WERNER'S ATTACK
"Hold on, Bill Glutts!" cried Randy, as he ran after the youth whom he had not seen since the Winter before.
"You leave me alone!" returned Glutts, and then, in order to run faster, he dropped the bundle he was carrying.
"Don't let him get away!" burst out Fred, and made a wild dash over some low bushes in Glutts's direction. In a moment more he had caught Glutts by the arm.
"Let go of me!" screamed the former cadet, and in alarm he tried to push Fred away. But the youngest Rover boy clung fast, and then Glutts aimed a blow with his fist at Fred's face.
Had the blow landed as intended, it would have hurt severely; but the youngest Rover ducked, and then hit Glutts a stinging blow on the chin.
By this time Randy and Gif were coming up, and almost before he knew it Bill Glutts was surrounded. Gif caught the former bully of the Hall by the shoulder.
"This is a nice way to act, Glutts," he said sternly. "What business had you to touch our lunch?"
"How did I know it belonged to you?" whined Glutts, much crestfallen over the sudden turn affairs had taken. "We found the stuff on the rocks."
"You can't play the innocent that way," broke in Randy. "You and Gabe Werner must have followed us to this island. Gee!" he added quickly, "where is Werner?"
"Jack went after him," answered Fred; "and so did Andy and Spouter."
"We didn't follow you at all," answered Bill Glutts. "We have as much right on this island as anybody. We ran across that lunch by accident. We didn't know that anybody was coming back to get it," he added lamely.
In the meanwhile Jack was hurrying after Gabe Werner, and, strange as it may seem, Ruth followed close behind him, at the same time calling to the others for help. She remembered the anonymous note which had been delivered, and she was afraid that Gabe Werner might try to do the young captain serious injury.
Gabe Werner was legging it among the trees. He was trying to reach the shore of Bluebell Island, but became confused among the rocks and bushes and presently had to swing around in something of a semicircle, and this soon brought him face to face with Ruth.
"Oh!" cried the girl, in increased alarm. "Don't you dare touch me, Gabe Werner! Don't you dare!"
"Get out of my way!" roared the bully, and then, as he heard Jack crashing through the brushwood directly behind him, he brushed Ruth rudely to one side.
"Jack! Jack! Here he is!" the girl screamed.
The young captain did not need to be told this, for he saw Gabe Werner just ahead of him. He made a flying leap forward, and was barely able to catch Werner by the tail of his coat.
"You can't get away! You might as well give it up," he said, and as the bully kicked out savagely, he caught Werner by the foot and sent him headlong.
"Oh, Jack! Jack! Do be careful!" cried Ruth in increasing alarm, and then she set up a call for assistance.
"I'm not afraid of Gabe Werner, and he knows it," answered the young captain.
"I'll fix you for this!" roared Werner. "I owe you a lot for the way you've been treating me." And with these words he scrambled to his feet and aimed a blow at Jack's face.
The young captain moved to one side so that the blow struck him on the shoulder. He came back quickly with one on Werner's right ear, and followed this up with another on the bully's nose, which made that organ bleed profusely.
By this time there was more noise in the under-brush, and Andy and Spouter could be heard calling.
"This way! This way!" answered Ruth.
While she was calling, and while Andy and Spouter were doing their best to brush aside some thorny bushes which held them back, the struggle between Jack and Werner continued. The bully landed on Jack's shoulder again and then on his chest, and in return received a crack on the chin which all but keeled him over.
"I said I'd get you, Jack Rover, and I will!" spluttered Werner, after this last attack. And then, as Jack made a move as if to strike him again, the bully stepped around to one side, bringing himself once more close to Ruth. His right hand had gone down into his coat pocket, and now he brought out something in a small paper bag.
"I said I'd fix you, and this is how I'm going to do it! Look there, if you dare!" called out Werner, and pointed to a tree limb just over their heads.
Fearing some trick, Jack gave only the faintest of glances upward, but Ruth, more innocent, gazed wide-eyed at the limb pointed out. As he spoke, Werner broke open the paper bag and hurled its contents forward.
"There! Take that, Jack Rover!" he shouted triumphantly. "Take that, and see how you like it!"
It was a package of pepper which Gabe Werner had carried. As it was thrown forward a small portion of it went in Jack's face, but the most of it was sent in a spray over the young captain's shoulder and hit poor Ruth.
"Oh! Oh!" screamed the girl. "Oh, I am blinded! He threw pepper in my eyes!"
"You hound, you!" exclaimed Jack, and even though his eyes smarted not a little from the few grains of pepper that had entered, he managed to leap upon the bully and give him a swinging crack in the jaw. But then Werner threw the young captain backward over a rock, and just as Andy and Spouter put in an appearance he dodged in among some heavy brushwood and quickly disappeared.
"What did he do?" demanded Spouter.
"He threw something in our eyes. Ruth got the worst of it," answered Jack. "Go on after him; we'll have to attend to our eyes."
Jack's eyes were bad enough, but Ruth's were much worse. The girl could hardly keep from screaming with pain, and Jack was just then in no condition to assist her. Seeing this, Andy and Spouter set up a yell for some of the others to go after Werner, and then did what they could to relieve the sufferers.
"Come on down to the lake," advised Spouter. "I guess water will be about the best thing you can use. Anyhow, you can wash out the pepper if there is any left."
Both cadets assisted Ruth to the water's edge, and Jack stumbled after them. Here the eyes, which had already begun to inflame, were washed out carefully, and then, as Ruth continued to complain of the pain, they bound up her eyes with their handkerchiefs.
"I think mine will be all right after a while," said Jack. "They smart a little, but that's all."
"Don't you think Ruth had better see a doctor?" suggested Spouter.
"By all means. We'll get back to town just as soon as we possibly can. He can probably give her some sort of ointment that will relieve the pain and take away the inflammation."
By this time the others were coming up. The news that Ruth had received a dose of pepper in her eyes excited everybody.
"Gabe Werner ought to be put in jail for this," said Martha.
"Isn't it the most dreadful thing you ever heard of!" came from May.
The excitement was so intense that for the time being the boys forgot all about Bill Glutts. As a consequence when they turned to where they had left that unworthy, Glutts had disappeared.
"Well, he got a good beating, anyhow," said Randy. "I think that will teach him to leave our stuff alone after this."
At first some of the boys were inclined to make another hunt for Werner and Glutts. They knew the bullies must have come to the island in some kind of a boat.
"If we can find their boat we can take it with us," said Spouter. "Then they can either stay on the island or try to swim ashore."
"We can't waste any more time," declared Jack. "We must get Ruth to a doctor. And I'd like to see a doctor myself. My eyes feel terribly scratchy."
"Yes, yes! I want to see a doctor at once," said Ruth. "My eyes hurt dreadfully."
Some of the boys gathered up what was left of the lunch, and all made their way to the water's edge, where the rowboats had been left. As they did this they heard the sudden put-put of a motor-boat, and a few seconds later they saw the craft shoot out of a tiny cove at the upper end of the island and head for the eastern shore of Clearwater Lake.
"There they go! There are Glutts and Werner!" exclaimed Gif.
"And in a motor-boat, too!" added Randy. "Too bad! If they were in a rowboat we might be able to catch them."
"Oh, let them go," said Mary hastily. "I am more worried about Ruth's eyes than anything else."
"We're all worried about that," answered her brother. "Come on, we'll get over to Haven Point just as fast as we can. I only hope we find one of the doctors at home."
They tumbled into the boats, the girls leading Ruth, who still had her eyes bandaged.
"Do you think you can row, Jack?" questioned Fred.
"Of course I can," replied the young captain. He was not going to admit that the injury to his eyes was making him feel sick all over.
May sat beside Ruth and did what she could for the sufferer. All of the boys bent to their oars and a straight course was taken for the town.
"Wouldn't it be dreadful if Ruth was blinded for life?" remarked Alice Strobell on the way.
"Oh, Alice! don't suggest such a thing as that," came from Annie Larkins in horror.
"Well, people have been blinded in that way more than once," remarked Randy. "It all depends on how bad a dose she got."
"Jack said the pepper must have been intended for him," came from Andy. "I can't imagine that Werner would be wicked enough to try to injure Ruth that way."
"Maybe he didn't intend to do it when he started," returned his brother. "But when Werner gets mad he's liable to do almost anything. You know that as well as I do."
"That's true. When he gets into a rage he goes almost insane."
"What an ending to our outing!" sighed Alice.
"And we didn't eat a mouthful of the lunch!" added Annie. She had spent over an hour in fixing some fancy sandwiches.
"Was that pepper from some you brought along?" questioned Randy quickly.
"As far as I know we didn't bring any pepper along. We had a saltcellar, and that's all," answered Alice.
"Then it must have been a deliberate attempt on Werner's part to blind Jack!" cried Andy. "Oh, what a pity we didn't catch him! Then we could have handed him over to the authorities."
When the boys and girls reached one of the docks at Haven Point Andy and Randy ran on ahead and speedily procured a taxicab. Into this Ruth and Jack were hustled, and then Randy, sitting beside the driver, directed him to take the sufferers to the nearest doctor.
At the first physician's house they learned that the doctor was away for the afternoon. Then they hurried to another part of the town, and there found Doctor Borden, an older man who had occasionally come to both the girls' school and the military academy.
"Pepper in your eyes! Is it possible!" said the old physician. "Come into my office at once. Sometimes that sort of thing is very serious."
"You wait on the lady first, Doctor," said Jack. "She is by far the worse off."
"Very well," said the doctor. "Come this way," and he led Ruth into his private office.