Chapter XI: A Challenge From Pornell Academy

It was not until midnight that Jack began to feel something like himself. He was still weak, but he could now breathe regularly, and Doctor Fremley pronounced him out of danger.

Pepper and Andy had begged to be allowed to remain with their chum, and they were in the room with Captain Putnam. Leaving some medicine to be taken regularly every hour, the physician departed.

“Major Ruddy, the next time you take any medicine beware and not take an overdose,” 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 the time I went to the gym. Then, all of a sudden, I seemed to get dizzy and sleepy,” 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 powder without 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 I did?”

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, and then explained what had occurred at the supper table.

“I will inquire into this in the morning,” said Captain Putnam. “If somebody played a trick on you——” He did not finish, but his usually pleasant face grew hard and stern.

The school was very quiet that night when the door of one of the dormitories opened and a cadet crept forth and tip-toed his way through the semi-dark hallway. He advanced with caution, trembling greatly for fear of being discovered. The midnight prowler was Reff Ritter.

The affair at the foot of the stairs earlier in the evening had astonished Billy Sabine, but Reff had quickly recovered and said it was due to a cramp in the stomach, brought on by a false twist when performing on the swinging-rings. Then the bully had gone to bed—but not to sleep. Only one thought filled his mind—that Jack might die and that he might be accused of the awful crime. He shivered and shook under the bedclothes and could scarcely conceal his fear from his cronies when they came in.

Now the others were asleep and he was determined to find out the truth about Jack. If the young major was really dying—well, perhaps it would be best to run away from Putnam Hall rather than run the risk of exposure and arrest. This showed that at heart Reff Ritter was a thorough coward.

Scarcely daring to breathe, the bully tip-toed his way along one hallway after 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 a wave of relief swept over him. Then, with bated breath, he listened to what the cadets and Captain Putnam had to say. When the captain prepared to 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 to say.

“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 the main hall.”

“Humph! I just drank from our pitcher and thought it was all right. Hear anything 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 going to die, but on the other hand Captain Putnam had promised a rigid investigation. What if he should be discovered? What if somebody had seen him taking the powder from the medicine closet, or seen him putting it in the glass of water?

“I’ve got to face it out,” he told himself. “I’ve got to face it out, no matter what comes. My word is as good as anybody’s.”

Captain Putnam’s investigation revealed but little. No person had been seen near the medicine closet for several days back, and what had become of the box of headache powder nobody seemed to know. Regarding the glass of water drunk by Jack, and the food eaten at supper, the cook and the colored waiters declared they knew of nothing wrong.

“Was any cadet in the mess-room just previous to supper?” asked the master of the school.

At first the waiters said no. But presently one scratched his head thoughtfully and said he now remembered that somebody had passed through the dining-hall after everything was in readiness for the evening repast. It had been somebody in uniform, but who he could not remember.

“I believe that person doctored that drinking-water, or my food,” said Jack, when he heard of this.

“Do you suspect anybody?” asked the master of Putnam Hall.

At this Jack shrugged his shoulders. Yes, he could suspect several—Coulter, Paxton, Ritter, and their cronies—but what good would that do if he could not prove somebody guilty?

The next day the young major felt quite like himself again and rejoined his chums. All went for a sail on the _Alice_, and on the trip they talked the affair over from every possible standpoint.

“If it was a trick—and I don’t see how it could be anything else—it is the most dastardly thing I ever heard of,” declared Pepper.

“That’s true,” answered Andy, “and the fellow guilty of it ought to be run 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 a fellow and another thing to prove the crime. I wouldn’t say anything about it until I could prove it.”

“Wonder if it is possible those fellows with the green masks and hoods had 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 from Pornell Academy. Century was sailing his sloop and told them he had had little trouble in righting the capsized craft and in getting her into trim 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 get a 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 the Putnam Hall boys much trouble in the past, and Jack and Pepper did not like them in the least.

“Say!” cried Roy Bock, presently. “You fellows are so full of challenges I’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 to get 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 of talking.

“Come over next Saturday afternoon,” said Roy Bock. “Bring over the best team Putnam Hall can put out. We’ll show you how to bowl.” And he laughed.

“Perhaps we will come over,” answered Stuffer; and then the two sloops separated.

“Bock makes me tired,” said Pepper. “I’d not bowl with him, even if I was good at knocking over the pins.”

“I’d like to beat the Pornell team,” answered Dale. “They are such blowers!”

“They like to blow because they are all rich boys,” said Andy. “I’d certainly like to bowl against them and defeat them.”

“We could put Emerald on our team,” said Dale. “I know he can bowl real well.”

“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 can manage this. With Emerald you’ll make four, 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 like Jack, root.”

There was a bowling alley in the Putnam Hall gymnasium. It was not a very elaborate affair, but some of the cadets got much enjoyment from knocking over the pins. Dale was something of an expert, often getting a strike or a spare, and it was but natural, therefore, to make him the captain of the bowling team.

When spoken to on the subject, Hogan readily agreed to join the team and so 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 special messenger. He asked for a game on the Pornell Academy alleys on the following Saturday at two o’clock. He said the bowling room would hold about one hundred persons and half the space would be reserved for the Putnam Hall cadets and their friends.

Permission to accept the challenge was readily granted by Captain Putnam, and George Strong was placed in charge of the cadets to visit the 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 does not 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 their bicycles while others took the carriage and the carryall. Pepper went in the carryall, and on the sly concealed under one of the seats a fair-sized box.

“Hurrah, we’re off!” shouted Andy, as the carryall with the team and half a dozen others moved away from Putnam Hall.

“Everybody sing!” cried Pepper, and started up a song one of the students 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. Then followed 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!”