Читать книгу The Putnam Hall Champions - Stratemeyer Edward - Страница 2

“Talk about a life on the ocean wave, Pep; isn’t this good enough for anybody?”

“It certainly is, Jack,” answered Pepper Ditmore. “And I think the Alice is going to prove a dandy.”

“The Alice a dandy?” came from a third youth aboard the sloop. “How can you make that out? Girls aren’t dandies.”

“But this girl is a boat,” put in a fourth youth. “Say, has anybody got an apple he doesn’t want?” he went on, looking from one to another of his companions.

“What, Stuffer, aren’t you filled up yet?” demanded Jack Ruddy, who had hold of the tiller of the craft that was speeding up the lake. “To my certain knowledge you have eaten ten apples already.”

“Ten?” snorted Paul Singleton, who was often called Stuffer because of his love of eating. “Not a bit of it! I’ve only had four – and two were very small.”

“Here’s another – my last,” cried Pepper, and threw the apple to his chum.

“By the way, Jack, I want to ask a question,” said Dale Blackmore. “Why did you call the new sloop the Alice?”

“Name of his best girl,” answered Pepper, promptly. “Why do you ask foolish questions?”

“I haven’t any best girl and you know it,” retorted Jack Ruddy. “I named the sloop after my cousin, Alice Smith. Her father, my uncle, gave me the boat. He – ”

“Hullo, here comes another sloop!” cried Paul Singleton, looking across the lake. “Wonder what boat that is?”

“I see a big P on the mainsail,” answered Dale Blackmore. “Must belong to some of the Pornell Academy fellows.”

“I know that boat – heard about her when I was in town yesterday,” said Pepper Ditmore. “She belongs to a fellow of Pornell named Fred Century.”

“Gracious, Imp, is he a hundred years old?” queried Dale, with a grimace.

“Hardly. He’s only a little older than I am. The sloop is named the Ajax, and Century claims she is the swiftest thing that was ever launched here.”

“She certainly looks as if she could make time,” was Dale Blackmore’s critical comment, as he gazed at the approaching craft, with her snowy spread of sails. “I don’t think she is quite as wide as the Alice.”

“She is every bit as long,” came from Paul Singleton. “And her sails are every bit as big.”

“Sloop ahoy!” came a hail from the approaching craft.

“Ahoy, the Ajax!” answered Jack Ruddy.

“Is that the new boat from Putnam Hall?”

“Yes.”

“We thought it might be,” went on Fred Century, as he came closer. “This is the new boat from Pornell Academy.”

“Yes, we know that,” answered Jack. “Fine-looking sloop, too,” he added.

“Do you want to race?” asked another youth aboard the Ajax.

“Well, we didn’t come out to race,” answered the young owner of the Alice. “We just came out for a quiet sail. We’ve got to be back to the Hall by six o’clock.”

“Oh, they are afraid to race you, Fred,” said another boy aboard the Ajax. “They know you can beat them out of their boots.”

“Let us race them, Jack,” whispered Pepper.

“No use of racing if the Alice isn’t in proper condition,” interrupted Dale.

“Oh, she’s all right – but I like to go over everything before a race,” said Jack, a bit doubtfully. “Some of the blocks work rather stiffly, and I haven’t quite got the swing of this tiller yet.”

“Want to race or not?” cried a third boy aboard the Ajax.

“Of course, if you are afraid of being beaten – ” began Fred Century.

“Did you come out just for the purpose of racing?” demanded Jack.

“Why, hardly,” said the owner of the Ajax. “We just saw you, and thought you’d like a little brush, that’s all.”

“How far do you want to race?”

“As far as you please.”

“Very well, what do you say to Cat Point and from there to Borden’s Cove? The first sloop to reach the white rock at the cove is to be the winner.”

“Done!” answered Fred Century, promptly.

“We’ll beat you by half a mile!” sang out one of the boys aboard the Pornell boat, a lad named Will Carey.

“Better do your blowing after the race is over,” answered Pepper.

“Oh, we’ll beat you all right enough,” said the owner of the Pornell boat. “This sloop of mine is going to be the queen of this lake, and don’t you forget it.”

A few words more were spoken – as to how the boats should round Cat Point – and then the race was started. There was a favorable breeze, and each craft let out its mainsail to the fullest and likewise the topsail and the jib.

“We are carrying four passengers while they are only carrying three,” said Dale, when the race was on in earnest. “We should have made them take some extra ballast aboard.”

The course mapped out was about two miles in one direction and two miles in another. At the start of the race the Alice had a little the better of it, but before half a mile had been covered the Ajax came crawling up and then passed the Putnam Hall boat.

“Here is where we leave you behind!” sang out Fred Century.

“We’ll show you a clean pair of heels over the whole course,” added Will Carey.

“As soon as you are ready to give up the race, blow your fog-horn,” said Bat Sedley, the third member of the party aboard the Ajax.

“You’ll hear no fog-horn to-day,” answered Paul.

“Good-bye!” shouted Fred Century, and then his sloop took an extra spurt and went ahead a distance of a hundred yards or more.

“Oh, Jack, we’ve got to beat them!” murmured Pepper. “If we don’t – ”

“They’ll never get done crowing,” finished Paul.

“We’ll do our best,” answered the youthful owner of the Alice. “This race has only started.” And then he moved the tiller a trifle, to bring his boat on a more direct course for Cat Point.

To those who have read the previous volumes in this “Putnam Hall Series” the boys aboard the Alice need no special introduction. For the benefit of those who now meet them for the first time I would state that they were all pupils at Putnam Hall military academy, a fine institution of learning, located on the shore of Cayuga Lake, in New York State. Of the lads Jack Ruddy was a little the oldest. He was a well-built and handsome boy, and had been chosen as major of the school battalion.

Jack’s bosom companion was Pepper Ditmore, often called Imp, because he loved to play pranks. Pepper was such a wideawake, jolly youth you could not help but love him, and he had a host of friends.

Putnam Hall had been built by Captain Victor Putnam, a retired officer of the United States Army, who had seen strenuous service for Uncle Sam in the far West. The captain had had considerable money left to him, and with this he had purchased ten acres of land on the shore of the lake and erected his school, a handsome structure of brick and stone, containing many class-rooms, a large number of dormitories, and likewise a library, mess-room, or dining hall, an office, and other necessary apartments. There was a beautiful campus in front of the building and a parade ground to one side. Towards the rear were a gymnasium and several barns, and also a boathouse, fronting the lake. Beyond, around a curve of the shore, were fields cultivated for the benefit of the Hall, and further away were several patches of woods.

As was but natural in the case of an old army officer, Captain Putnam had organized his school upon military lines, and his students made up a battalion of two companies, as related in details in the first volume of this series, called “The Putnam Hall Cadets.” The students had voted for their own officers, and after a contest that was more or less spirited, Jack Ruddy was elected major of the battalion, and a youth named Henry Lee became captain of Company A, and Bart Conners captain of Company B. Some of the boys wanted Pepper to try for an officer’s position, but he declined, stating he would just as lief remain “a high private in the rear rank.”

At the school there was a big youth named Dan Baxter, who was a good deal of a bully. He had wanted to be an officer, and it made him very sore to see himself defeated. Together with a crony named Nick Paxton and a boy called Mumps he plotted to break up a picnic of Jack and his friends. This plot proved a boomerang, and after that Baxter and his cohorts did all they could to get Jack and his chums into trouble.

The first assistant teacher at the Hall was Josiah Crabtree, a man of good education, but one who was decidedly sour in his make-up and who never knew how to take fun. With him the cadets were continually in “hot water,” and more than once the boys wished Crabtree would leave Putnam Hall never to return.

The second assistant teacher was George Strong, and he was as much beloved as the first assistant was despised. George Strong had not forgotten the time when he was a boy himself, and he often came out on the lake or the athletic field, or in the gymnasium, to take part in their sports and pastimes. Pepper voted him “the prince of good teachers,” and Jack and the others endorsed this sentiment.

During the first session of Putnam Hall, George Strong had mysteriously disappeared. Two strange men had been seen around the school, and it was learned that the strangers had something to do with the missing instructor. A hunt was instituted by Captain Putnam, and in this he was joined by Jack, Pepper, Dale, and an acrobatic pupil named Andy Snow. George Strong was found to be a prisoner in a hut in the woods, and it was learned that his captors were the two strange men. These men were related distantly to the teacher and both were insane – their minds having been affected by the loss of their fortunes.

After the insane men were cared for George Strong told the cadets about a pot of gold which his ancestors had buried during the Revolutionary War. One day some of the cadets took a balloon ride, as related in detail in the second volume of this series, entitled “The Putnam Hall Rivals,” and this ride brought them to a strange part of the woods near the lake. Here they came on some landmarks which had been mentioned to them, and to their joy unearthed the pot of gold coins. For this find the cadets were rewarded by George Strong, and the teacher became a closer friend to the boys than ever.

Dan Baxter had been called away from Putnam Hall by his father. He had had a fierce fight with Pepper and gotten the worst of it, and he was, consequently, glad enough to disappear for the time being. But he left behind him many of his cronies, and three of these, Reff Ritter, Gus Coulter, and Nick Paxton, vowed they would “square accounts” with the Imp and also with his chums.

“I’ve got a plan to make Pep Ditmore eat humble pie,” said Reff Ritter, one day. And then he related some of the details to Coulter and Paxton.

“Just the thing!” cried Coulter. “But don’t leave out Jack Ruddy. I’d rather get square with Ruddy than anybody. He has been down on me ever since I came to the Hall. I hate him like poison.” And Gus Coulter’s face took on a dark look.

“Yes, we’ll include Ruddy,” answered Reff Ritter. “I hate him, too. I’d give most anything if we could drive ’em both from the school.”

“Maybe we can – if we watch our chances,” answered Gus Coulter.