It had been arranged that Jack should meet Ritter that evening, shortly after supper—during the off hour of that part of the day. If Reff could only get some of that powder into Jack’s drinking-water during the evening meal he felt certain the young major would soon feel too dull and sleepy to make much of a showing on the flying-rings.
With the craft of a real criminal, Ritter stole into the main hall of the school and looked around. Nobody was in sight, and swiftly he approached the medicine closet and opened it. There were numerous boxes and bottles there, and the appearance of them somewhat confused the rascally youth. He read the various inscriptions and at last picked out a square box containing several spoonfuls of a white powder.
“This is the stuff,” he murmured, and just then he heard somebody coming down the main stairs. He closed the medicine closet swiftly, tip-toed his way across the hall and entered one of the class-rooms. Here several of the windows were open and he dropped from one of these, nobody being in the room at the time. In a few seconds more he had stepped around the corner of the building and then he turned to a side door and entered the mess-room of Putnam Hall.
The mess-room, or dining-hall, was a long, low room, with windows on one side. There were half a dozen long tables and the chairs at these tables were numbered. Jack, as the major of the battalion, sat at one end of one of the tables. At the other end of this table sat Josiah Crabtree when he was at the school, but just now this seat was not being used.
Watching his opportunity Reff Ritter slipped up to the seat the young major usually occupied. On the table in front of this seat was a glass of ice-water, and into this Ritter skillfully dropped a generous portion of the white powder from the box. Then he glided out of the mess-room just as the gong sounded for the evening parade.
“Now we’ll see what we will see, Jack Ruddy!” he muttered to himself. “If you drink that I don’t think your performance on the flying-rings this evening will amount to much!”
CHAPTER X
WHAT HAPPENED TO JACK
The cadets of Putnam Hall were soon seated for supper. This was usually a plain but substantial meal, and generally all the boys ate well.
Jack marched in at the head of the battalion and took his seat. A minute later he reached for his glass of water. He was thirsty and drank half the contents of the glass before stopping. As he placed the tumbler back on the table he made a wry face.
“That water isn’t good,” he observed to Dale, who sat close to him.