“Doesn’t it look like it, sir?”
“I didn’t take a thing, I tell you,” declared Jack. “Why do you say I did?”
He was told of what the doctor had discovered and was much astonished. He laid back on the bed, but suddenly sat up.
“That water! I felt funny right after I drank that water!” he cried, and then explained what had occurred at the supper table.
“I will inquire into this in the morning,” said Captain Putnam. “If somebody played a trick on you——” He did not finish, but his usually pleasant face grew hard and stern.
The school was very quiet that night when the door of one of the dormitories opened and a cadet crept forth and tip-toed his way through the semi-dark hallway. He advanced with caution, trembling greatly for fear of being discovered. The midnight prowler was Reff Ritter.
The affair at the foot of the stairs earlier in the evening had astonished Billy Sabine, but Reff had quickly recovered and said it was due to a cramp in the stomach, brought on by a false twist when performing on the swinging-rings. Then the bully had gone to bed—but not to sleep. Only one thought filled his mind—that Jack might die and that he might be accused of the awful crime. He shivered and shook under the bedclothes and could scarcely conceal his fear from his cronies when they came in.
Now the others were asleep and he was determined to find out the truth about Jack. If the young major was really dying—well, perhaps it would be best to run away from Putnam Hall rather than run the risk of exposure and arrest. This showed that at heart Reff Ritter was a thorough coward.
Scarcely daring to breathe, the bully tip-toed his way along one hallway after another until he came to the door of the room in which Jack lay. Listening, he heard a murmur of voices.
“He is alive, he is talking, he is not going to die!” he thought, and a wave of relief swept over him. Then, with bated breath, he listened to what the cadets and Captain Putnam had to say. When the captain prepared to retire, he sped back to his dormitory and got into bed.