The Putnam Hall Rivals. Stratemeyer Edward

there’s a big cake for you!” cried Pepper, pointing to one that had just been placed on a back shelf. “I shouldn’t mind a slice of that!”

      “Maybe you’ll get a slice of it,” said the baker, rubbing his hands together and smiling in a meaning manner.

      “How so?” asked Andy, quickly.

      “Oh, you wait and see,” said the baker.

      “Can that be a cake Dan Baxter ordered?” whispered Jack to his chums.

      “Maybe,” said Pepper. He followed the baker to the back of the shop. “I guess that’s Baxter’s cake, eh?” he whispered into the man’s ear.

      The baker winked suggestively.

      “Is he coming for it, or are you going to send it to him?”

      “He told me not to say anything about it to anybody,” replied the baker.

      “Oh! Well, I won’t ask questions then. Don’t say anything about our being here,” went on Pepper. “It might hurt his feelings, if he knew we had seen the cake before he showed it.”

      “I shan’t say a word,” answered the baker.

      The boys paid for their purchases and quitted the bakery, and looking through the window they saw the baker leave the shop to go to work at his oven, which was in the cellar.

      “Oh, if only we could doctor that cake!” murmured Pepper. “I’d give a dollar to be able to do it!”

      “The icing on the top was soft,” said Andy.

      “It’s a raisin cake,” said Jack. “A few stones in place of some raisins wouldn’t go bad.”

      “And a little pepper would give it an extra flavor,” said Pepper, with a wink. “Come on!”

      He ran to the nearest grocery store and there procured some strong red pepper. In the meantime Andy found a cleared spot in a sunny corner of the village and got a handful of sand.

      The three boys walked back to the vicinity of the bakery. The baker was not in sight. But there was a bell on his door, which rang out sharply every time the door was opened.

      “We can’t go in by the door,” said Jack. “He will come at once, as soon as the bell rings.”

      “There is a side window – let us try that,” said Pepper.

      “Supposing he comes?” asked Andy.

      “We can buy some more cakes.”

      The window opened out on a lane and was located close to the shelf upon which rested the cake. They found the lower sash unfastened and raised it cautiously. Then all three hopped into the bakery and stepped over to where the cake rested.

      It took but a few minutes to fill the cake with pepper and fine sand. This done, they smoothed down the half-soft icing with the blade of a pocketknife. Just as they were finishing the work they heard footsteps on the stairs in the rear.

      “Quick – out you go!” cried Pepper, and cleared the window, followed by his chums. Then they put down the sash and ran off, without the baker catching sight of them or having any idea of what had been done.

      “That cake will taste fine,” said Andy, with a laugh, when they were on their way back to the Hall. “Won’t Dan Baxter and his crowd enjoy it!”

      “They’ll want to hang us if they find us out,” said Jack.

      “We must take good care that they don’t find us out,” came from Pepper.

      “Now, if we can only locate the things Mr. Shepard is going to bring over,” went on Jack.

      “I’d like to lay hold of the turkey,” said Andy. “Yum! yum! I wouldn’t do a thing to that bird!”

      “Ditto here!” cried Pepper. “Oh, we must locate the turkey by all means – and some bread and butter. Think of nice turkey sandwiches!”

      “And a few apples!”

      And thus talking of what more they intended to do, the three cadets hurried back to Putnam Hall with all possible speed.

      CHAPTER VI

      THE BASKET IN THE TREE

      Supper was served at Putnam Hall in the winter time at six o’clock, and as a general thing the meal was over inside of half an hour, when the cadets had an hour or more to themselves.

      On the following day, after supper, Jack and the others watched Dan Baxter and his cronies closely.

      “Emerald, you and Dale stop them about seven o’clock,” said Pepper, and to this the two cadets agreed.

      The Irish lad and Dale kept a close eye on Dan Baxter, who was with Coulter and Reff Ritter. At a few minutes to seven the bully and his cronies started away from the Hall in the direction of a side road – that leading past the Shepard farm.

      “Here is where we hold ’em up a bit,” said Dale, and ran forward calling loudly.

      “What do you want?” asked the bully, stopping short, with a scowl.

      “Wait a minute,” said Dale, and walked up slowly, while Hogan did the same.

      “Don’t be all night about it,” put in Reff Ritter.

      “What’s this report I heard to-day?” said Dale, facing the bully.

      “What report?” asked Baxter, suspiciously.

      “You know, Baxter.”

      “I must say I do not.”

      “About that race on the ice, and all that,” said Hogan. “It’s a queer tale, so it is! Didn’t yez hear all about it at Cedarville?”

      “I haven’t heard anything.”

      “Neither have I,” put in Ritter.

      “I guess Coulter knows about it,” went on Dale. “He usually knows everything. Did you see the horse?” he demanded.

      “The horse?” asked Gus Coulter, puzzled. “What in the world are you talking about?”

      “That horse they brought into the school.”

      “I didn’t see any horse.”

      “Certainly he was a beauty,” said Hogan, with a broad laugh. “All painted with that red paint, too. Where did that paint come from, answer me that now?” he demanded, in a whisper.

      “I don’t know anything about a horse or any red paint either,” growled Dan Baxter. “Is this a joke?”

      “Listen to that!” cried Dale. “Say, you can put on a good front, can’t you?”

      “It’s true.”

      “Maybe you don’t know about that ghost business either,” came from Hogan. “Very innocent, so ye are, I must say!” And he winked with his left eye in a most mysterious manner.

      “See here, you are talking Greek to me!” roared Baxter. He was anxious to get away. “If you can’t explain I don’t want to talk to you.”

      “Emerald, perhaps they don’t know after all,” whispered Dale, but in such a manner that the bully and his friends could hear.

      “Be gorry, I hope we haven’t put our foot into it thin!” muttered the Irish cadet. He walked up to Reff Ritter. “Say, forget it!”

      “Forget what?” demanded Ritter.

      “All I was after telling you.”

      “You’ve told me nothing yet.”

      “Is that so now? Then so much the better.”

      “Oh, you’re trying to fool us!” burst out Dan Baxter. “I don’t want to listen to another word,” and he turned away, and his friends followed him. Dale and Hogan waited a minute and then went back to the Hall, so that the bully and his cronies might not get too suspicious.

      “We