think it is clear enough,” said Pepper. “Outsiders wouldn’t have any reason to come here and do this – unless they had a grudge against you.”
“Maybe that butcher, Pangborn, did it,” suggested Dale, mentioning a meat dealer who had had trouble with the captain over his meat bill, and who no longer supplied the school.
“It might be.” The master of the school drew a long breath. “Well, I shall watch out, and I want you young gentlemen to do the same. If you learn of anything, let me know.”
A little later Bob Grenwood came in. From the target grounds he had walked to Cedarville and had purchased his supper at the village. He tried to slip upstairs unobserved, but was caught by Josiah Crabtree.
“Ha! so we have you, you young villain!” cried the teacher, taking him by the collar.
“What’s the matter?” asked Bob, somewhat startled.
“You know well enough,” stormed Josiah Crabtree, and without further ado marched the ex-quartermaster to Captain Putnam’s private office. Here Grenwood was put through a great number of questions. When he learned the drift of things he was highly indignant.
“Captain Putnam, I am not guilty, and you ought to know it!” he cried. “It was bad enough to make me resign my position, this is even worse. I shall write to my folks and ask them to take me away from this school!”
“You may do as you please, Grenwood,” was the captain’s cold reply.
“Some day, perhaps, you’ll find out your mistake,” said the cadet, and then, with tears of anguish and indignation standing in his eyes he left the office and ran up the stairs to the dormitory occupied by himself and several others.
Left to himself, Captain Putnam leaned his elbow on his desk and rested his head in his hand.
“These boys! These boys!” he murmured to himself. “I hardly know whether to believe them or not – they are up to so many tricks! Grenwood looks honest enough, and yet – you never can tell!” And he heaved a deep sigh. He was beginning to learn that after all, running a boarding school was not such an easy thing as he had at first supposed. He wanted to do what was just, – but he hated to be imposed upon.
CHAPTER VI
THE NEW TEACHER
The first person the ex-quartermaster encountered upstairs was Jack.
“Hello, Bob,” cried the young major. “Just the person I want to see.”
“I – I – some other time, Ruddy,” stammered the youth, whose eyes were full of tears.
“See here, Bob, what’s your hurry? Anything special on?” And now Jack caught the other boy affectionately by the shoulder.
“I – I am going to leave this school!” was the bitter response. “Captain Putnam hasn’t treated me fairly. I didn’t distribute those blanks, I am certain of it – and I didn’t have anything to do with rough-housing the Hall, either!”
“Who said you played rough-house here?”
“He did – or he said as much.”
“Where have you been?”
“To Cedarville. I walked there directly from the target grounds.”
“Meet anybody on the road?”
“Why – er – yes, a farmer named Laning. He was driving a team of oxen and wanted to know what the shooting meant.”
“Where did you go when first you got to Cedarville?”
“What do you want to know that for?”
“Never mind, just tell me?”
“I went to the steamboat dock. There I met the agent, and helped him tow a boat up to Chase Point. When we got back I went and got supper at Berry’s and then came to the school.”
“Did you tell the captain all that?”
“No – he didn’t give me the chance.”
“Well, you should have told him. It seems to me it would be easy for you to prove an alibi, so far as being here this afternoon is concerned.”
“I am not going to bother with it – I’m going to quit and go home,” answered Bob Grenwood recklessly.
“I wouldn’t do it. Stay, Bob, and face the music. If you go away it will make it look as if you were guilty.”
“But Captain Putnam – ”
“Is all upset on account of this awful mix-up. He’ll calm down by to-morrow – and so will you. And let me say another thing, Bob. None of us fellows thinks you distributed the blanks, – or, if you did, we are sure it was a pure and simple mistake.”
At this moment came a cry from one of the dormitories, followed a second later by a yell from another room.
“This is the worst yet!”
“Every bed sheet is gone!”
“So are all the night clothes!”
“Here is some of the stuff, in the closet, and, yes, it’s tied up in hard knots!”
“Talk about ‘chawin’ on the beef!’ It will take some ‘chawin’’ to get these knots out!”
“Oh, if I only had the fellow who did this, wouldn’t I give him a piece of my mind!”
“I’d give him a piece av me fist!” roared Emerald. “Just be after looking at them beautiful pajamas of mine, toied in about twinty knots!” And he held up the articles of wearing apparel dolefully.
Jack ran into his dormitory, to find Pepper with a bundle in his hand. The bundle consisted of their night clothes and some bed sheets, all knotted together in a hopeless tangle. Several similar bundles were in the possession of other cadets.
The uproar was so great that soon all the teachers and the servants were on the scene. For once Captain Putnam was as furious as Josiah Crabtree had ever been.
“This is the vilest kind of an outrage!” cried the master of the Hall. “If I find out who is guilty I’ll have that person locked up!”
“I fancy more than one person did this,” said George Strong.
“You are right – it would take several at least. What a mess!” The captain glanced from room to room in perplexity. “I hardly know what to do.”
“Please, Captain Putnam, my nightgown is split from top to bottom,” wailed Mumps.
“One of the legs of my pajamas is torn off,” growled Reff Ritter.
“An arm of mine is gone,” added Coulter.
“Boys, you will have to straighten out things as best you can for the night,” said Captain Putnam at last. “To-morrow I’ll have a thorough investigation.”
The cadets went to work “chawin’ good
