Chapter XXIX: The Old Well

The announcement the young major made was true—the man who had come up was really Sam Haverick, the horse-dealer, a fellow known far and wide around the lake for his sharp deals in horseflesh.

As soon as he caught sight of the cadets’ uniforms his face took on a sour look.

“Are you youngsters from Putnam Hall?” he asked, as he came to a halt under the tree.

“We are,” answered Pepper.

“How many of you up there?”

“Three.”

“Humph! What are you doing there?”

“The dogs drove us up here,” said Andy. Jack was purposely keeping in the background.

“As they are your dogs we would like you to call them off,” continued Pepper. “They have kept us treed about long enough.”

“I guess they know you,” said the horse-dealer, with a scowl. “One of you cadets killed one of their mates.”

“The mad dog,” said Andy.

“He wasn’t mad! He only wanted to have some fun. Say, why don’t you show yourself?” shouted the man, to Jack.

As there was no help for it, the young major stepped out on a tree-limb in full view.

“Oh, I see now. You are Jack Ruddy, the lad who shot my dog. Ain’t that so?”

“I did shoot the dog,” answered Jack, boldly. “But I only did it because he was mad and because he wanted to bite Mrs. Bennington.”

“Stuff and nonsense! You shot the dog because you thought it was smart!” growled the horse-dealer. “I ought to have had you locked up for it.”

There was an awkward pause. The boys felt that they could expect anything but kind treatment from Sam Haverick.

“Are you going to call off the dogs?” asked Pepper, at last.

“I will—on one condition,” answered the man, and there was a shrewd look in his face as he spoke.

“What’s that?” asked Jack, although he knew about what was coming.

“That you pay for the dog you shot.”

“How much?”

“Fifty dollars.”

“Do you think we have fifty dollars with us?” cried Andy. “Why, I haven’t but eighty cents.”

“And I have sixty-five cents,” said Pepper.

“I’ve got two dollars and a quarter,” put in Jack. “But I am not going to give it to you,” he added, with spirit.

“Humph! Then you can stay in the tree.”

“We shan’t do that either,” said Pepper. “Call off those dogs and be quick about it. I am coming down, and if your dogs attack me, you’ll go to prison for it.”

“That’s the talk,” said Jack. “Call off the dogs, quick! Here I come!” And he started to drop down.

The horse-dealer was a good deal of a brute, but he was likewise a coward, and he did not dare to allow his dogs to attack the boys. As they came down out of the tree, he whistled to the bulldogs and they crouched behind him.

“Suppose you think you’re smart,” he growled.

“We are standing up for our rights, that is all,” answered Jack. “Now we are going on our way. If those dogs come after us again, I’ll get Captain Putnam to have you locked up for allowing such brutes at liberty.”

“Oh, go to grass!” grumbled Sam Haverick, and strode off, with his dogs following him.

As he went in one direction, the boys thought it wise to take the other. They continued on the road, and quarter of an hour later came in sight of a small farmhouse, perched on a hillside and surrounded with fields of grain.

“So you were really in that balloon!” said the farmer after he had heard their story. “Don’t it beat all now! I wouldn’t go up in one of them pesky things not fer a million dollars!”

“An’ I wouldn’t go fer three million,” said his wife, who was in the kitchen baking.

The boys asked if they could purchase some lunch and were given some sandwiches, fresh cake, and all the milk they could drink. The farmer wanted no pay, but each cadet insisted upon giving his wife a quarter.

“This road will take you to Cedarville,” said the farmer. “It’s a long way around though. A short way is by the trail over yonder.”

“Is the trail a good one?” asked Pepper, cautiously.

“You see, we don’t want to lose our way again,” explained Jack.

“I don’t see how you can lose your way,” answered the farmer. “Keep to the trail until you come to some tall rocks. Then turn to your left, go around the rocks, and you’ll come out on the old Borden Road, which runs straight down to Cedarville.”

“That looks easy enough,” said Andy.

The three cadets soon set off, and in a few minutes the farmhouse was out of sight. They passed through a patch of woods, then across a meadow, and then followed the trail beside a tiny brook, which seemed alive with trout.

“This is the spot for fishing,” exclaimed Pepper. “Don’t I wish I had a line!”

“We can’t stop to fish now,” answered Jack. “Remember, the folks will be worried about us until we report.”

“That is true. But we can come here some other day.”

The trail left the brook a little further on, and then they came to a point where the way was uncertain.

“Go slow now,” cautioned the young major. “We don’t want to become tangled up if we can possibly avoid it.”

“Here seems to be a cleared spot,” said Pepper, gazing around. “I wonder if there was once a farm here?”

“If there was it must have been abandoned years ago,” answered Andy. “To me it’s a perfect wilderness.”

They started to go on, when suddenly Andy sank down in the soil a distance of about two feet.

“Help!” he yelled, and scrambled out of the hole as quickly as he could.

“Humph! I wonder if that is another cave?” muttered Jack.

“I didn’t seem to touch bottom,” answered the acrobatic youth.

“Let us examine it, just for fun,” said Pepper, and walked back before the others could stop him. He picked up a dead tree-branch and poked it into the hole.

“I can’t touch bottom,” he declared.

“You had better come away before you fall in,” said Jack.

“Do you know what I think?” went on the Imp. “I think it is an old well.”

“A well? out here?” came from Andy, with a skeptical look.

“Look for yourself.”

Both of the others were now interested, and made an examination.

“It certainly is a well, and the top had been choked up most likely for years,” declared the young major.

“I’ll stick a tree-limb in the hole,” said Pepper. “That will prevent somebody else from going down into it.”

This was done, and they started to go ahead once more. They had covered only fifty feet when Jack suddenly came to a halt as if electrified.

“Well, I never!” he gasped, after a look ahead and then a look behind.

“What’s up now?” asked Andy and Pepper, in a breath.

“Do you remember Mr. Strong’s story about that hidden pot of gold?”

“Certainly,” said Andy.

“You don’t mean——” began Pepper.

“Don’t you remember that his great-grandfather left a letter, stating the pot of gold was hidden under the tree that had the stone in its roots,—the tree that stood twenty paces north cf the old well?”

“Yes.”

“Well, yonder is the old well, and here is the stone, about twenty paces north of it. The tree blew down years ago, but here is a part of the stump.”

“And do you think the pot of gold is there?” almost shouted Pepper.

“That remains to be found out,” answered Jack.