“Eh?”
“It won’t hurt our studying, Mr. Crabtree. You can watch for the tiger while we do our sums.”
“Silence!” roared the crabbed teacher, but after that he said little about the poor lessons.
By noon Captain Putnam came back, and the cadets at once surrounded him to learn what he might have to tell.
“I saw nothing of the tiger,” said the master of the Hall. “A number of parties went out after him yesterday, and one crowd discovered the beast near the lake. They fired on him and he started to swim away. They think he must have been drowned, although they have not yet located the body.”
“Hope he was drowned,” said Pepper.
The matter was talked over for the balance of that day, and also the next. Then came in news that the circus people were also certain the tiger had gone to the bottom of Cayuga Lake, and everybody breathed easier. The circus moved southward, and soon the excitement died down completely.
Our young friends had not forgotten the Fords, and having received another invitation to call at the mansion at Point View Lodge, they set off one afternoon as soon as they could get away.
“I hope we don’t have another encounter with those Pornell Academy fellows,” said Jack, as they drove along in the buggy the captain had let them have. “One such mix-up was enough.”
“I guess they haven’t forgotten how they fared on that occasion,” returned Andy. “They promised to call it off, if you’ll remember.”