Stratemeyer Edward
The Putnam Hall Champions

CHAPTER XVIII
SEARCHING THE WOODS

As the party did not know how long they would be away, they took a lunch with them. A number of the cadets were curious over their departure.

“Wonder where they are bound?” said Ritter to his cronies. He met them at the end of the campus, striding along at a rapid gait.

“Oh, it’s one of Strong’s object-lesson walks, I guess,” sneered Coulter. “He’ll show them how some plants grow, and get some specimens of rocks, and all that.”

“Humph! that’s too dead slow for me,” drawled Ritter. “I’d rather skin down to Dollon’s in town and play pool and have a smoke.”

“You’re right,” said Paxton. “Only, I haven’t any money with which to pay for such fun.”

“I heard something at breakfast,” went on Reff Ritter, as the three cronies walked down to the lake. “Jack Ruddy is going to get his sloop back soon, and he is going to arrange for a regular race with that new Pornell boat, the Ajax.”

“I hope he loses,” growled Coulter.

“Ditto here,” joined in Paxton.

“He will lose – if I have anything to do with it,” continued Ritter in a whisper, so as not to be overheard.

“What do you mean?” came from both of his followers.

“I mean just this, and I have no hesitation about telling you, for I expect you to stand by me. It will be a chance to get back some of the money we lost.”

“I think I see your plan,” said Coulter. “You want to fix it so Ruddy loses the race.”

“Exactly, and I think it will be dead easy, too.”

“How?”

“Will you stand in with me if I tell you?”

“Most likely we will,” said Paxton. “Of course we don’t want to do something and get found out.”

“Nobody will be found out. We can make Ruddy lose, and if we lay some good bets on the Pornell boat we can make all kinds of money – win back what we lost and make a pile besides.” And then the three cronies went out on the lake, to row and to talk over the plan that Reff Ritter had in mind to carry out.

“That bicycle race has made Ritter and his crowd as sour as lemons,” said Andy, as he and Stuffer walked on behind the others, on the way to the Chetwood cottage. “Every time they pass me they glare at me like wild animals. They don’t pretend to be the least bit civil.”

“You’ve got to be on your guard, Andy. If they have anything up their sleeve you want to be ready for them.”

“I think they are down on Jack more than on any of us.”

“That’s because he is major of the battalion, I guess. Ritter said once that he thought there ought to be a change of officers every month. I reckon he wanted to carry a sword for a change.”

“I don’t believe the cadets will ever elect him – he hasn’t friends enough.”

“Oh, he might be able to buy up some votes – among the fellows who love to be taken out for a good time. He has lots of spending money.”

“Not now. He lost about all he had, so I understand, on the bicycle race.”

It did not take the party headed by Mr. Strong long to reach the Chetwood cottage. They found the cripple there and also the working man, Jake Dengert.

“I expect my folks by noon,” said Nat Chetwood. “Then I’ll find out if the men took anything valuable from the trunk.”

“I believe you said they took a vest,” said George Strong.

“Yes, but that wasn’t of much account, although it did belong to a suit.”

The cripple had seen nothing further of the strange men and had no idea what had become of the pair. The hired man had tramped out into the woods for a short distance, but had been unable to get on their trail.

“Perhaps we’ll not find them either,” said George Strong, with a sigh. “But we can try it anyway.” He did not deem it necessary just yet to mention the fact that he thought the men might be his relatives.

With the cadets beside him, the teacher struck out into the woods, in the direction Jack and Andy pointed out. They passed a fine spring and stopped long enough for a drink. Then they took to a trail that led up a small hill away from the lake. On either side of the trail were trees and dense brushwood.

“I think they must have come along this trail – or else they lost themselves in the woods,” declared the young major.

“It is a wonder they have not hopelessly lost themselves before now,” said the teacher. “How far is it from here to the spot where you met them the day your bicycle broke down?”

“Must be all of three miles,” answered Andy, and Pepper nodded.

“They must keep more or less to the woods,” continued George Strong. “Otherwise more folks would see them and spread the alarm. I asked that man at the cottage and he said he had heard nobody mention them.”

“They must have some hiding spot in the woods, where they lay off their masks and hoods,” said Stuffer. “They must fancy themselves regular highwaymen.”

“If they are my relatives, and I capture them, I’ll take good care that they do not get away again,” said George Strong.

The boys tramped on with the teacher until all calculated they had covered fully a mile. Then they came out of the woods at a point where a babbling brook ran over some rocks. Here was a good-sized clearing and at the farther end a hut that had once been used by lumbermen or charcoal burners.

“They may be in that hut!” cried George Strong. “Let us spread out and surround the building. Use no violence if it can possibly be avoided.”

They scattered as he advised, and approached the lonely hut from all sides. The door stood wide open and with great caution George Strong looked inside. Much to his disappointment nobody was present.

“But they have been here!” cried Jack, as he and his chums entered the dilapidated structure. “See, there are the remains of a fire and of a roast chicken.”

“Must have been living on the contents of some farmers’ hen-houses,” murmured Pepper. “This looks as if they had been here last night if not this morning.”

“Here is the looking-glass that was stolen,” cried Andy, pointing to the object, hanging on the wall.

All searched the old hut with interest and came across a collection of curious objects such as only two crazy men would think of collecting. There were several pots with the bottoms knocked out, a tufted easy chair with the back gone, three shoes for the right foot and none for the left, a bundle of at least forty old neckties, several articles about airships cut from Sunday newspapers, a box of face powder, four hammers, three plumb lines, a dictionary with the words beginning with B and M cut out, and six broken ice skates. Around one skate was a watch chain that appeared to be of solid gold.

“That’s one thing of value,” said Jack. “If it is solid gold it ought to be worth forty or fifty dollars.”

“It is certainly a very fine chain,” answered George Strong. “And unless I am very much mistaken, it belongs to Mr. Callax. It runs in my mind that he used to wear just such a chain as this. They once tried to take it away from him for safe keeping, but he raised such a row they let him keep it.”

“Perhaps they’ll come back to this hut this afternoon or to-night,” suggested Stuffer.

“It is possible. I hope they do,” answered the teacher.

They searched the woods until the middle of the afternoon, stopping only long enough to eat their lunch, which they washed down with a drink from a spring. Then they went back to the hut. Here it was arranged that Pepper, Andy and Jack should go out to the other side of the woods, while the teacher and Stuffer remained at the hut, to await the possible coming of the crazy men.

The three chums soon reached a portion of the woods overlooking a fair-sized stream that flowed into the lake. They were seeking for some means of crossing the brook when Jack suddenly pulled Andy and Pepper back into the bushes.

“What is it?” whispered the Imp.

“I just saw somebody standing on the other side of the brook,” answered the young major.

“One of the crazy men?” queried Andy.

“No, I think it was somebody we wish very much to meet – and in just such a place as this.”

“Who?”

“Will Carey.”

CHAPTER XIX
THE BONE AND BLOOD CLUB

“If it is Carey, and he is alone, we are in luck,” said Pepper.

“Do we want him to recognize us?” asked Andy.

“I don’t know as it will make much difference,” returned the young major, thoughtfully. “Perhaps we can scare him better by disguising ourselves.”

“Let us make certain it is Carey first and that he is alone.”

They walked up the brook a short distance and reached a bank that was several feet higher than that opposite. From this point it was an easy matter to clear the watercourse at a bound. Then they hurried down in the direction of the lake.

“There he is!” whispered Jack, a few minutes later, and pointed through the trees to where a youth lay sprawled out on the seat of a small rowboat. Beside him were the oars and some fishing tackle and also a long pole which appeared to have a drag-net attached to it.

“He is certainly alone,” said Pepper. “But he may be waiting for somebody.”

“Then the quicker we act the better,” returned Jack.

They decided to cut holes in their handkerchiefs through which to see and then tie the articles over their faces. Then they turned their cadet coats inside out, and rubbed a little dust on their necks and hands.

“He won’t recognize us very easily,” said the young major, “especially if we disguise our voices.”

“I move Jack be made our general spokesman,” said Pepper. “He knows just what we want.”

“We want to get Flossie Ford’s bracelet for her, that’s all,” said Andy. “Incidentally if we can scare Carey half to death for annoying Flossie, so much the better.”

“We’ll scare him right enough,” answered Jack, grimly.

Will Carey was dozing away when of a sudden he felt himself in the grasp of three strong pairs of hands. In a twinkling he was turned over and his hands were bound behind him with a piece of his own fishing line.

“Stop!” he cried out. “Help!”

“Silence, if you don’t want to get hurt!” was the command, in a deep, rough voice, and now he saw that his assailants were three masked persons. They jerked him to his feet, made him step ashore, and in a jiffy compelled him to march a short distance into the thickest of the woods.

“Wha – what do yo – you want of me?” he faltered. He was far from being brave and his present predicament filled him with terror.

“We want you to behave yourself,” was the answer, delivered in the deep voice previously employed by Jack.

“I – I am behaving myself.”

“You are not, Will Carey. You have done an innocent person a great wrong – and the Bone and Blood Club of Cedarville is going to see to it that you right that wrong.”

“Are you the – the Bone and Bone Club?” faltered the Pornell Academy student.

“We are some of the members of that club – chosen to right this great wrong you have done.”

“I – I hav – haven’t done any wrong.”

“You have – do not dare to deny it – or the vengeance of the Bone and Blood Club shall descend upon your head like a fiery serpent and a stroke of lightning,” answered Jack, making his voice as deep and menacing as possible.

“Wha – what have I done?” asked Carey. He was now shaking so he could scarcely speak.

“You have turned thief – yes, and you have told lies. Is it not so, Brothers of the Worthy Bone and Blood Club?” asked Jack, turning to his chums.

“It is so!” exclaimed Andy and Pepper, nodding slowly and solemnly.

“What? Me?” gasped Will Carey.

“Yes.”

“Wha – what did I steal?”

“You took from one of the fairest maidens of Cedarville a golden bracelet, and you have persistently refused to return the same.”

“Oh!” gasped the prisoner, and the others saw him turn pale.

“You must return the bracelet,” went on Jack. “Otherwise it will be our painful duty to chastise you severely and then hand you over to the police.”

“No! no! Don’t do that!” shrieked the Pornell Academy student. “Let me go! Please let me go!”

“Will you return the bracelet?”

“I – I did return it.”

“That is not true.”

“I put it in a box of chocolates and – ”

“That story is absolutely false, prisoner. You have the bracelet still.”

“No, I have not,” and Will Carey began to tremble. “Oh, please let me go, please do!”

“You have the bracelet and must give it up,” continued Jack. He turned to his chums. “Is the fire burning well?”

“It is burning well, your Highness,” answered Andy and Pepper.

“Then take the prisoner and warm him up. He appears to be cold, for he is shivering.”

“No, no – you shan’t put me against any fire and blister me!” yelled Will Carey, trembling from head to foot. “Oh, please let me go, please do! I’ll – I’ll give you all I’m worth!”

“We want nothing but the bracelet you took,” answered Jack, firmly.

“And that we must and shall have!” came in a deep chorus from the others.

“I – I haven’t got the bracelet, I tell you,” said the prisoner, desperately.

“What did you do with it – sell it?”

“No, I – I gave it back.”

“You did not give it back, and if you say so again we’ll put you on the fire to roast.”

“Mercy! Mercy!” screamed the Pornell Academy student and fell on his knees. He thought he was in the hands of three rough persons who would be only too willing to carry out the dire threat made.

“What have you done with that bracelet?” demanded Jack, again. “Come, out with the truth at once.” And he raised a stick he had picked up, as if to strike Carey to the ground.

“Don’t hit me! I – I lost the bracelet!” screamed Will Carey. “Oh, don’t hurt me, please don’t! I couldn’t help it. I – I had the bracelet in a blue tin box in my pocket and I went for a ride on a sloop, and the wind knocked the sloop over and the box dropped out of my pocket. That’s the honest truth, I give you my word on it. I’d give anything to get the bracelet back.”

“You dropped it out of your pocket while on the lake,” said Jack, with deep interest. “Was that the day the Ajax raced with the Alice?”

“Yes.”

“Have you hunted for the tin box since?”

“Half a dozen times. Why, I came out to-day to look for it. The water is rather shallow where the sloop went over, and I made a net and dragged the bottom, but I couldn’t find the box or the bracelet. The net is in my boat now.”

The chums were now convinced that Will Carey was telling the truth, for Jack and Pepper well remembered how concerned Carey had been over the loss of the blue tin box and how he had not told what it contained. The presence of the drag-net also added color to his tale.

“Why didn’t you give Miss Ford her bracelet long ago?” demanded Pepper.

“I – I wanted to – to tease her a little, that’s all,” answered the Pornell Academy student. “I wish I had given it to her now.”

“If you can’t find the bracelet, you’ll have to pay for it,” said Andy.

“I – I know that, but – but – ”

“But what?” demanded Jack.

“I – I can’t pay for it right away. My father has cut me down – he says I am spending too much foolishly, – and I lost a lot on a bowling match we had with some Putnam Hall fellows.”

“Yes, we heard something about that bowling match,” said Jack, not to let the prisoner get a clue to his identity.

“Hullo! hullo!” came a shout from a distance. “Where are you, Jack? Where are you, Pepper? Hullo, Andy! Come this way, we have got on the trail of those two crazy men!”

A moment later Stuffer burst into view and came walking toward them.

“Keep back!” shouted Jack, quickly. “Keep back and don’t say anything. We’ll soon be with you.” And then he whispered something to his two chums.

“All right,” answered both.

“We’ll see you again soon, Carey,” said the young major, to the prisoner. “In the meantime, remember you must either find that bracelet or pay for it,” and so speaking he cut the line that bound Carey’s hands and rushed off in the direction of Stuffer, followed by Andy and Pepper.

CHAPTER XX
THE END OF THE SEARCH

“What have you been doing?” demanded Stuffer, as the party of four cadets turned in the direction of the hut in the woods.

“Oh, we’ve been playing a joke on a Pornell Academy student,” answered Jack, quickly. He thought it best to keep the affair of the bracelet a secret. All had taken the handkerchiefs from their faces.

“Wasn’t that Will Carey?”

“Yes,” said Andy.

“Where are the crazy men?” asked Pepper, to change the subject.

“Why, we walked out on a certain foot path we discovered after you were gone and we found a spot where they had been camping. One of them had written a bit of doggerel on a sheet of paper and tacked it to a tree. Mr. Strong says it is in Callax’s handwriting. In the doggerel he bids farewell to this neighborhood.”

“Does Mr. Strong think they have left?” asked Andy.

“He doesn’t know what to think. He wants to follow the foot path.”

It did not take the cadets long to reach the spot where Stuffer had left George Strong. Then the whole party hurried along the foot path, which ran directly through the dense woods. Here the ground was soft and they could see the fresh footprints with ease.

“I believe this leads to the lake,” said the teacher, and he was right. They soon came out on the lake shore, at a point where there was a tiny cove. Close at hand was a boat stake, and they could plainly see where a boat had been tied up and how it had been shoved off with an oar.

“They have gone,” said George Strong, and the tone of his voice showed his disappointment.

“And there is no telling where they have gone to,” added the young major.

They walked up and down the lake shore for a good distance, but saw no craft containing two men. Not far away was a small boat and this contained Will Carey, who was rowing slowly in the direction of the Pornell Academy dock.

“I suppose we’ll have to give this hunt up,” said the teacher, when it was about four o’clock in the afternoon. “Too bad! I thought sure we’d capture them.”

“Are you going back to the Chetwood cottage?” asked Pepper.

“We may as well – it is not far out of our way.”

When they arrived at the cottage they found that Mr. Chetwood and his wife had returned. The man was looking anxiously for them to appear.

“Git ’em?” he cried, when he caught sight of them.

“No,” answered Jack.

“I am sorry – dreffully sorry,” and Mr. Chetwood heaved a deep sigh.

“I believe they stole a vest belonging to you,” said George Strong. “Anything in it of value?”

“Yes and no,” was the reply. “You see, I had a roll of old Confederate money and I kept it in the vest – why, I don’t know. Well, the roll is gone.”

“What sort of bills did it contain?” questioned Pepper.

“Ten and twenty dollar bills – about two hundred dollars in all. But as they was Confederate I reckon they ain’t wuth ten or twenty cents now. You see I was a Confederate soldier in the war – that’s how I got the bills,” explained Mr. Chetwood.

“Those men are crazy,” said George Strong. “I may as well tell you they are distant relatives of mine – although I am in no wise responsible for their safe keeping. They have been in charge of another relative, who put them in a sanitarium. I suppose if they try to pass some of those Confederate bills they’ll get into more trouble.”

“It may lead to their capture – and that will be something,” was Jack’s comment.

“They sure was crazy – to steal the looking-glass and the inkwell,” said Mr. Chetwood. “I am glad they didn’t harm Nat. Being a cripple, he can’t defend himself very well.”

“I shall do all I can to capture them,” said Mr. Strong.

“You’ll have to capture them,” said Mrs. Chetwood. “Why everybody will be afraid to stir out – with two crazy men roaming the woods.”

The secret could not be kept longer, and by Sunday persons living for miles around knew that the crazy men who had once before been in that vicinity were again at large. A large number of men and boys went out to hunt for the pair, but without avail. George Strong offered a reward of one hundred dollars for their capture, but even this did not bring them to light.

As soon as the young major got his sloop back from the boat builders he tried the craft and found her in prime condition. The new mainsail and the improved tiller worked wonders, to his mind, and he took a keen delight in running the Alice up and down the lake in front of Putnam Hall.

“She’s a good deal better than she was,” said he to Pepper. “I am not afraid to match her against anything on this lake.”

“Well, that is saying a good deal, Jack,” returned his chum.

“I know what I am talking about,” was the young major’s confident answer.

During the week Jack met Fred Century, and from the latter learned that the owner of a sloop up the lake was also anxious for a race.

“His name is Bob Anderson,” said Century. “He owns a sloop named the Neptune.”

“I have seen the boat,” answered Jack. “Rather a rakish-looking craft.”

“So she is. Well, Anderson is very anxious for a race, and I was wondering if we couldn’t make ours a three-handed affair.”

“I am willing if you are,” said Jack, promptly. “I am not afraid of anything on the lake.”

“Then supposing we see Anderson and have a talk with him?”

A meeting was held, and the upshot of the conference was that a race between the three sloops was arranged for the following Saturday, weather permitting. Some gentlemen from the New York Yacht Club, who were stopping at Ithaca, volunteered to judge the race and were accepted by all interested.

“Well, now you’ll have two sloops to beat,” said Dale to Jack after the race had been decided upon. “They tell me the Neptune is a splendid craft.”

“Dale, do you think they can beat the Alice?” demanded the young major.

“I hope not. But you don’t want to be too sure of this race, Jack.”

“I am sure of the Alice.”

As Bob Anderson was well known in local society, his coming into the race created quite a stir. As a consequence the race became a social affair, and hundreds of people said they would attend. Many boathouses along the lake were to be decorated.

“We are going out – in papa’s yacht,” said Laura Ford to Andy when they chanced to meet near the Hall one afternoon.

“I am glad to hear it,” said Andy. “But you must be careful and not go overboard again – as you did when we had the rowing races.”

“Oh, we’ll be very careful,” answered the girl. And then she gave Andy a warm look, for she had not forgotten what a great service he and his chums had done her and her sister on that occasion.

“I only hope we have a spanking breeze,” said Jack to Pepper, as they and Andy took a short sail in the Alice on Friday afternoon. “If there is one thing I despise in a race it is a drifting match.”

“Maybe you’ll get too much wind,” said Pepper.

“Can’t get too much for me – I know how to handle my boat. She’ll not go over with me, as the Ajax did with Fred Century.”

“Does Century think he can beat the Neptune?” asked Andy.

“In a breeze, yes. But he told me the Neptune was such a rakish sloop she could drift well when the wind died down. So if we don’t get much wind Anderson’s craft may win.”

“Sure the boat is in the best possible condition,” went on Pepper, with a sharp look around.

“Doesn’t she look it?”

“She certainly does.”

“If I were you, I’d keep a close eye on my boat until that race is sailed,” said Andy, after a few minutes of silence.

“What do you mean, Andy?”

“Well, you know we’ve got our enemies in this school. Ritter and his crowd would rather see you lose than win.”

“Paxton and Coulter certainly wanted us to lose that bicycle race,” said Pepper.

“Do you think they’d try to injure the boat?” asked the young major.

“Possibly – I don’t know.”

“If I thought that I’d – I’d stay on board to-night,” said Jack.

“No, you want a good night’s sleep,” said Pepper. “One of us can stay on board as well as you can.”

“Let us both stay,” came from Andy. “We’ll be company for each other.”

“Maybe you can’t get permission to stay?” said the owner of the Alice.

“We won’t ask for permission,” answered Pepper. “We’ll just come down here after lights are out and bunk till morning. Then we’ll watch our chance and slip back into the Hall some time before breakfast.”

And so it was arranged.