“Paxton, do you surrender?” asked Jack.
“No, I don’t! I’m going – Hi! give me that oar!” For somebody had suddenly captured the other blade.
“If you don’t surrender we’ll cast you adrift without oars,” came from Pepper, with a wink at his companions.
“Yo – you won’t dare,” faltered Paxton.
“Won’t we? You’ll soon see.”
“Yes, cast him adrift,” was the cry.
“Send him away out into the lake!”
“No! No! I – I surrender!” said Paxton.
By this time Dan Baxter was walking ashore. His clothes – a new suit, elegantly pressed, – were, of course, soaked completely, and there was a streak of mud over one shoulder.
“I’ll make somebody pay for this!” he growled. “It will cost two dollars to have this suit fixed up again.”
“You brought it on yourself, Baxter,” said Jack.
“No, I didn’t!”
“Yes, you did. What right had you to try to run away with our baskets of things?”
“I – er – I wasn’t going to run off with ’em. I was just fooling.”
“I don’t believe you,” broke in Pepper.
Several surrounded the bully, so that he might not run away, and the rowboat with Paxton and Mumps was turned back to the point from where it had started.
“Let us make them prisoners,” suggested Andy. “They ought to be taught a lesson.”
“That’s the talk!” came the cry.
“I – I won’t stand it,” faltered Paxton.
“Then sit on it!” cried Pepper, and tripped the fellow up. While he and Stuffer made Paxton a prisoner, the others attended to Dan Baxter and Mumps. The prisoners had their hands tied behind them, and each had a foot tied to the root of a big tree, the boys using sections of boat rope for that purpose.
“Now let us finish our swim,” said Jack, and drew his crowd to one side.
“What shall we do with them?” whispered Pepper.
“We ought to duck Paxton and Mumps,” came the suggestion. “Baxter don’t need any more.”
“Let us keep them bound up,” said another. “They can look on while we are feasting.”
“That’s the talk!” cried Jack. “It will make their mouths water to look at us getting outside of the good things.”
“And let us pretend that we’re going to leave them tied up when we go away,” added Andy.
So it was arranged, and, this settled, the boys continued their swim and then dressed at their leisure.
“See here, ain’t you going to let us go?” asked Dan Baxter, after a long spell of silence.
“Of course not,” answered Jack. “We’ve decided to let you stay here until Sunday night.”
“Sunday night!” cried Mumps, in alarm. “I don’t want to stay here all night and all day tomorrow!”
“Don’t get afraid, Mumpsy dear,” came from Pepper. “There are not very many bears around these parts now.”
“Oh! one bear is enough!” And the sneak shivered.
“I’m not going to stay here until Sunday night,” came from Paxton.
“Come, let us off, and maybe I’ll call it square,” said Baxter, in a more reasonable tone.
“But we don’t intend to call it square, Baxter,” answered Pepper.
“Then you won’t let us go?”
“No!” shouted the rest of the crowd.
After that the baskets were brought up and all the good things spread out where Baxter, Paxton, and Mumps could see them. Soon the cadets were eating and drinking to their hearts’ content.
“Baxter, wouldn’t you like a drink of soda?” asked Pepper, coming up with a glass full of the beverage. “I don’t like to be too hard on a fellow student.”
“Yes, I’d like a drink,” grumbled the bully.
“All right then, you shall have one – as soon as you go down to Cedarville and put up the necessary nickel at the store.”
“Oh, go to thunder!” growled the bully.
“Can’t I have a drink?” asked Mumps. “I’m as dry as a – a fish.”
“Sure you can have a drink – but not of soda,” said Andy. “I’ll get some water for all hands.”
He disappeared behind the bushes in the direction of a spring. Soon he came back with three glasses filled with water.
“Here’s a drink for each,” he said. “I’m not going to be too mean about this. I know what it is to go dry.”
He passed a glass to Pepper and one to Stuffer, and each of the cadets held his glass up to the mouth of a prisoner. As Baxter, Paxton, and Mumps were all dry, each drank eagerly.
“Hullo, what’s this?” spluttered Paxton.
“Bah!” came from Baxter, spitting out the water. “It’s full of salt!”
“This will make us drier than ever!” groaned Mumps.
“And I took several swallows,” growled Paxton.
“So did I,” added Baxter.
“To be sure it’s full of salt,” said Andy. “I thought you all needed it, you’re so fresh, you know.”
“Be gorry, that’s the bist joke yit,” came from Emerald Hogan, with a roar. “That’s roight, Andy, me b’y, salt ’em down.”
“I’ll salt you down, Irish!” cried Baxter, in a rage. “Just wait till I get back to the Hall.”
After this the bully and his cronies asked for nothing more to eat or drink, but they wistfully eyed the good things as the others disposed of them. The salt made them fearfully dry, and each would have given a good round sum for a glass of pure, cold water.
“Wonder if we can all get into that boat,” said Jack, after the feast had come to an end. “A row on the lake and back to the Hall would just suit me.”
“It will give us a little practice for those races,” put in Pepper. “I reckon we can manage it.”
“Are you going to steal our boat?” demanded Baxter.
“It is not your boat – it belongs to the academy,” retorted Jack. “We have as much right to it as you have.”
“Yes, but we had it first.”
“You won’t need any boat just yet,” said Stuffer. “You’re to stay here, you know.”
“No! No! don’t leave us here,” cried Paxton. “Let us go and – er – I, for one, will call the whole matter off.”
“Will you really!” said Pepper. “Awfully kind, I’m sure.”
“If you don’t let us go I’ll tell on you,” said Mumps. “The captain won’t stand for anything like this.”
“What have you got to say, Baxter?” demanded Jack.
“You had better let us go,” grumbled the bully. He did not fancy spending a night in the dark woods.
“If we let you go, will you keep your mouth shut?”
“I haven’t said that I would.”
“All right, we’ll leave you tied