"Phew, what a smell!" cried the sneak, as he allowed the decayed codfish to fall out on the floor.
The odor when released from the air-tight box was so overpowering that he had to go over and throw open the window.
"Codfish for the Codfish!" sang out Andy gaily, unable to keep quiet any longer.
The sneak of the school whirled around suddenly, and there beheld in the doorway of the next room the Rover boys and their chums in a group, all grinning at him.
"How"d you like the fish, Codfish?" questioned Fred.
"Thought you said you didn"t have any boxes in your room," came from Jack.
"I didn"t know you were raising frogs for a living," remarked Randy.
"Why don"t you take those boxes down and put them on the bonfire?"
questioned Gif.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself--littering up your room with all that straw and excelsior," was Walt"s comment. "If you aren"t careful, you"ll get some mighty bad marks for doing that."
"What did you do with the man who wanted to see you?" questioned Spouter. "Did you tell him that you were too busy to talk?"
"You"re a fine bunch of fellows!" howled Codfish, not knowing what to say. "You had no business to play a trick like this on me!"
"Play a trick on you?" questioned Andy innocently. "Who has been playing a trick? Why, we don"t know what it is to do anything like that!"
"I think somebody said you wanted to see us, but I don"t know what for," added Randy.
"If anybody should ask me, I would say you had a queer way of cleaning house, Codfish," remarked Fred calmly.
"And to think he stole one of the codfish from the pantry!" said Jack.
"By the way it smells, he must have taken it the day he enrolled here."
"Maybe he likes codfish good and strong," suggested Gif.
"I"ll "codfish" you fellows if you don"t leave me alone!" howled the sneak. He was so vexed he almost felt like crying. "You just wait till Colonel Colby or Captain Dale hears about this!"
"Yes, I wonder what the colonel will say when he finds out you stole one of the codfish belonging to the school," said Andy. "You oughtn"t to have done it, Henry, my boy. If you wanted anything to eat, why didn"t you ask one of the teachers for it?"
"Maybe he chews on codfish in the middle of the night when he can"t sleep, or when he is trying to solve a problem in algebra," suggested Randy.
"I don"t do any such thing, and I didn"t take that codfish from the pantry, and you know it!" howled Codfish, in anger. "It"s a put-up job, and you are the fellows who did it! All of you ought to be sent away from this school."
"If he took a codfish, maybe he took some other things, too," said Jack. "I think this ought to be investigated."
"And how did you happen to get all these boxes?" demanded Fred. "I know them. They were collected for the bonfire some days ago."
"You certainly have no right to have them in your room, Codfish," said Gif. "Better hustle "em down and put "em on the fire before the rest of the fellows hear of this."
"And if you"ve got things belonging to the school victuals besides that codfish, you"d better fork "em over," admonished Jack.
"You clear out, every one of you! I don"t want to hear another word!"
screamed Codfish, in a rage. "You just wait until I report you! I think you"re all too mean for anything! Go on away!" And he tried to close the door to the other room in their faces. But they held it back so he could do nothing.
"Come on, fellows, let"s put those boxes where they belong!" cried Jack. And, marching into the room, he picked up one of the packing cases, and the others quickly followed suit. Then they marched out into the hallway, leaving Codfish staring after them in bewilderment.
"I know you"ve got some other things belonging to the school besides that fish!" cried Andy. "You"ve got the pockets of your overcoat just stuffed with good things!"
"Haven"t any such thing!" declared the sneak. And then, struck by a sudden idea, he ran to the clothing closet and brought forth his overcoat, which had been in one of the boxes. He rammed his hand into one of the pockets, and then suddenly withdrew it with a yell of fright and pain.
And his fright and pain were not without good reason, for clinging to the thumb of the hand he had inserted into the pocket of the overcoat was a small, but exceedingly active, snapping turtle!
CHAPTER VIII
AN INTERRUPTED FEAST
"Oh, oh, oh!" yelled Codfish, dancing around the room wildly. "Take that thing off! Oh, I"ll be bitten to death! Take it off, somebody!
What is it, anyhow?"
"h.e.l.lo! Codfish has been fishing," cried Andy gaily.
"Maybe he got that from the cook"s pantry, too," broke in Randy.
"What"s the dear creature"s name, Codfish?" questioned Fred.
"You haven"t got to let go of him if you don"t want to, you know,"
came from Jack.
All this while the sneak of the school was dancing around the room, doing his best to shake off the snapping turtle. But the creature, though small, had a hold that was very tenacious, and refused to budge.
"Say, he won"t be seriously bitten, will he?" questioned Spouter, in a low tone.
"No, it"s only a baby snapping turtle," answered Andy slowly.
"Codfish is far more scared than hurt."
The sneak of the school was so frightened that he did not dare to take hold of the snapping turtle. He held the creature out at arm"s length and continued to dance around, asking the others to take it off.
"He"ll eat my finger!"
"Put it in some water and it will let go quick enough," suggested Fred presently.
"Yes, give him a chance to swim around in a bathtub," added Randy quickly, when he saw Stowell make a move toward the washbowl in one corner of the room. "That isn"t big enough for a good healthy turtle."
"Oh, oh! I"ll have the law on you for this!" yelled the sneak, and then bolted for the door and ran down the corridor in the direction of the nearest bathroom.
As it happened, at that moment Job Plunger, the school janitor, was coming along the corridor carrying an armful of old magazines which he had been ordered to store away in the attic. As my old readers know, Plunger, who had been nicknamed "Shout," was quite deaf, and with eyes in another direction he did not see Codfish coming. The two collided violently, and the janitor was sent over backward, scattering the magazines in all directions, while Codfish came down on top of him.