CHAPTER V
THE HAZERS ARE HAZED
What Jack had in one pocket of his coat was an ammonia gun used by wheelmen to keep off the attacks of troublesome dogs who attempt to bar their progress on the road often at the risk of giving them an upset.
This, as most boys know, is shaped like a pistol and has a bulb at one end.
A slight pressure upon this bulb causes a stream of ammonia, or hot water, or whatever else one chooses to squirt in the faces of the annoying dogs and to put them to flight.
When Jack had gone up to the dormitories, after receiving the message which he had every reason to believe to be spurious, he had taken the little gun from his suitcase, where he had placed it, in anticipation of needing it in some such emergency as the present.
As the masked figures came rushing toward him from two sides, he quickly took account of stock, as one might say, and decided which one of the maskers was Herring.
Then he aimed his little gun at the fellow’s face and gave the bulb a good squeeze.
There was a howl and a gasp and the boy in the mask and the old clothes suddenly sat down with more force than elegance.
Jack then turned his gun on one of the intruders from the other side of the clump.
“Ouch, stop that!” yelled the fellow, dropping a stout stick he held in his hand and beating a hasty retreat, half stifled by the fumes of the ammonia.