The Putnam Hall Rivals. Stratemeyer Edward

our dormitory!” whispered Andy, and led the way on tiptoes. The others followed, and in less than a minute they were safe in their room with the door tightly closed.

      “Perhaps we had better get into bed for the present,” suggested Stuffer Singleton. “Baxter may come this way.”

      This was considered good advice, and it did not take them long to put out the light that had been lit and get into bed. With ears on the alert they awaited developments.

      They were not long in coming. Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and then they heard some whispered conversation in front of their door. Pepper wanted to laugh outright and had all he could do to hold in.

      “I don’t hear them,” came softly in Dan Baxter’s voice.

      “They are foxy,” answered Ritter.

      The door was tried and Dan Baxter looked into the room. He could see next to nothing in the almost total darkness.

      “Who – who’s there?” asked Andy, sleepily. “Is it time to – to get up?”

      A grunt from Dan Baxter was the only response, and then the door was closed again, and they heard Baxter and some others moving away.

      “Say, Andy, that was rich!” whispered Pepper, and gave a low laugh.

      “Don’t stir too much yet,” cautioned Jack. “They may come back.”

      “I am going to the door to watch,” answered Pepper. “If they come this way again I can crawl back to bed in a jiffy.”

      Standing at the door, which he held on a crack, the Imp saw Baxter and several others move from one dormitory to another, listening and spying at every door.

      “Cheese it, here comes Mr. Strong!” he heard Coulter say, a short while later, and off the bully’s crowd scampered to their rooms. Then the second assistant teacher came up the stairs and Pepper hurried back to his bed. George Strong looked around the hallway and walked to several dormitories, and then passed on to the third floor of the building.

      “Will they come back again?” asked Andy, after a long spell of silence.

      “Better wait a while longer and see,” said Hogan.

      “I’m itching to get at that stuff,” came, with a sigh, from Stuffer.

      “Did you ever know a time that you wasn’t hungry, Stuffer?” asked Andy.

      “Humph! I guess you’ll get away with your full share, Andy,” was the retort.

      At last the boys considered themselves safe and crawled from their beds once more. A dim light was made, and sitting in a circle, they divided the good things on hand and devoured them with a keen relish. The turkey proved to be of the best, and the pie was “prime,” as Andy expressed it.

      “Oh, if Baxter could only see us now,” whispered Pepper, with a mouth half full of turkey.

      “It would make him dance with joy, I don’t think,” answered Jack.

      The little feast kept up the best part of half an hour.

      “Here goes the last of the pie!” cried Stuffer.

      “Baxter, we thank thee for this feast!” added Pepper.

      “Come again,” put in Jack.

      “Just you fellows wait, that’s all!” came an unexpected voice from the doorway, and turning swiftly, they saw Dan Baxter standing there. He was shaking his fist at the crowd.

      “Hullo!” gasped Pepper. For the instant he could say no more.

      “I suspected it from the start,” fairly hissed the bully of Putnam Hall. “Just wait, that’s all! If I don’t square up you can shoot me!” And away he went, giving the door the hardest kind of a bang after him.

      “Now our cake is dough,” came from Stuffer.

      “Sure an’ I’d like to know what he’ll be after doin’,” came curiously from Emerald.

      “I wonder if he’ll have the nerve to call Captain Putnam?” mused Andy.

      “No,” answered Jack, promptly. “He won’t report this, for if he did he knows we would tell on him too. He’ll try to get square some other way.”