"I"ll fix you for this!" roared Werner. "I owe you a lot for the way you"ve been treating me." And with these words he scrambled to his feet and aimed a blow at Jack"s face.
The young captain moved to one side so that the blow struck him on the shoulder. He came back quickly with one on Werner"s right ear, and followed this up with another on the bully"s nose, which made that organ bleed profusely.
By this time there was more noise in the under-brush, and Andy and Spouter could be heard calling.
"This way! This way!" answered Ruth.
While she was calling, and while Andy and Spouter were doing their best to brush aside some th.o.r.n.y bushes which held them back, the struggle between Jack and Werner continued. The bully landed on Jack"s shoulder again and then on his chest, and in return received a crack on the chin which all but keeled him over.
"I said I"d get you, Jack Rover, and I will!" spluttered Werner, after this last attack. And then, as Jack made a move as if to strike him again, the bully stepped around to one side, bringing himself once more close to Ruth. His right hand had gone down into his coat pocket, and now he brought out something in a small paper bag.
"I said I"d fix you, and this is how I"m going to do it! Look there, if you dare!" called out Werner, and pointed to a tree limb just over their heads.
Fearing some trick, Jack gave only the faintest of glances upward, but Ruth, more innocent, gazed wide-eyed at the limb pointed out. As he spoke, Werner broke open the paper bag and hurled its contents forward.
"There! Take that, Jack Rover!" he shouted triumphantly. "Take that, and see how you like it!"
It was a package of pepper which Gabe Werner had carried. As it was thrown forward a small portion of it went in Jack"s face, but the most of it was sent in a spray over the young captain"s shoulder and hit poor Ruth.
"Oh! Oh!" screamed the girl. "Oh, I am blinded! He threw pepper in my eyes!"
"You hound, you!" exclaimed Jack, and even though his eyes smarted not a little from the few grains of pepper that had entered, he managed to leap upon the bully and give him a swinging crack in the jaw. But then Werner threw the young captain backward over a rock, and just as Andy and Spouter put in an appearance he dodged in among some heavy brushwood and quickly disappeared.
"What did he do?" demanded Spouter.
"He threw something in our eyes. Ruth got the worst of it," answered Jack. "Go on after him; we"ll have to attend to our eyes."
Jack"s eyes were bad enough, but Ruth"s were much worse. The girl could hardly keep from screaming with pain, and Jack was just then in no condition to a.s.sist her. Seeing this, Andy and Spouter set up a yell for some of the others to go after Werner, and then did what they could to relieve the sufferers.
"Come on down to the lake," advised Spouter. "I guess water will be about the best thing you can use. Anyhow, you can wash out the pepper if there is any left."
Both cadets a.s.sisted Ruth to the water"s edge, and Jack stumbled after them. Here the eyes, which had already begun to inflame, were washed out carefully, and then, as Ruth continued to complain of the pain, they bound up her eyes with their handkerchiefs.
"I think mine will be all right after a while," said Jack. "They smart a little, but that"s all."
"Don"t you think Ruth had better see a doctor?" suggested Spouter.
"By all means. We"ll get back to town just as soon as we possibly can.
He can probably give her some sort of ointment that will relieve the pain and take away the inflammation."
By this time the others were coming up. The news that Ruth had received a dose of pepper in her eyes excited everybody.
"Gabe Werner ought to be put in jail for this," said Martha.
"Isn"t it the most dreadful thing you ever heard of!" came from May.
The excitement was so intense that for the time being the boys forgot all about Bill Glutts. As a consequence when they turned to where they had left that unworthy, Glutts had disappeared.
"Well, he got a good beating, anyhow," said Randy. "I think that will teach him to leave our stuff alone after this."
At first some of the boys were inclined to make another hunt for Werner and Glutts. They knew the bullies must have come to the island in some kind of a boat.
"If we can find their boat we can take it with us," said Spouter. "Then they can either stay on the island or try to swim ash.o.r.e."
"We can"t waste any more time," declared Jack. "We must get Ruth to a doctor. And I"d like to see a doctor myself. My eyes feel terribly scratchy."
"Yes, yes! I want to see a doctor at once," said Ruth. "My eyes hurt dreadfully."
Some of the boys gathered up what was left of the lunch, and all made their way to the water"s edge, where the rowboats had been left. As they did this they heard the sudden put-put of a motor-boat, and a few seconds later they saw the craft shoot out of a tiny cove at the upper end of the island and head for the eastern sh.o.r.e of Clearwater Lake.
"There they go! There are Glutts and Werner!" exclaimed Gif.
"And in a motor-boat, too!" added Randy. "Too bad! If they were in a rowboat we might be able to catch them."
"Oh, let them go," said Mary hastily. "I am more worried about Ruth"s eyes than anything else."
"We"re all worried about that," answered her brother. "Come on, we"ll get over to Haven Point just as fast as we can. I only hope we find one of the doctors at home."
They tumbled into the boats, the girls leading Ruth, who still had her eyes bandaged.
"Do you think you can row, Jack?" questioned Fred.
"Of course I can," replied the young captain. He was not going to admit that the injury to his eyes was making him feel sick all over.
May sat beside Ruth and did what she could for the sufferer. All of the boys bent to their oars and a straight course was taken for the town.
"Wouldn"t it be dreadful if Ruth was blinded for life?" remarked Alice Strobell on the way.
"Oh, Alice! don"t suggest such a thing as that," came from Annie Larkins in horror.
"Well, people have been blinded in that way more than once," remarked Randy. "It all depends on how bad a dose she got."
"Jack said the pepper must have been intended for him," came from Andy.
"I can"t imagine that Werner would be wicked enough to try to injure Ruth that way."
"Maybe he didn"t intend to do it when he started," returned his brother.
"But when Werner gets mad he"s liable to do almost anything. You know that as well as I do."
"That"s true. When he gets into a rage he goes almost insane."
"What an ending to our outing!" sighed Alice.
"And we didn"t eat a mouthful of the lunch!" added Annie. She had spent over an hour in fixing some fancy sandwiches.
"Was that pepper from some you brought along?" questioned Randy quickly.
"As far as I know we didn"t bring any pepper along. We had a saltcellar, and that"s all," answered Alice.