Stratemeyer Edward
The Putnam Hall Champions

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!”
 

CHAPTER XII
THE BOWLING MATCH

Cheering loudly and blowing their horns, the cadets of Putnam Hall swept into the grounds of Pornell Academy. They expected the students of the rival academy to be lined up, waiting for them, but in this they were disappointed. Only a few lads were outside, and they took but little interest in the newcomers.

“Hullo, what’s this, a frost?” queried Jack.

“Looks like it,” answered Pepper. “I told you to beware of Roy Bock and his crowd. They may be rich, but they are no gentlemen.”

“Where is your bowling team?” demanded Dale of the first student he met.

“Down at the gym. I believe,” drawled the student, and walked leisurely away.

“Now wouldn’t that freeze you stiff?” cried Andy. “Say, for two pins I’d turn around and go back.”

Some felt as Andy did, yet the crowd leaped to the campus and walked towards the gymnasium, located some distance away.

“Hi! hi!” yelled a gardener, who was fixing up a flower bed. “You can’t walk on this grass!”

“Oh, yes, I can,” answered Pepper coolly.

“No! no! It’s against the rules,” insisted the gardener.

“Oh, that’s it,” said Jack. “Will you kindly point out the way we can walk?” he added, sarcastically.

“Keep to the paths. This grass is only to look at, not to walk on.”

“Glad you told us,” said Pepper. “I might have picked a blade for my buttonhole. Andy,” he went on, “don’t look at the grass plot sideways, you may be taxed for it.”

The crowd hurried over to the gymnasium. There they found the Pornell students assembled. All the best seats facing the bowling alleys were filled.

“So you’ve got here, eh?” said Roy Bock, with no show of cordiality.

“Yes,” answered Dale, shortly. “Where are the seats you promised us, Bock?” he added, rather sharply.

“Why – er – I guess you’ll find them somewheres.”

“You promised us half the room here, and we want it,” put in Andy.

“You have always had half of our grandstand, at baseball and football,” put in Stuffer.

“You’ll have to take what seats you can get,” said Grimes.

“Not at all,” answered Dale, the sharpness in his voice increasing. “We are young gentlemen, and we came here expecting to be treated as such. Either we get half the best seats, or we don’t bowl.”

“That’s the talk,” said Andy.

“Don’t bowl?” cried Roy Bock.

“Sure an’ that’s the plain truth av it,” cried Hogan. “We came over to play wid gintlemen, not wid hogs!”

“Don’t you call me a hog!” cried Bock, in a rage.

“Sure an’ if the boot fits yez can wear it,” answered the Irish cadet coolly. “Me own opinion is that ye are afraid to mate us fer fear av losing the match, an’ so yez want to git us mad an’ dhrive us home.”

“I reckon that’s the size of it,” said Bart Conners. “They know we can walk all over them.”

A rather heated discussion followed, but Dale and his men insisted that they would not play unless given half the seats in the place and at last Roy Bock and his followers had to give in. Some who had seats had to give them up and they started to hiss the Putnam Hall cadets in consequence. But then Doctor Pornell appeared on the scene and quietness was speedily restored.

As already told, the team representing Putnam Hall was made up of Dale, Andy, Stuffer, Hogan and Conners. The Pornell Academy team was composed of Bock, Grimes, Sedley, Carey and a tall, heavy-set youth named Noddingham. It may be remarked that Noddingham was an expert bowler and had helped to win many matches. Bock relied on him to make a big run and turn the score in favor of their side.

The match was to consist of two or three games and the side winning two games was to be the victor. Of course if one side won both the first and second games, a third game would not be necessary.

Dale and Bock were the first to bowl in the initial frame. The Pornell student was perfectly familiar with the alleys and was fortunate enough to make a strike on the first ball bowled.

“Hurrah! that’s the way to do it, Bock,” was the cry.

“Keep it up and you’ll get three hundred!”

On his first ball Dale got six and on his second he knocked down two more, netting a total of eight. The Putnam Hall boys cheered at this, but not very loudly. Then Andy followed with a spare, and Grimes did the same. When Noddingham came up he got a strike, and once more the Pornell boys cheered lustily.

After that the game became pretty well “mixed.” The Putnam Hall cadets managed to get several spares in the seventh and eighth frames, and likewise two strikes and these helped somewhat. But Noddingham was there with four strikes, and Grimes and Carey had several spares, and as a result when the first game came to a close the score stood, Pornell 834, Putnam Hall 789.

“Hurrah for Pornell!”

“Putnam Hall wasn’t in it for a minute!”

“Told you we could beat them!”

And the cheering was loud and long, while many waved their caps and handkerchiefs.

“Boys, we’ve got to take a brace,” whispered Andy.

“We should have insisted on some practice on the alleys,” answered Stuffer. “Three trial balls was not enough.”

The second game was soon started and now the Putnam Hall boys began to score a little better. But so did the Pornell team, and during the sixth, seventh and eighth frames it was nip and tuck. But in the ninth Dale got a strike and so did Hogan, while the others got spares, and in the tenth Hogan added another spare and Dale got a strike. On the other side Noddingham, with a spare in the ninth, dropped to but seven in the tenth frame, and only one player got a strike.

Score in the second game, Putnam Hall 918, Pornell Academy 862.

“That’s the time we did it!” cried Pepper enthusiastically.

“Keep it up, boys!” shouted Jack. “You’ve got ’em on the run now!”

“Nothing but strikes and spares now, nothing but strikes and spares!” yelled Harry Blossom.

The Pornell Academy boys looked very glum, but they revived with the opening of the third game, when two of their side made strikes and one a spare. The Putnam Hall team did not do so well, but Dale covered a difficult “bridge” that won him loud applause.

“Sure an’ that’s a bridge wan man in a hundred couldn’t make,” was Emerald’s comment. “’Twas foin, so ’twas!” And he slapped Dale heartily on the back.

Both teams were now on their mettle and bowled with great care. Bock was very swift in his movements and twice Andy caught him overstepping the mark when delivering his ball.

“Say, Bock, we want none of that,” he said to the Pornell player.

“What?” demanded Bock, innocently.

“You overstep the mark when you run. You keep back, or I’ll claim a foul.”

“I didn’t overstep the mark.”

“I say you did.”

“So do I,” added Bart Conners. “I saw it as plain as day.”

“Humph! Maybe I did go over an eighth of an inch,” sneered Bock.

“You went over half a foot,” said Andy.

“Play fair!” shouted a score of Putnam Hall students. “Everybody watch the foul line!”

After that Roy Bock did not dare to overstep the line. As a consequence his delivery was not so good, and his score dropped behind a dozen points or more.

At last the two teams reached the ninth frame. Pornell was leading by seventeen points. They got two spares, one made by Carey and the other by Noddingham.

“Do your very best, fellows!” cried Jack, to his friends, and they bowled with such care and swiftness that they got three strikes and two spares.

“Hullo, it’s almost a tie!” cried Harry Blossom. “Go in and win!”

“Make every ball count now, fellows!” yelled Pepper. He was so excited he could not keep his seat.

Everybody was talking or cheering and the din was terrific. In the midst of the excitement the Pornell students made one spare and a seven, two eights and a nine. Putnam Hall came to the front with two strikes and two spares. Then the extra balls were speedily bowled.

Score of third game, Putnam Hall 1042, Pornell Academy 982.

“Hurrah! Putnam Hall wins the match!”

“Wasn’t that last frame great!”

Then a wild cheering ensued, in the midst of which the cadets from the Hall surrounded the victors and shook hands over and over again. It was certainly a moment of great triumph.

“I’m proud of you, boys,” said George Strong. “You did very well indeed.”

“Silence!” came suddenly from Roy Bock, as he climbed up on a bench.

“What’s the matter?” asked several, pausing in the midst of the general excitement.

“I claim a foul. Putnam Hall did not win that last game fairly.”

“What do you mean, Bock?” demanded Dale, indignantly.

“I say you did not win the game fairly,” repeated the Pornell student stubbornly.

“We did win it fairly.”

“Explain yourself, Bock!” called out several.

“I will. In the ninth and tenth frames three of their bowlers overstepped the foul line. I saw them do it, and so did Carey, Gussic and Grimes.”

“That charge is absolutely false,” cried Andy. “I for one did not come within three inches of the mark.”

“Nor did I,” added Stuffer, and the others of the team said practically the same thing.

“This is very unfortunate,” said George Strong. “You should have had an umpire for the line.”

“I was watching the line,” said a Putnam Hall student named Barton. “I saw none of our bowlers overstep the mark. But the Pornell men went over – until Andy and the others protested.”

“I say they did go over,” insisted Roy Bock. “You may call this match yours, but I’ll not give it.”

“Nor I,” added Carey.

“As you please,” answered Dale, with a shrug of his shoulders. “We won it, and did so fairly, and that is all there is to it,” and turning on his heel he walked off.

In the meantime Pepper had gone outside to the carryall. Now he came around to a back door of the Pornell gymnasium carrying the box he had brought along.

“Help me, Jack!” he called to his chum.

“What have you got?”

“A surprise for the Pornell boys. I was sure they’d treat us meanly, so I planned to get square.”

With great caution the two cadets took the box to a corner of the building and opened it. Then they took the contents up to a small gallery.

“Now then, let ’em go!” cried Pepper, and Jack obeyed the command.

Soon around the gymnasium half a dozen big black crows were flying. Caw! caw! caw! they cried in their bewilderment.

And as they flew around each crow dropped some cards which had been loosely attached to its wings.

And the cards read:

We are to be eaten by the Pornell Bowling Team.