The Rover Boys on the Farm; or, Last Days at Putnam Hall
business in the village and was about to move to another place.
When Tad Sobber returned to Putnam Hall he carried under his arm a heavy
pasteboard box which he carried with great care. This box he hid away in
a corner of the barn, among some loose hay.
"I'm ready to fix the Rovers now," he told Nick Pell. "Keep your mouth
shut but your eyes wide open."
"What are you going to do?"
"Just wait and see."
At the appointed time the Rovers and their chums assembled in the
dormitory for the feast. A large quantity of good things had been
procured, including chicken sandwiches, cake, oranges and lemonade. Tom
had even had a dealer in Cedarville pack him up several bricks of
ice-cream, and these now rested in some cracked ice in a washbowl.
"Say, but this is a touch of old times," said Sam. "Do you remember the
first feast we had here, when Mumps got scared to death?"
"Indeed I do!" cried one of the other students. "Here's to the good old
times!" and he raised his glass of lemonade to his lips.
In a short while the feast was in full swing. There was a hall monitor
supposed to be on guard, but Tom had bought him off with a slice of
cake, some candy and an orange, and he was keeping himself in a front
hallway, where he could not hear what was going on.
"If it wasn't for the noise, we might have a song," said Sam. "As it is,
I move Songbird recite 'Mary Had a Little Cow,' or something equally
elevating."
"I can give you an original bit of verse which I have entitled, 'When
the Blossoms Fill the Orchard, Molly Dear,'" answered the doggerel
maker.
"Gracious, that sounds like a new nine-cent piece of sheet music,"
murmured Dick.
"Can't you whistle it?" suggested Tom. "It may sound better."
"Play it out on a fine-tooth comb," suggested Larry.
"Who is ready for ice-cream?" asked Tom, after a general laugh had
ensued. "This isn't going to keep hard forever."
All were ready, and the bricks were cut, the pieces laid on tiny wooden
plates which had been provided, and passed around. Then came more cake
and fruit.
In the midst of the jollification there came a sudden and unexpected
knock on the door.
"Who can that be?" whispered several in alarm.
"Put out the lights!" said Tom. "Those who don't belong here get under
the beds." And he began to get the evidences of the feast out of sight,
Dick and Sam assisting him.
With quaking hearts the merry-makers waited for the knock to be
repeated, and waited to hear the sound of Captain Putnam's voice or that
of the first assistant teacher.
"Bartlett might have warned us," whispered Fred. Bartlett was the
monitor who had been bribed.
No other knock came on the door, nor did anybody demand admittance. The
boys waited for several seconds, each holding his breath in anxiety.
"Who can it be?" asked Sam of his oldest brother.
"I suppose I might as well go and see," said Dick. "Maybe some of the
other fellows are up to some tricks."
With caution he approached the hall door and opened it. Only a dim light
was burning, and for the instant he could see nothing. Then he caught
sight of a white object on the floor and picked it up. It was a
pasteboard box, tied with a strong string.
"This must be some kind of a joke," he said, and came back into the
dormitory with the box in his hands. "Light up and let me see what this
is."
The lights were lit and several of the boys began to eat the stuff that
had been swept out of sight. They all gazed curiously at the pasteboard
box.
"Here's a card on the top," said Dick, and commenced to read it. The
inscription was as follows:
_To the Rover Boys From Their Friends, Dora, Grace and Nellie._
_Keep it a secret among you and your chums at the feast._
"How in the world did they know we were going to have a feast?"
questioned Sam.
"And how did they manage to smuggle the box into the Hall?" asked Larry.
"Open it and see what's inside, Dick," came from Tom. "I'll wager they
have sent us something good."
"Maybe it's a loaf cake," said Fred.
"Oder a pudding," broke in Hans. "I lof chocolate puddings, yah!"
"You can't pack a pudding in a box very well," commented Songbird.
Holding the box in one hand, Dick undid the string and threw off the
cover.
The next instant he let out a yell of horror and Tom, who was near by,
did likewise and fell over a chair in his fright.
For out of the box glided a real, live snake, fully three feet long, and
with beady and dangerous looking eyes!
CHAPTER XVI
THE HUNT FOR A SNAKE
"It's a snake!"
"And it's alive!"
"Look out, or he'll bite you!"
"There he goes on the floor!"
These and a number of other cries rang through the dormitory as the
cadets saw the contents of the box. Several tried to back away, and Hans
pitched over Tom and both went in a heap.
"Ton't you let dot snake bite me!" roared the German youth.
"Maybe he's poisonous!" came from Larry. He had sought safety by leaping
on a bed.
Slowly the snake had lifted itself from the box, to glare at several of
the boys. Then its cold, beady eyes were fixed on Dick and it uttered a
vicious hiss. This was more than the eldest Rover could stand and he let
box and snake drop in a hurry. The snake glided out of sight under a
bed.
"This is a joke right enough," murmured Sam. "Wonder who played it?"
"Do you think the girls would send a snake?" queried Larry.
"Of course not," answered Tom, who had scrambled up. "This is the work
of some enemy."
"Look out! The snake is getting busy!" screamed Sam, and he was right;
the reptile had left the shelter of the bed and was darting across the
room, in the direction of Songbird.
The would-be poet did not stop to argue with his snakeship, but letting
out a wild yell leaped to the top of a small stand which stood in a
corner. The stand was frail and down it went with a crash, the wreckage
catching the snake on the tail. It whipped around and made a lunge at
Songbird's foot, but the youth was too nimble and leaped on the bed.
"We've got to kill that snake," observed Dick, after the reptile had
disappeared for a moment under a washstand. "If we don't----"
Crash! It was a plate which Sam shied at the snake, as its head showed
for a moment. Then down went a shower of shoes, brushes, plates, and a
cake of soap. But the snake was not seriously hurt. It hissed viciously
and darted from one side of the dormitory to the other, and made all the
boys climb up on the furniture.
"This racket will wake up everybody in the school," said Dick, and he
was right. The boys had hardly time to get the most of the evidence of
the feast out of the way when they heard a knock on the door.
"Look out there!" yelled Tom. "Don't open that door if you value your
life!"
"What's the matter?" came in George Strong's voice.
"A snake!" answered Dick, and then went on in a whisper: "Quick, boys,
get the rest of the stuff out of the way!"
His chums understood, and the remains of the feast were swept under bed
covers in a jiffy.
"Did you say there was a snake in there?" demanded the teacher.
"Yes, sir," said Sam. "He's right close to the door now." And what he
said was true.
Thinking the youngest Rover might be fooling, the first assistant
teacher opened the door cautiously and peered into the dormitory. Then
he, too, let out a cry of alarm, for the snake darted forward and made
as if to bite him in the foot. Not to be caught he fell back, leaving
the door open about a foot. Through this opening the snake glided and
disappeared in the semi-dark hallway.
By this time Putnam Hall was in an uproar, and boys were pouring into
the hallways demanding to know if there was a fire or a robbery. Soon
Captain Putnam appeared, wrapped in a dressing robe and wearing
slippers.
"Beware, all of you!" cried George Strong. "It's a snake and it is loose
in this hallway somewhere."
"A snake!" ejaculated the master of Putnam Hall. "Where did it come
from?"
"It was in the dormitory over there. I heard a noise and went to see
what was the matter and the snake came out of the room and made off in
that direction," and George Strong pointed with his hand.
"Humph!" muttered Captain Putnam. "This must be looked into. What kind
of a snake was it?"
"I don't know, sir, but it was fully three feet long, and it hissed
loudly as it went past me."
"Some more of the boys' tricks, I suppose. But this is going too far,
especially if the reptile is poisonous."
Lights were lit and turned up as high as possible, and a search of all
the hallways followed. When the cadets learned that a snake was really
at large in the school many of the timid ones were badly frightened.
"He might poison a fellow and kill him," said one lad.
"Oh, I can't bear snakes," said another. "If he came for me I'd have a
fit sure."
The search for the snake was kept up the best part of an hour, but
without success. Peleg Snuggers was forced to join in the hunt and
nearly collapsed when he saw something under a stand in a far corner.
"The snake! The snake!" he yelled and started to run away. But what he
had seen proved to be nothing but a piece of old window cord, and the
general utility man was laughed at so heartily he was glad to sneak out
of sight.
"He must have gone downstairs," said Dick, and then a hunt was made
below. Here some windows had been left open for ventilation, and Captain
Putnam said it was possible the reptile had made its escape in that
manner. He did not quite believe this, but he thought the snake must be
harmless, and he wanted to say something to quiet those pupils who were
timid.
"How did the snake get in your room?" he asked later on of the Rovers
and their dormitory fellows.
"It came in this box," answered Dick, and brought forth the pasteboard
box in question. "Somebody knocked on the door and when we opened it the
box was on the floor."
Captain Putnam looked at the box and the inscription.
"Your lady friends must have peculiar tastes," he said, smiling.
"Of course that was a trick--just to get us to take the box and open
it," answered Tom.
"Do you suspect anybody, Thomas?"
"Well--not exactly," said the fun-loving Rover, slowly.
"What have you to say, Samuel?"
"I'm sure I can't imagine who could send that box."
"Richard, what can you tell of this?"
Dick paused and took a long breath.
"I can't tell you anything, just now, Captain Putnam," he answered
slowly. "But I've got something of an idea of how that box got here. But
I'd hate to accuse anybody unless I was sure of it."
"Mr. Strong said the snake was at least three feet long."
"It was certainly all of that."
"Was it a poisonous snake, do you think?"
"It was not a rattlesnake, nor was it any kind of a snake such as are
usually found in this part of our country, of that I am sure."
"You got a good look at it then?"
"Yes."
"I certainly had no idea snakes of such size could be found close to the
school."
"I am pretty sure that snake was never found around here. During my
travels I have studied snakes a little, and that variety was a stranger
to me."
"I see." The master of Putnam Hall mused for a moment. "Well, it is very
queer. But, as the snake has disappeared, I think we may as well retire
once more. I do not imagine we have anything to fear."
It was a good hour before the school was quiet. Many of the boys were
afraid to go to bed, and the teachers could not blame them. The Rovers
and their chums got together to discuss the situation in whispers and at
the same time remove all traces of the feast which had been so curiously
interrupted.
"Dick, what do you make of this?" asked Tom.
"I think Tad Sobber is guilty, Tom--but I didn't want to tell Captain
Putnam so."