Chapter IX: The Inspection

“Battalion, attention! Shoulder arms! Forward march!”

The drums beat, the fifes struck up a lively air, and off marched the two companies of Putnam Hall cadets, across the campus and back, down the road a pace, and then formed in a long line fronting the school building. Every sword shone like silver, every gun was bright, and every uniform was brushed to its best. At the head of the command was Major Jack Ruddy, as stiff as a ramrod, looking the equal of any West Point cadet.

“Battalion, attention! Carry arms! Support arms! Shoulder arms! Right face! Left face! About face. Load! Aim! Fire!”

One order after another was delivered by Jack, and the cadets of the two companies obeyed like one big machine. Only two boys were a little slow, Reff Ritter and Gus Coulter. Paxton wanted to drag, too, but did not dare.

“Very good! Very good indeed!” cried General Wallack, enthusiastically. “Captain Putnam, you are to be congratulated on having such a body of students under you.”

“I did not dream they could drill so well,” added Major Darrowburg. “Why, you are almost, if not quite, up to our West Point standard.”

“I trust you will do me the honor to inspect them more closely, General Wallack,” said Captain Putnam.

“With pleasure,” answered the regular army officer. “Major, will you come?”

“To be sure,” answered Major Darrowburg.

The two United States army officers came down from the piazza of the school followed by Captain Putnam. They approached Major Ruddy, who immediately saluted.

“This is Major John Ruddy,” said the master of Putnam Hall. “Ruddy, this is General Wallack and this is Major Darrowburg.”

“Glad to meet you, young man,” said the army general, and shook hands. “Some day I presume you’ll be in the regular army,” and he smiled pleasantly.

“Perhaps,” answered Jack. Then he shook hands with Major Darrowburg, and after that answered a number of questions put to him. The visitors praised the drill that had taken place and this made the young major blush not a little. But he was very happy, and doubly so to think that he had outwitted Reff Ritter and his cronies. His uniform did not show a spot and his sword and scabbard were as bright as the polish used could make them.

An inspection lasting fully half an hour followed, Captain Putnam showing his visitors along the line of cadets. Nearly everybody was smiling and happy. Only a few boys looked glum, and those lads were Reff Ritter and his cohorts.

“A really remarkable showing,” was General Wallack’s comment, after the inspection was over.

“If we could always do as well as this at the Point we’d have nothing to worry about,” added Major Darrowburg. “Captain Putnam, you certainly ought to feel proud of your school.”

“I am proud,” was the reply.

After the inspection the cadets marched around the campus once more. They were about to be dismissed when Pepper signed to Jack, who in turn beckoned to Captain Putnam and whispered something into his ear.

“I see no harm in it,” said the master of the Hall.

“Battalion, attention!” called out Jack. “I move we give three cheers for General Wallack and Major Darrowburg!”

“Hurrah!” cried the cadets, and the cheers were given with a will. Then the two army officers bowed and made little speeches, and more cheers followed; and that was the end of the inspection. Soon the visitors were driven away by Captain Putnam in the Hall carriage, and George Strong announced that for the rest of the day the cadets might do as they pleased, so long as they did not leave the Hall grounds.

“It was a perfect success,” said George Strong to the young major.

“I am very glad of it, Mr. Strong.”

“I know Captain Putnam is greatly pleased. I am sure he will have something to say to the boys when he gets back.” And Mr. Strong was right, the master of the Hall complimented all on their appearance and deportment, and said he was sure the visitors had been unusually impressed.

“I knew you would all do well,” said the captain. “But it has surpassed my expectations.”

The only fellows who were not happy were Reff Ritter and his cronies. They could not understand how it was that Jack and his chums had come forth looking so spotless and bright.

“That druggist must have humbugged you, Reff,” said Gus Coulter. “I guess he gave you water instead of those chemicals.”

“I don’t understand it at all,” answered Ritter. “But if the druggist did really humbug me I’ll fix him some time, see if I don’t!”

“Let us look at the stuff left in the bottles,” suggested Coulter. “Must be a few drops at least.”

The two passed into the school. On the stairs they met Pepper and Dale.

“It was beastly stuff,” said Pepper, in a loud tone. “I’d like to know who used it. If we hadn’t had that patent preparation to take out the stains we would have been in a pickle, I can tell you, Jack especially,” and then the Imp and Dale passed on.

“I see it all,” groaned Ritter, when he and Coulter were alone. “No need to look for those bottles now. The stuff worked too quickly, and those chaps got some other preparation and cleaned up with it.”

“Yes, that must be it,” said Coulter. “Well, better luck next time.”

Of course, Pepper had uttered his words merely to throw Ritter and his crony off the track, and the Imp’s trick had worked to a charm. Ritter never learned how he had been fooled.

When Pepper went down into the library that evening, to get a book to read, he was met by Andy and Joe Nelson. Andy was quite excited.

“Pepper, we made a mistake last night,” cried the acrobatic youth.

“A mistake? What do you mean?” and he looked at Joe Nelson.

“Andy tells me that you took me and Harry Blossom for the fellows with the green masks and the green hoods,” said Joe. “You made a mistake.”

“Joe and Harry saw those fellows, too,” continued Andy.

“You did? Where?”

“At the back of the Hall—just as we came in. We had been down to the boat-house looking for a gold stickpin Harry lost. We found the pin in a crack of the floor and then came up to the school. The men came around a corner. When they saw us, they ran off, across the corn-patch back of the barns.”

“Then they weren’t some of the students?”

“I don’t think so. But, of course, I am not sure,” answered Joe Nelson. “You can question Harry about it.”

Harry Blossom was in the music-room, playing on the piano and singing for the benefit of several of his friends. Later on, however, he came away and told what he had seen.

“I thought they were strangers, but now you mention it, I think they may have been some cadets out on a lark.”

“Certainly no men out to rob anybody would act as they did,” said Pepper, thoughtfully. “Why, they acted, for all the world, as if it was a huge joke!”

“Well, this is a mystery, true enough,” said Andy, and the others agreed with him. They concluded to say nothing more about the affair, but to keep their eyes “peeled,” as Pepper expressed it, for the next appearance of the two persons in green.

It galled Reff Ritter to see Jack Ruddy triumphant in the matter of the inspection, and the bully wondered to himself how he could make the young major “eat humble pie,” as he termed it.

“Don’t you meet Ruddy on the flying-rings tomorrow?” asked Paxton.

“Yes,” was Ritter’s short answer.

“Well, you ought to be able to best him there—you’re such a perfect gymnast.”

“Ruddy has been taking extra lessons from the gym. teacher. I just heard of it this morning. That’s the reason he was so ready to take me up,” responded Reff Ritter, sourly.

“Are you afraid to meet him?” asked Paxton in astonishment.

“Not at all. But it is going to be no walk-over to outdo him, that’s all.”

“I wish he’d fall and break his neck,” growled Paxton.

“So do I. But he won’t fall—he is too strong and steady.”

Reff Ritter walked down to the gymnasium in a thoughtful mood. Only a few boys were about and none near the flying-rings.

“I wish I could fix it so Ruddy would get a good tumble,” he muttered. “It would serve him right.”

He leaped up on the flying-rings and tried one pair after another. He had a notion to cut some of the ropes half in two, but reflected that this might bring harm to somebody else instead of the young major.

“Wonder if I could dope him?” mused the bully. “Let me see, how did that fellow in Paris do that trick? He told me all about it at that boxing match. Ah, I have it! The question is, can I work the game without being caught?”

Ritter knew he must go at what was in his mind with extreme caution. He remembered that Jack was a copious water-drinker, and usually drank one glass of water at least at every meal.

“That’s my cue,” said the bully to himself. “Now, if I can only get the stuff out of the Hall medicine closet.” He referred to a medicine closet located at the back of the main hall of the school. In this were kept a variety of medicines, to be used in case of emergency.

Once Reff had been sick, and to make him sleep—for he was very wide-awake and nervous at the time—Captain Putnam had given him some kind of powder in water. This had lulled his senses to repose in a short time. He remembered that box with the white powder very well.

It had been arranged that Jack should meet Ritter that evening, shortly after supper—during the off hour of that part of the day. If Reff could only get some of that powder into Jack’s drinking-water during the evening meal he felt certain the young major would soon feel too dull and sleepy to make much of a showing on the flying-rings.

With the craft of a real criminal, Ritter stole into the main hall of the school and looked around. Nobody was in sight, and swiftly he approached the medicine closet and opened it. There were numerous boxes and bottles there, and the appearance of them somewhat confused the rascally youth. He read the various inscriptions and at last picked out a square box containing several spoonfuls of a white powder.

“This is the stuff,” he murmured, and just then he heard somebody coming down the main stairs. He closed the medicine closet swiftly, tip-toed his way across the hall and entered one of the class-rooms. Here several of the windows were open and he dropped from one of these, nobody being in the room at the time. In a few seconds more he had stepped around the corner of the building and then he turned to a side door and entered the mess-room of Putnam Hall.

The mess-room, or dining-hall, was a long, low room, with windows on one side. There were half a dozen long tables and the chairs at these tables were numbered. Jack, as the major of the battalion, sat at one end of one of the tables. At the other end of this table sat Josiah Crabtree when he was at the school, but just now this seat was not being used.

Watching his opportunity Reff Ritter slipped up to the seat the young major usually occupied. On the table in front of this seat was a glass of ice-water, and into this Ritter skillfully dropped a generous portion of the white powder from the box. Then he glided out of the mess-room just as the gong sounded for the evening parade.

“Now we’ll see what we will see, Jack Ruddy!” he muttered to himself. “If you drink that I don’t think your performance on the flying-rings this evening will amount to much!”