CHAPTER XIII.WATCHING THE TREASURE.
“Any news yet?”
“Nothing. I guess they’re waiting till night to move it.”
“Do you suppose they knew the burglars were after it last night?”
“No, I don’t. They haven’t the least idea of it, I’m sure. I heard Bull Harris talking about it this afternoon.”
The Seven were waiting for a summons to drill, and sitting in one of the tents of the summer encampment. The cadet who was answering the questions was Mark. He had just entered the tent as the conversation before mentioned began.
“Bull Harris will never get that treasure away from us,” he continued. “That is, not unless he has more sense than I think he has. Bull is busy all day, nearly the same as we; so I think he’ll try to move it at night. We can watch him then, and stand a fair show to get it back. You see it was only night before last that he stole it from our cave, and I think he’s pretty sure we haven’tfound it out yet. We’ve been careful not to awaken any suspicions.”
“Keerful!” echoed Texas. “Pshaw! I don’t see whar the keerful part is. We stole over thar to the hotel last night an’ went up to the room and tried to run off with it. An’ ef somebody hadn’t a seen us, we’d a had it, too.”
“Bull Harris has small idea that those desperate burglars were his old plebe enemies,” laughed Mark. “I heard him talking about the burglars to the cadets this morning. He said he thought they had come up from Highland Falls and——”
The conversation was cut short just then by the rattle of a drum, which caused the plebes to spring up and hustle out of the tent in a hurry to “fall in” for the morning drill in evolutions, which ended the plotting, for that hour at least.
The treasure was still in the hotel. By way of penance for her last night’s stupidity, Grace Fuller had volunteered to see that the chest was not carried from the place that day without the plebes learning of it. Mark had been over to inquire a short while ago; his report had been as stated.
He was mistaken, however, in his idea that the yearlinghad no idea who the burglars were. Young Chandler had picked up a revolver dropped in the hall by Texas. Texas hadn’t missed it; he had too many for that. But this one had his initials on it, and Chandler had “caught on” to the state of affairs in no time. So Bull did know that he was watched, and he was using all his cunning to outwit his unsuspecting enemies. A chest of gold was a stake worth playing hard for.
Slowly the day passed. Chandler still held on to that revolver, with the “J. P.” on the hilt. Likewise to the box of treasure in the corner of his room. And he and Bull were busily plotting a way to remove it to safety, and if possible get its real owners into trouble besides. Bull thought they might make another effort to steal it. “It would be just like the fools,” said he, “and if they do, they won’t get away quite so easily again.”
Bull had a decided advantage in the matter, as you may easily see. He was working with his eyes open. He knew the situation. The Seven, on the other hand, were blinded by their supposition that they were unwatched and unsuspected.
Moreover, Bull had what Texas would have called the “drop” on them with that gun.
He was going to cap the climax by getting the treasure safely out of reach; then he calculated that his long-sought revenge over Mark would be obtained.
Bull watched Mark and his “gang” slyly during the day. Bull hated each and every individual member of that gang with all the concentrated hatred of which he was capable. Mark had foiled and outwitted him at every turn—the wild and woolly Texan had thrashed him once; “Indian,” the fat and timid “kid” from Indianapolis, had gotten mad one day and interrupted one of Bull’s hazing bees, attacking the yearling with a fury that had knocked him off his feet.
Then there was the Parson, who was one of the most inoffensive scholars this world has ever made, but he did object to being tied in a sack “like a member of the Turkish harem,” as he vividly described it. And when Bull tried that, the Parson had a fit and put his classical and geological muscles at work on Bull’s nose.
Then came “B’gee” Dewey, light-hearted, with a laugh that put everybody in a good humor. Not so Bull; Dewey had once had the nerve to refuse to climb a tree because Bull said to, and had given Bull two black eyes duringthe scrimmage that followed. Besides these there were “Chauncey, the dude,” and “Sleepy, the farmer,” who had once attacked Bull and five other yearlings, and who, besides this, had dared to join Mallory’s gang, an unpardonable offense anyhow. Bull Harris had much to revenge, but he thought he was about to make up for all of it in a very brief time.
The day passed without incident to interest us. It was the usual routine of duty for the plebes, with much drilling and very little rest. Grace Fuller kept some one watching Chandler all day with no result; and that is all there is to be said.
The plot began to unfold itself that night, however. Chandler strolled in to see Bull after supper, a fact which the Seven noticed with no small amount of glee.
“He’s fixing up something for to-night,” they whispered.
That seemed to be the state of affairs for a fact, and the Seven made a compact then and there to stay awake and prevent it if it was the last thing they ever did in their lives.
That is, all of them but one. The one was the Parson.The Parson, it appeared, had been “geologizing” during the morning; he had secured some extraordinary specimens of rocks. There were pyrites and fluorites, belemnites and ammonites, hematites, andalusies and goniatites, to say nothing of Hittites and Jebusites, added by the facetious Dewey, with outasites and gottabites. However that may be, Parson Stanard had found a piece of “horn-blend, with traces of potassium nitrate manifested.” So extraordinary a phenomenon as that could not be allowed to pass unnoticed, especially for any quantity of ordinary twenty-two carat gold, with no interest to the chemist whatsoever. The Parson vowed he was going to analyze that specimen that evening as soon as camp was quiet.
Dewey suggested that evening ought to be pretty good time to test for “nitrates,” whereupon the Parson turned away with a solemn look of pain and fell to examining his chemicals. The Parson had discovered a loose board in the flooring of his tent, and with true Bostonian originality he had hidden all his specimens and apparatus under that; the Texan’s revolvers were there, too, making a most interesting collection of articles altogether.
We must go on to the adventures of the evening. TheParson’s chemistry was destined to play a most important part in the affair, but not just at present.
Tattoo sounded, calling the cadets to roll call and bed; taps comes half an hour later, “lights out and all quiet.” Then the “tac” inspected and went to bed also, after which the Parson got up, let down his tent walls, lighted his candle, and set out his array of test-tubes and reagents. Then also Texas got up and stole out of the tent, past the sentry, and over to the hotel.
It had been agreed that the place was to be watched from the distance every moment that night. Texas had put in a claim to be first, and he was on his way to spend an hour hiding in the bushes. Chandler and Bull Harris weren’t going to remove that treasure without a “scrap.”
As it happened, Texas was not going to have to wait long. It appears that Bull imagined that the Seven were going to try burglary again; his plan to fool them was to hide the treasure early, before the people in the hotel were quiet, and so before the plebes could do anything. Then, the treasure once out of the way, Chandler might easily trap the plebes. It was quite a clever scheme indeed, and Bull was in a hurry to put it into execution.
He stole out of camp as Texas had done, and stole into the hotel at the rear entrance. At the same moment Texas rose up out of the bushes and sped away toward camp at the top of his speed.
Which was where the excitement began.