The Rover Boys on Sunset Trail; or, The old miner's mysterious message — Inside the Classic

, Andy and Randy are wet, and so is Phil Franklin!” put in Dan Soppinger, another of the chums.

“Anybody hurt?” questioned Ned Lowe, a cadet who was quite a singer and who generally led the cadets in their school songs.

“I had my fingers pinched, but it didn’t amount to much,” answered Spouter Powell. “But something pretty bad happened,” he went on.

“What was it?” questioned a dozen cadets at once, and then several added quickly: “Where is the silver trophy? Weren’t you to bring it over?”

For a moment there was a silence that was intense. Nobody seemed to be willing to break the bad news. Even Pud Hicks bent his head away and pretended to be at work over the engine of the motor boat.

“Well, we might as well tell the truth,” announced Gif at last. “The silver trophy is at the bottom of the lake.”

“At the bottom of the lake!”

“How did that happen?”

“Why didn’t you fish it up again?”

Thereupon there was wild excitement, and the cadets began to crowd closer to those who were just landing. The boys kept coming up until at least fifty of the Colby Hall pupils were assembled. Then, seeing the unusual crowd, Captain Mapes Dale, the chief military instructor of the institution, strode forward hastily.

“A steam yacht ran into us and nearly bowled us over,” said Randy.

Then all the boys who had come across the lake with Pud Hicks tried to explain at once. Numerous questions were asked and answered and a dozen lads became wildly excited.

“Why didn’t you have the owner of the _Jocelyn_ arrested?” questioned Walt Baxter.

“He ought to have been tarred and feathered,” came from Bart White.

“Gosh! I’ll bet you fellows will catch it for losing that trophy,” came from a thin boy who had weak, shifty eyes and an unusually broad mouth. His name was Henry Stowell and he was generally known as the sneak of the school.

“It wasn’t our fault, Codfish,” answered Fred, calling the sneak by the nickname which was often applied to him. “The other boat headed directly for us. If Pud Hicks hadn’t acted quickly our boat might have been cut in two and some of us might have been killed.”

“Humph! that’s easy enough for you to say,” sneered Stowell. “If you could save yourselves, as you did, I don’t see why you couldn’t save the vase.”

This was a mean remark to make, since the sneak did not know the details of the affair. But his snap judgment was taken up by not a few of the other cadets and they looked rather sourly at the Rover boys and those who had been with them in the ill-fated trip across the lake.

“So you won the trophy only to lose it, eh?” came from Captain Dale in a voice that showed his regret. He had sense enough to know that no lads would have worked so hard to win a prize unless they were willing to do almost anything to keep it. “Are you quite sure the collision was not your fault, Hicks?” he demanded of the school employee. Hicks was really the janitor’s assistant, but had spent several years on the lake and was known to be a careful man among both sailboats and motor boats.

“It wasn’t my fault at all, Captain Dale,” was Hicks’ firm reply, and he went into the details, as he knew them, of the happening.

“We’ll have to look into this and without delay,” said the military instructor. “You had better report to Colonel Colby.”

After that the Rovers and their chums hurried to the gymnasium, and there those who were wet, as well as the others, changed from their baseball outfits into their uniforms. By this time it was close to the supper hour, and Jack and Fred had to hurry off to take charge of their commands.

It must be confessed that Andy and Randy felt in anything but an enviable frame of mind when they went for their rifles and joined in the brief parade around the campus which always preceded the entrance to the mess hall.

“Some of the fellows will never forgive us for losing that trophy,” remarked Andy, and his usually smiling face showed nothing but gloom.

“I guess you’re right,” answered his twin. “No matter how we try to explain it, they’ll always think that somehow or other we ought to have hung on to the trophy when the collision came.”

“Yes, but, Randy, you nearly lost your life trying to save it!”

“There will be some of the fellows who’ll never believe that――Codfish, for instance.”

“Oh, you mustn’t pay any attention to that sneak.”

“Well, there’s a bunch of others besides Codfish. I heard Walt Baxter talking to Ned Lowe just a few minutes ago; and while they didn’t say it in so many words, it was easy to see that they rather thought we should have made more of an effort to save the trophy.”

“If only we can fish it up again!”

“I’m certainly going to have a try at it, and that very soon. More than that, what’s the matter with offering a reward for its recovery?”

“That’s the talk! We’ll do it!”

Here the conversation had to come to an end as the boys took their places in the company’s ranks.

“Battalion attention!” came a minute later from Major Jack Rover, and every cadet straightened up, with eyes front and rifle at his side. A moment later the order came to march, the drums and fifes struck up, and away went the three companies of the school battalion around the campus and then around the school buildings. A few minutes later the cadets filed inside, placed away their rifles and side arms, and crowded rather noisily into the big mess hall, there to distribute themselves at the various long tables presided over by the teachers.

Discipline was rather strict this term, so that conversation flagged during the time set apart for eating. Yet the Rover boys could well understand that nearly everything that was said in an undertone related to the loss of the silver trophy.

“It will certainly put a damper on the celebration to-night,” whispered Fred to Gif, who sat beside him.

“Oh, we don’t have to take it as seriously as all that, Fred,” answered the manager of the baseball team. “We won the championship, and that’s the main thing, after all.”

“Yes, we can’t send that to the bottom of the lake,” returned the youngest Rover boy, with a slight grin.

In anticipation of a possible victory, a number of the cadets had been gathering boxes and barrels with which to build bonfires, and as soon as it grew dark enough these bonfires were started along the lake front, being placed there so that the Longley boys might see how their successful rivals were celebrating the victory.

“The baseball nine to the front!” shouted Fatty Hendry, who on account of his weight never played ball but was one of the best rooters the team possessed. “Come on! Get your bats and join the parade!”

Andy and Randy felt like declining this invitation; but Fatty and a number of others would not listen to it and shoved them forward, and in a very few minutes those who belonged to the baseball team found themselves bats in hand and surrounded by the other cadets, some with drums and fifes and others with horns, rattles, pans, and anything else that might be utilized in making a noise. At the head of the procession marched three of the tallest cadets, each carrying a new broom borrowed for the occasion from Mrs. Crews, the housekeeper.

Up and down the lake front went the cadets, singing one school song after another always ending with the well-known Hall refrain:

“Who are we? Can’t you see? Colby Hall! Dum, dum! dum, dum, dum! Here we come with fife and drum! Colby, Colby, Colby Hall!”

“That’s the stuff! Give it to ’em louder!” shouted Fatty Hendry, dancing wildly in front of the singers and brandishing a stick. “Sing it so loud that they can hear it clear across the lake!”

“Oh, Andy, we almost forgot!” cried his twin suddenly.

“Forgot what?” put in Fred, who was marching alongside his cousins.

“The cannon! We forgot the cannon,” answered Randy.

“Say, did you fellows fix the cannon after all?” questioned Fred quickly.

“We sure did! Come ahead, Fred. Now is our chance to make a little noise in the world.”

“Say, don’t you know that that cannon hasn’t been shot off in years?” demanded the young captain of Company C. “It was only planted along the lake front as an ornament.”

“Oh, well, we didn’t put in much of a charge,” answered Andy. “It will make more of a sky-rocket effect than anything else. We’ll elevate it high into the air and have a barrel of fun when it goes off.”

The field piece to which the lads referred was one Colonel Colby had obtained from the Government after the close of the World War. It had been captured on the battlefront in France and the owner of Colby Hall was proud to have the piece planted at the corner of the school campus overlooking the lake. At first the cadets had been curious concerning this piece of artillery, but soon their interest flagged and few paid any attention to it. Then the idea entered Andy’s head to place a charge in the old piece and in case of a victory over Longley to discharge the same during the evening’s celebration. Fred and Jack had been called in consultation, but both had said that it would not be altogether safe to do this. Nevertheless, the twins had gone ahead and placed the charge in the piece when they thought nobody was looking.

“We’ve got to be careful, Andy, when we fire it,” cautioned his twin. “We can’t take too many chances on such a gun as that. It may have needed cleaning out when it was brought over here.”

“Oh, it will be all right,” was the ready reply. “There isn’t any ball or shot in it, or anything like that――it’s only a blank charge, one of those left over down in the powder house. Besides that, I’ve got a pretty long fuse, so we’ll not have to stand anywhere near the thing when it goes off.”

Making their way out of the crowd, the three Rover boys stole in the direction of the cannon. No one was near the piece, although they noticed that one of the other cadets was following them.

“Confound it, it’s Codfish! He’s always sneaking around to try to get something on us,” murmured Randy.

“Hi, Codfish! where are you going?” called out Fred sharply.

“None of your business,” retorted the sneak of the school, and then slunk back behind some bushes.

With only the fitful glare from the bonfires to light the way the three Rover boys advanced to the cannon and gave it a hasty inspection.

“Let’s try to elevate it a little,” suggested Randy. “Then the charge will make more of a showing.”

Not without considerable effort, the boys managed to raise the muzzle of the field piece until it was elevated to an angle of about forty-five degrees. Then Andy brought forth his fuse and attached the same.

“Now for it!” cried the fun-loving Rover, and without hesitation struck a match and applied the light to the fuse. Instantly the latter began to fizz, and all of the boys took to their heels.

Bang! It was a tremendous explosion, much louder than any of the boys had anticipated, and it fairly made the windows of the various school buildings rattle. Looking, they saw not one spurt of flames, but a dozen or more shooting in various directions.

“It’s busted! The cannon has busted!” gasped Fred, who had been thrown off his feet by the concussion.

“Gee! it can’t have been much of a piece,” was Andy’s comment, and he looked startled.

The tremendous report which echoed and re-echoed against the buildings and the hills beyond was followed by a moment of silence. Then came a yell from the cadets at the other end of the lake shore.

“I’m hit! I’m shot in the arm!”

“Something struck me in the back!”

“Help! Help! I’m killed! Somebody shot me!”

So the cries ran on while the three Rover boys gazed at each other in abject consternation.

“Somebody’s shot!” cried Fred.

“They must have been hit by some pieces of the cannon!” gasped out Randy. “I felt something whizz by my ear when it went off.”

“Yes, something whistled close to me, too,” answered his twin. “Gee! I hope no one is seriously hurt.”

“You wouldn’t think so at such a distance,” said Fred. For the nearest group of cadets in the celebration was more than a hundred yards away, for the captured cannon had been placed on the boundary line of the campus.

Already a number of cadets and teachers were hurrying in the direction where the cannon had been located. The piece itself had blown in various directions, only a portion of the base remaining.

“Halt! What is the meaning of this?” came in ringing tones from Captain Dale, as the military instructor ran swiftly in the direction of the explosion.

“Oh, Captain Dale, we didn’t mean to smash the cannon!” cried Randy quickly. For a brief instant he, as well as the others, had contemplated running away, then had tacitly decided to face the consequences of their ill-advised attempt at fun.

“Did you discharge that cannon?”

“Yes, sir. But we had no idea that it was going to explode,” answered Andy. “We didn’t put anything into it but a small blank charge――not enough to bust up a one-pounder.”

“Was any one seriously hurt?” questioned Fred anxiously.

“I don’t know. Colonel Colby and Professor Grawson are investigating. The colonel sent me up here to question those responsible for the affair. You admit that you did it, do you, Captain Rover?” he added sternly.

“It wasn’t Fred’s fault!” burst out Andy quickly. “I――and my brother――put the charge in the piece and set it off. But really and truly, Captain Dale, we didn’t expect it to do more than make a very small report. All we placed in the cannon was one of those blank charges from the powder house――one of those old ones marked ‘BB 27.’”

“What did you put on top of the blank charge?” demanded the military instructor. “Rammed the cannon full of stones, I suppose?”

“No, sir. We didn’t put in anything but a couple of loose newspapers. We thought the papers would scatter over the campus and make some fun.”

“Are you sure you didn’t put in any stones?” and the military instructor turned to Randy.

“Nothing but the newspapers, Captain. I am positive of it.”

“In that case how do you account for the cannon exploding? It undoubtedly needed cleaning, but it was too heavy a piece to blow up with nothing more in it than a blank BB 27 charge. Well, the three of you go to the office and report to Colonel Colby when he comes in,” ordered Captain Dale. “We’ll have a thorough investigation of this as soon as the excitement is over and we have found out how badly those cadets are injured.”

“Can’t we go and see if Jack is all right first?” questioned Andy.

“Yes, you may do that. But don’t waste any time. I ought to place you under arrest, but if what you say is true about using only a small blank charge, evidently you meant it only in fun to help along the celebration. Of course, you had no right to take anything out of the powder house. But that point can be settled later.”

In the meanwhile the excitement among the cadets was gradually calming down. It was found that Ned Lowe had been struck in the shoulder and a cadet named Grimshaw had been hit in the back, while several others had received minor injuries. Both Lowe and Grimshaw were severely bruised and were sent to the school, there to be placed under the matron’s care until a doctor could be summoned.

“Jack! are you all right?” questioned Fred, as he ran up to his cousin, followed by the twins.

“All right, except that a stone or something flew right past my face,” was the reply. “Who shot off that cannon?”

“We did,” answered Andy, indicating himself and his brother. “But we didn’t know the confounded thing was going to bust,” and thereupon the twins made a complete confession, Jack, Gif, Spouter, and a number of others listening with interest. Then the three Rover boys went to the office as ordered.

Flashlights and lanterns were brought into play, and it was soon ascertained that none of the broken parts of the cannon had come near where the cadets had been celebrating. Pieces of cannon had struck behind the gymnasium and along the lake front, and other pieces had probably gone into the water.

“It’s stones that did the damage――stones, and nothing else!” exclaimed Gif. “Look here!” and he pointed at a box standing near one of the bonfires. The box had been peppered with both large and small stones, some of the smaller ones being still embedded in the wood.

“But Andy and Randy said they placed nothing on top of the blank charge but a couple of loose newspapers,” said Jack.

“It was undoubtedly stones that did the damage here,” came from Professor Grawson.

“The boys who did this should be dismissed from the school,” thundered Professor Snopper Duke, a dictatorial teacher whom many of the cadets detested.

“Well, it was probably done in fun with no intention of harm,” returned Professor Grawson, who generally took the side of the boys.

While Fred and the twins were passing an uncomfortable time outside Colonel Colby’s office waiting for the commandant’s appearance, Dan Soppinger and Fatty Hendry came up.

“Say, what did you want to load that cannon with rocks for?” demanded Hendry. “Did you want to shoot somebody’s head off?”

“Didn’t put any rocks in,” retorted Andy.

“Yes, you did. Pieces of stone are sticking in all sorts of places; the cannon must have been loaded to the muzzle.”

“It was certainly filled with stones, Andy,” said Dan. “The fellows who were hurt were hit by stones and not by pieces of the cannon.”

“Then somebody fixed that cannon after we placed the charge in it!” exclaimed Randy. “Now, who could have done that?”

“Jimminy beeswax, I’ve got it!” ejaculated his twin. “Codfish! That’s what he was sneaking around for!”

“I believe you’re right!” put in Fred. “He’s just the sneak to play a mean trick like that. He knew you were going to fire the cannon and he filled it with stones just to make trouble for you.”

“Come on, let’s go after him before Colonel Colby comes!” cried Randy. “I’ll get the truth out of that sneak if I have to hammer the daylights out of him.”

It was no easy matter to locate Henry Stowell. He was not on the campus nor in the gymnasium. Nor was he to be found in the room he and another cadet occupied.

“That proves he’s guilty,” was Andy’s comment. “He wouldn’t hide like this if he didn’t have something to be afraid of.”

In one of the corridors they met several of the cadets, and one of these stated that he had seen Stowell walking toward the Hall garage. At once the twins and Fred started in that direction.

“I’ll bet Codfish is going to keep out of sight until it’s time to turn in,” said Fred.

“He isn’t going to keep out of sight――not if I can help it,” returned Andy.

“Let’s separate and each make a hunt on his own account,” suggested Randy. “If any one locates him whistle three times.” So it was arranged, and the three Rovers began a systematic search, first of the garage and then of the large barns attached to the Hall.