for me if I had been caught there, and you know what it would have meant for the school. It was mean, dirt mean. I thought you were going to turn over a new leaf – be like the rest of the fellows. Now – well, I think I’ll teach you a lesson.”
“Me, a lesson?” faltered Reff Ritter.
“Exactly. I made a mistake when I didn’t let Captain Putnam expel you. The whole school would have been better off for it. Take off your jacket and cap.”
“Why?”
“Because I am going to give you a sound thrashing – and do it before we go to bed.”
“Humph! Want to fight, eh?”
“No, I didn’t say anything about a fight, I said I was going to give you a sound thrashing.”
“If you fight we’ll all be caught!” cried Nick Paxton, in alarm. “Put it off till to-morrow.”
“Yes, let us get to bed!” added Coulter. “I won’t say a word about your being at the church.”
“You bet you won’t – not unless you want a big licking,” cried Pepper.
“Mum’s the word on this, remember that, everybody,” cried Andy.
“Remember it – or take the consequences,” came from Stuffer.
While the others were talking Jack had shed his cadet jacket and his cap and thrown them on a nearby bench. He faced Ritter so determinedly that the bully backed away several steps.
“I want you to know – ” began Ritter.
“Get ready, if you are going to,” returned the young major. And then as Ritter put up his fists and stuck out his chin he leaped forward and caught the bully by one wrist. The grip was like that of steel and he whirled the fellow around bodily.
“Take that!” roared Ritter and struck out wildly. Jack dodged the blow with ease.
Then, with the quickness of lightning, the young major “sailed into” his opponent. He hit Ritter a sharp blow in the right cheek and followed this up by one on the nose. Then the pair clinched, and he got the bully’s head under his arm and poked Ritter a hard one in the eye and a heavy one in the mouth that loosened several teeth.
“Le – let me g – g – go!” spluttered the bully.
“I’ll let you go when I am done with you!” returned Jack. “I am going to teach you a lesson you won’t forget in a hurry.”
“Break away!” cried Gus Coulter. “Fight him fair, Ruddy.”
“This isn’t a fight – I am merely giving him the thrashing he deserves,” answered the young major. “You keep out of it – or I’ll serve you the same,” he added, so sharply that Coulter stepped back in alarm.
How badly Jack might have damaged Ritter it is hard to state. He was thoroughly aroused and anxious to give the bully a “dressing down” he should never forget. But in the midst of the excitement a cry of alarm arose from Paxton, who had been looking anxiously towards the school building.
“Cheese it!” he called out. “Somebody is coming!”
“It’s old Crabtree!” exclaimed Stuffer. “Boys, we have got to leg it, unless we want to get caught,” he added, as the tall and angular form of the teacher was seen to emerge from the school building.
Jack had no more desire to be caught than anybody else and he quickly relinquished his hold on the bully and picked up his jacket and cap. Ritter was so dazed that he staggered for a second when let alone.
“Yo – you just wait, Jack Ruddy!” he muttered. “Just wait! I’ll get even, if it takes a lifetime to do it!”
“I’ll finish the thrashing some other time, Ritter,” answered the young officer, and then he and his chums ran in one direction while the bully and his cronies ran in another.
“Stop! stop!” came in the harsh, dictatorial voice of Josiah Crabtree, and he came rushing over the campus, cane in hand. “Stop, whoever you are!”
Fortunately
