Stratemeyer Edward
The Rover Boys at Big Horn Ranch: or, The Cowboys' Double Round-Up

CHAPTER III
WHAT THE SNEAK TOLD

“I certainly didn’t think that snowball would go down the stairs so easily,” remarked Andy, when he and the other Rovers were alone.

“Keep quiet,” warned Jack, who had remained at the partly-opened door. “I want to hear what takes place.”

“This is outrageous, simply outrageous!” they heard in Snopper Duke’s high-pitched voice. “How dared you roll such a snowball down these stairs? And how came you to get that snowball up there anyway?”

“Excuse me, Professor, but I don’t know what you’re talking about,” answered another voice; and at this Jack gave a slight start, for he recognized the words as coming from Brassy Bangs.

“What is that? You do not know anything about the big snowball that just came hurtling down these stairs?” stormed Professor Duke.

“No, sir. I just reached the top of the stairs,” answered Brassy Bangs. “I came out of my room not ten seconds ago.”

“What do you know about this, Stowell?” went on the professor, who had now come slowly to the top of the stairs, followed by Professor Grawson, who had come out of Colonel Colby’s private office where he had been looking over some reports when the big snowball had landed with a thump against the desk at which he had been seated.

“Me? What do you mean?” stammered the youth who was known to the cadets as Codfish and who had always been more or less of a sneak.

“Somebody just rolled a big snowball down the stairs. It struck me and nearly knocked me flat,” returned the irate teacher.

“Yes, and it rolled all the way into the private office,” added Professor Grawson.

“I don’t know anything about any snowballs,” said Codfish. “I noticed the floor was all wet and I wondered what it meant.”

“I saw some fellows rushing around the corner,” came from Brassy Bangs.

“Who were they?” demanded Snopper Duke.

“I don’t know.”

“Which way did they go?”

“That way,” and Brassy pointed out the direction.

By this time the two professors had reached the top of the stairs and Grawson was looking at the water marks on the polished floor.

“Here is where they brought that big snowball in,” he remarked, pointing to the track that led to one of the windows. “They must have brought it up on the fire-escape.”

“Here are several other tracks. I think we had better follow them,” returned Snopper Duke quickly.

The track leading to the bathroom was most in evidence, and the two professors quickly discovered the big snowball resting in the bathtub.

“Evidently they put this here to have some more fun with,” announced Professor Grawson grimly. “Well, it won’t do much harm here. I’ll turn on a little hot water and it will soon melt and run off,” and he turned on the faucet as he spoke.

From the bathroom the two professors, followed by Codfish and Brassy, followed the water trail into a room occupied by several students who were particularly uppish and whom the Rovers did not like, and here some more of the snowballs were found.

“Here is another trail,” announced Professor Duke, and in a moment more had thrown open the door leading to Stowell’s bedroom.

“Here! what does this mean?” stammered Codfish, as, after the light had been turned on, he and the others saw the two big snowballs resting on either side of the bed.

“Stowell, you must have had something to do with this,” cried Snopper Duke savagely.

“No, sir. Not at all, sir,” answered the sneak in a trembling voice. “I don’t know a thing about it.”

“Where did you come from just now?”

“I – I came up the back stairs. I was just coming through the corridor when I heard the noise and came to see what it meant.”

“The back stairs, eh?” put in Professor Grawson. “What were you doing on the back stairs this time in the evening?”

“I – I was down in the kitchen.” And now Codfish grew pale.

“And what called you to the kitchen?”

“I – I was hungry, and so I asked one of the servants for something to eat.” And now Codfish was fairly whining.

“Humph! didn’t you have any supper?”

“Yes, sir. But I wasn’t feeling extra well just then and I didn’t eat very much, and that made me hungry afterwards. And, oh, say! I guess I can tell you something about those snowballs,” and Codfish’s face lit up suddenly.

“What do you know?”

“When I was passing through the little entryway that leads into the kitchen I happened to glance out of the window and I saw four or five fellows down at the foot of the fire-escape.”

“What were they doing?”

“When I looked at them they were just talking among themselves. I only looked for a moment because I was in a hurry to get to the kitchen and get back again.”

“Did you recognize any of the cadets?”

At this direct question, Codfish hesitated and showed that he felt far from comfortable.

“I don’t like to tell on anybody,” he whined. “If I do that they’ll be sure to lick me later on – I know they will!”

“You tell me who they were and I’ll see to it that they do not harm you,” put in Professor Duke quickly.

“I only saw two of the fellows real plainly,” answered Stowell. “They were standing in the light from one of the windows.”

“And who were they? Tell me! I want no nonsense now,” and Snopper Duke caught the sneak firmly by the shoulder.

“Ouch! Please don’t hurt me!” cried Codfish, in added alarm.

“Then answer me!”

“The two fellows I recognized were Captain Jack Rover and his cousin, Lieutenant Fred Rover.”

“You didn’t know the others?” put in Professor Grawson.

“No, sir. I didn’t see them well enough. They were all in the shadows.”

“I’ll investigate this,” cried Professor Duke. “Stowell, you come with me.”

“Oh, please don’t make me come!” cried the sneak. “They’ll almost kill me if they find I gave them away!”

“They sha’n’t touch you.”

“Oh, I know what they’ll do,” moaned Codfish. He had not forgotten how the Rover boys had sided with him on more than one perilous occasion, and it scared him half to death to think what they might do when they discovered how meanly he was acting.

But there was no help for it, and Codfish was marched along between the two professors, with Brassy and a number of other cadets, who had been attracted by the noise and the talk, following.

Meanwhile the four Rover boys had listened to as much of the conversation as they could catch.

“They went into Codfish’s room – they are following the trail of the water on the floor,” announced Jack.

“Some of the other fellows are coming out and coming upstairs,” announced Fred. “Let us go out too and see what happens.”

“Maybe they’ll accuse Codfish of this,” remarked Randy, with a grin.

The four Rovers had just come out in the corridor and been joined by Gif, Phil, and Spouter when they found themselves suddenly confronted by Professor Duke, with Professor Grawson and poor Codfish directly behind him.

“So this is your work, is it?” demanded Snopper Duke, glaring angrily at Jack and Fred in turn.

“To what do you refer, Professor?” asked Jack, as calmly as he could.

“You know well enough, Captain Rover. It is useless for you to deny it,” stormed the angry teacher. “You and your cousins here are responsible for bringing those big snowballs into the school.”

“Who says so?” questioned Fred. At the same time he gave Codfish a look that made the sneak want to hide himself.

“Never mind who says so. We know it to be a fact,” stormed Snopper Duke. “Will you kindly let me know what you mean by such outrageous conduct?”

“Is it so very outrageous, Professor, to bring a few snowballs into the school?” questioned Randy innocently.

“We’ve often brought snow into the school,” put in Andy. “We used to use it for making a sort of home-made ice-cream – with milk and sugar and a little flavoring, you know.”

“Colonel Colby or Captain Dale never ordered us to leave the snow outdoors,” added Fred, and at this there was a snicker from among a number of the cadets who were gathered.

“I will not listen to such nonsense,” stormed Snopper Duke. “You four brought those snowballs into this school, and some of you kicked that snowball down the stairs on top of me,” he added, glaring at them.

“I want to say right now, Professor Duke, that that big snowball went downstairs by accident,” answered Andy, feeling that there was no help for it and that he must make a clean breast of the matter. “We were rolling it down the corridor when all at once I slipped in a puddle of water and both my feet struck the snowball and sent it on its way down the stairs. But we didn’t mean to send it down; I can give you my word on that.”

“I don’t believe it,” stormed Snopper Duke.

“I’m telling you the truth, sir.”

“Perhaps Rover didn’t mean to send the snowball downstairs,” put in Professor Grawson mildly. As a general thing he sided with the cadets and they had little difficulty in getting along with him.

“Mr. Grawson, I was the one to suffer through this outrageous trick,” fumed Snopper Duke. “And you will kindly permit me to handle the affair. These four cadets are guilty and must be punished.”

“I agree it is more your affair than mine, Mr. Duke,” returned the other teacher. “But don’t you think it would be wise to let the matter rest until Colonel Colby comes back from the city?”

“Not at all! Not at all! These young rascals must be taken in hand, and at once. Otherwise our authority in this institution will go to pieces.”

At this moment there was a movement among the students who had collected in the corridor, and Gif and Spouter stepped forward.

“Excuse me, Professor Duke,” said Gif. “But I had as much to do with bringing those snowballs upstairs as anybody.”

“And so did I,” added Spouter.

“And I was in on the deal, too,” came from Phil Franklin, as he too stepped forward.

“What? All of you?” demanded Snopper Duke, eyeing them coldly.

“I can assure you we meant no great harm,” continued Spouter. “We were only going to have a little fun among ourselves and with our fellow-cadets – that is, mostly,” he added somewhat lamely, as he remembered what had been said about placing some of the snowballs in the teacher’s room.

“Were any others implicated in this despicable piece of business?” demanded Professor Duke, looking around at the assembled cadets. “Answer me at once!”

There was no reply to this, the cadets simply looking at each other questioningly.

“We’re all here, sir,” said Jack. “There were no others.” And he and his cousins gave their chums a warm look to show they appreciated their coming forward to take a share of the blame.

“Seven of you, eh?” was the teacher’s sour comment. “A fine piece of business, truly.” He thought for a moment. “Come with me, all of you, and we’ll see what damage has been done down in the office.”

The assembled cadets made a passageway, and through this filed the Rovers and their chums with Professor Duke following close on their heels. Professor Grawson remained behind to talk to Stowell.

“They’ll kill me for this – I know they will!” whined Codfish. And now he was on the verge of tears.

“I don’t think the Rovers will touch you, Stowell – I don’t think they’re that class of boys,” answered Professor Grawson. “Come. I’ll go to your room with you and help you throw those snowballs out of the window.” He had not forgotten that he had been a schoolboy himself once, and he had small sympathy for such a sneak as Henry Stowell.

Down in Colonel Colby’s private office it was found that the big snowball had done little damage outside of wetting a couple of the rugs. What was left of the snowball had been gathered up by Pud Hicks, the janitor’s assistant, and now he was mopping up the floor.

“I’ll take the rugs and dry ’em in the laundry,” said Hicks. “I think they’ll be all right by morning.”

“You cadets remain here until I return,” said Professor Duke, when Hicks was ready to depart. And then he went outside and in the hallway held a whispered conversation with the janitor’s assistant.

“I guess we’re in for it,” said Jack to his cousins and his chums.

“What do you suppose they’ll do with us?” questioned Phil.

“I’m sure I don’t know.”

In a few minutes Snopper Duke returned, and there was a grin of satisfaction in his eyes as he faced the cadets.

“You will all follow me,” he declared, “and I’ll show you what can be done in this school to cadets who act as outrageously as you have acted. Come! March!” and he led the way out of the private office.

CHAPTER IV
PRISONERS

In one of the wings of the school building there was located a room about twelve feet square with one window which was barred, and this, as my old readers know, was known officially as the school guardroom or prison. Jack and Fred had once been prisoners in this guardroom on a charge that was afterwards proved to be false.

“Gee! I wonder if he’s going to take us to the guardroom?” whispered the youngest of the Rovers.

“I don’t see how he can crowd seven of us into that small room,” answered Randy. “Why, it’s only got one cot in it!”

Professor Duke led the way through the corridor and up the broad stairs. In the meanwhile Professor Grawson had ordered the other cadets to their rooms, so there was no one at hand to witness what was taking place.

Arriving on the second floor, Snopper Duke led the way into another corridor and then up a somewhat narrow stairway leading to the third floor.

“Hello! I wonder where he’s going to take us now?” questioned Fred in wonder.

“This is certainly a new wrinkle,” declared Gif.

The third floor was but dimly lit until the professor turned on more light. Then he turned into a little side corridor at the end of which was located a long, narrow room which, during the previous year, had been used by some of the hired help but which was now unoccupied.

“You will remain in this room until I have a chance to communicate with Colonel Colby,” said Professor Duke, as he marched the cadets in. “And remember! I want no cutting up here. I want you to remain perfectly quiet.”

“How long shall we have to stay here?” questioned Jack.

“That will depend on what Colonel Colby has to say about it,” was the sharp answer.

“Do you expect us to stay here all night?” demanded Randy.

“You will have to stay here unless Colonel Colby gets back from the city, and I think that hardly likely to-night,” answered the teacher. “Now remember! No noise and no horseplay or I’ll do something that you won’t forget in a hurry,” and with this admonition he walked out of the room, closing and locking the door after him.

“Listen!” cried Fred, as all of the others started to talk at once. And going to the door, he listened intently, and so did the others, and they heard Snopper Duke pass through the little corridor and down the stairs.

“He’s gone, all right enough,” remarked Phil Franklin.

“Well, what do you know about this, anyhow!” cried Gif.

“I think he’s treating us like a lot of children,” declared Andy angrily.

“I don’t believe he has any right to keep us out of our regular rooms,” came from his brother.

“Well, anyway, he took the right,” answered Jack grimly. “And what is more, he seems to have the best of us.”

“He won’t have if we break down that door.”

“I don’t think you’ll have an easy job of it breaking down that door,” put in Spouter. “I happened to notice that there was not only a regular lock on it, but also a top bolt. You’d have to smash the whole door to get out. But it certainly is a despicable piece of business,” Spouter continued. “And at the first opportunity we have we’ll have to lay the whole case before Colonel Colby. I’m sure when he has verified our report, and gone into the various merits of the case, he will make a finding that will be in accordance with – ”

“Gee! Spouter can spout even if he is a prisoner,” burst out Randy. “Better get up on a chair, Spouter, and make a regular speech about it,” he continued, grinning.

“This is a new experience for me,” remarked Phil, with a smile. “I never thought I was going to be put in jail.”

“You can hardly call it being put in jail, Phil,” answered Jack. “In a military academy it is quite common for a cadet, when he has broken the rules and regulations, to be placed in the guardhouse, just the same as he is placed in the guardhouse in the regular army.”

“I thought maybe they’d make us do what they call police duty,” said the boy from Texas. “One fellow told me that while he was in the training camp he overstepped the regulations and they made him peel potatoes until he was sick and tired of seeing them.”

“Well, they do that too,” put in Fred. “You might have to do something like that if we were at the annual encampment. But while the school session is on all they do is to lock you up.”

The boys found that the long narrow room contained two double beds and two cots, as well as a couple of bureaus, several stools, and a table. At one end was a small bathroom and a clothing closet. There were three small windows in a row, all looking out on the snow-covered fields behind the school.

“Well, we’ve got a place to sleep, anyhow,” announced Jack. “Although three of us will have to sleep in one of the beds.”

“Not much in the way of covering,” remarked Gif, who had been making an investigation. “Just one thin blanket on each bed. And that radiator is not letting out heat enough to warm a cat,” he added, as he placed his hand on the one small radiator of which the long bedroom boasted.

“Never mind, we can keep on our uniforms if we want to,” declared Randy. “And who knows but what Colonel Colby may come back at any minute, and then I’m almost certain that he’ll let us go back to our own rooms.”

“He will unless old Duke cooks up some dreadful story against us,” came from his brother. “You can bet he’ll make out as black a case against us as he can.”

“Yes. But I think Professor Grawson will have something to say too,” said Jack. “And he has always been a very fair-minded man.”

“I don’t see why Colonel Colby took on such a man as Snopper Duke,” declared Spouter. “He’s every bit as bad as Asa Lemm was.”

“But you’ve got to hand it to him for being a very well educated man,” said Jack. “And he certainly knows how to teach when he’s in the humor for it.”

“I don’t think a man who is as harsh-minded as he is ought to be a teacher,” was Gif’s comment. “He can’t get a cadet to do his best if he’s forever nagging at him. Now, if I was a teacher, I’d do my best to gain my pupils’ confidence.”

There was a pause, and presently Andy began to chuckle.

“Say, he certainly did look funny when that big snowball hit him in the stomach and nearly knocked him over,” he cried.

“How could you see that when you were on your back?” questioned Fred.

“Oh, I managed to flop over and look down the stairs just in time. He was some sight, believe me. It’s a wonder he didn’t go over backward to the floor below. I don’t know what saved him. He must have grabbed the banisters just in time.”

“You can’t really blame him for being mad. I think maybe I’d be mad myself,” said Gif. “However, let’s drop that. What are we going to do? Go to bed?”

“I don’t see that there is anything else to do,” answered Jack.

“I’ve got to do something to keep warm,” declared Andy, and suddenly turned a somersault over one of the beds. Then he began to box with his brother, and the two spun around from one end of the room to the other.

“Here! you stop that,” warned Fred. “You know what Duke said. You keep on and he’ll put us down in the cellar or some other worse place.”

After this the seven cadets became more quiet, and, sitting as close as possible to the little radiator which gave forth only a mite of warmth, they discussed the situation for half an hour longer.

“That’s another one against Codfish,” declared Randy. “I’m sure he’s guilty.”

“Well, he had some reason for saying what he did,” said Jack. “He had to clear his own skirts after they found those two big snowballs in his room.”

“Just the same, Jack, you know well enough hardly any other fellow in the school would have squealed,” cried Randy. “Codfish always was a sneak, and I guess he always will be, no matter what some of the other fellows do for him.”

“Say, look here! I thought you fellows told me that Captain Dale was in charge of this school whenever Colonel Colby was absent,” burst out Phil suddenly.

“That’s true,” answered Jack. “He was in charge all the time the colonel was in the regular army.”

“Then why didn’t Professor Duke put this up to the captain?”

“Because Captain Dale is away on a little vacation,” announced Gif. “He won’t be back until some time next week.”

“And where did Colonel Colby go?”

“They said he had gone to the city,” answered Fred. “But I don’t know what they mean by that. They may mean Boston, or New York, or some smaller place.”

“The radiator is growing stone cold,” declared Gif, who had his hands on it.

“What’ll you bet old Duke didn’t turn the heat off?” broke in Andy quickly. “It would be just like him to do it.”

“I guess about the only thing we can do is to go to bed,” announced Jack.

“Well, you had better do it with your uniform on, then,” said Spouter. “Because I’m not going to bed with the windows closed, and it’s going to be beautifully cold by and by.”

All of the cadets had been accustomed to sleeping with the windows of their bedrooms open. But they had also been accustomed to plenty of bed clothing, and knew they would probably suffer with the scant quantity of quilts now provided.

However, they had to make the best of it, and in the end did little else but take off their shoes and coats and then wrap themselves in the blankets as best they could. Of course, there was some horseplay in which even Phil Franklin indulged. But on the whole the cadets kept rather quiet, for they did not want to make matters worse than they were.

“The last time Randy and I were home our dad laid down the law good and plenty,” announced Andy. “So we’ve got to do something towards toeing the mark.”

“I’m afraid Brassy Bangs and a lot of the other fellows will have the laugh on us for this,” remarked Fred, as he turned in.

“Oh, well, you can’t have fun without paying the piper once in a while,” was Jack’s comment.

It grew colder during the night, and on rising to cut off some of the air that was blowing over him, Fred noticed that it had begun to snow. The fine hard particles were drifting into the room, and he called the attention of some of the others to this.

“I don’t care. Let it snow in if it wants to,” grumbled Randy sleepily.

But some of the others demurred to this, and presently one of the windows was closed entirely and the others left open only a few inches.

“Gee, talk about Greenland’s icy mountains!” exclaimed Gif, on arising a little after seven o’clock. “Some coldness, if you ask me!”

“You said it!” declared Jack, as he got up and walked across the floor to where the radiator was located. “Cold as ice!” he announced.

“Did you leave it turned on?” questioned Randy quickly.

“I certainly did.”

“Then old Duke must intend to freeze us out!” exclaimed Fred. “What do you know about that!”

“I know it’s a mean piece of business,” answered Andy. “Gee! why, we might all catch our death of cold.”

Having washed themselves, the cadets lost no time in donning the clothing they had taken off on retiring. Then they continued to walk around the narrow room in order to keep their blood in circulation. It was now about eight o’clock, and they wondered if they would get any breakfast.

“A hot cup of cocoa or coffee wouldn’t go bad,” remarked Spouter. “Not to say anything about ham and eggs, hot muffins, or a few other things on the side.”

“Yum, yum! don’t mention them,” groaned Andy. “I feel hollow clean down to my shoes. I didn’t have any too much supper, and I was depending on having a few crackers I had in my closet.”

“And I left an apple on my bureau,” declared Phil.

“And I had two doughnuts stored away to take to bed with me,” came from Fred.

The boys heard the cadets below assembling for roll call and the short morning parade, and then heard them march into the mess room of the Hall for breakfast.

“My! but I wish I was downstairs right now,” declared Randy. “I wouldn’t do a thing to that breakfast table!”

“Maybe they’ll bring our breakfast to us,” suggested Jack.

“If they do you can bet there won’t be any too much of it – if old Duke has anything to do with it,” returned Gif grimly.