CHAPTER XIV
d.i.c.k & CO. MAKE AN APPLE "PIE"
"Then I wish we had "em here!" sputtered Tom Reade vengefully.
"I could eat two of them at this moment, and without salt!"
"They need salting badly!" growled Dave Darrin angrily.
The tent was not only down. Each guy rope had been cut in the middle, so that the cordage could not be used again.
"I never saw anything more sneaking!" cried Reade in rage and disgust.
"Unless it will be the way that we shall sneak up behind the rah-rah crowd and square matters!" remarked Darry meaningly.
"First of all, we must be sure of their guilt," warned d.i.c.k.
"It won"t do to try to even up a score that"s based only on suspicion.
Wait until I get a lantern out of the wreck, and then we"ll explore the ground to see if we can discover any real proof against the rascals."
"Let"s get into our working clothes first," proposed Reade. "We might want to wear these white clothes again before we get home."
So Tom and Dave held up a part of the canvas while d.i.c.k slipped in under the folds of the tent to find the box in which they had left their hike clothing.
"The box isn"t here," d.i.c.k called. "Neither can I see any of the bedding."
"Get hold here, fellows, and lift up more of the canvas," Reade called.
"There isn"t anything in the tent. All the stuff has been cleaned out." Prescott announced in a voice of disgust.
"It was the tramps, then," Dave declared. "The rah-rah boys wouldn"t take the risk of stealing anything."
"Hold on! I"ve found a lantern," called Prescott. "I"ll come out with that."
He appeared a moment later, lighting the lantern.
"Now, let"s see what we can find," he urged. Not far away the high school boys came upon the prints of sharp-toed shoes.
"The tramps didn"t wear shoes that would make these prints," declared d.i.c.k. "Neither do any of our crowd. Fellows, we owe our surprise to the rah-rah humorists."
"Then we"ll pay "em back in good measure," cried Darry in exasperation.
After some searching d.i.c.k & Co. came upon their clothes chest, at a distance of some hundred yards from camp. The chest had not been rifled, for it was locked and the key rested in d.i.c.k"s pocket.
"Help me with it, Tom, and we"ll carry it back," said Prescott in a low, hard tone. "We need our working clothes at once, for there is work to be done to-night!"
The needed change of costume was quickly made. Off came the white suits, which were carefully folded and put away. Then on went the khaki and flannel clothing.
"Dan, you stay with the tent," d.i.c.k ordered, with the air of a general. "Greg, you and Harry make it your main business to see if you can find the horse. The rest of us will concern ourselves with finding out whether the rah-rah fellows are still outside the hotel."
"Here"s the horse---grazing," shouted Greg, two minutes later.
"Run back, Dave, and pilot Greg and Harry here, after they"ve staked the horse down," Prescott suggested. "We don"t want to make too much noise, for our tormentors may yet be about somewhere."
"Hazy stumbled upon some of the blankets," Greg announced, when he and Harry joined Dave. "I don"t believe any of our stuff has been carried off, d.i.c.k. It has just been scattered."
"Perhaps we"d better gather in all our camp stuff first, then,"
d.i.c.k decided. "We can"t afford to lose any of our camp outfit."
Ten or fifteen minutes of searching, with the aid of the lantern, resulted in recovering all of their scattered possessions, even to the last of the cots, pillows and blankets.
"Now, let"s make a sweep of the dark parts of the hotel grounds, and we may happen upon the rah-rahs, still chuckling over the fun they"ve had with us."
But the five boys had not gone far when they were stopped by a well-dressed young stranger of about twenty.
"Mr. Prescott?" asked the stranger.
"Yes," nodded d.i.c.k.
"I am one of the bell-boys at the hotel. When I went off duty I asked the manager"s permission to change my uniform for citizen"s clothing and watch those eight noisy fellows."
"The college boys?" asked Harry quickly.
"They"re not college boys!" returned the young stranger. "They"ve been giving a fake Saunders yell, and that was what made me dislike them, for I"ve just finished the soph.o.m.ore year at Saunders myself.
I"m working at the Terraces as bell-boy to help pay next year"s tuition at Saunders. The manager permitted me to watch those fellows, but somehow they got away from me. I got track of them again near to your camp. Just as I came along they were scooting away, but a glance showed me the mischief they had worked, so I followed them."
"Do you know where they are now?" d.i.c.k asked eagerly.
"I know where they were ten minutes ago," replied the bell-boy.
"Then please take us to them as quickly as you can," begged Darry vehemently. "I"m fairly aching to pa.s.s the time of night with them!"
"I"ll do it," agreed the bell-boy. "Follow me, please."
"I wonder why they went to all that trouble to be so disagreeable to us," Prescott muttered, as the little party strode along.
"You had some dispute with that crowd, on the hotel porch to-night, didn"t you?" asked the bell-boy.
"Yes; they tried to address some of our girl friends, whom they didn"t know and we objected to their insolence."
"That was what made the rah-rah boys sore," went on the bell-boy.
"I heard them talking about it before I left them. It seems, too, that the manager sent the head waiter to stop their nonsense in the dining room to-night. For some reason these sham college boys blame you fellows for that humiliation also. So they"re chuckling over what they"ve done to your outfit to teach you to mind your own business, as they put it."
"I hope we catch up with "em before they get back to the hotel,"
uttered Tom fervently. "But warn us, please, whenever we get so close that they"re likely to hear our voices."