“I guess that note will do the business—and we’ll never be suspected.”
It was Reff Ritter who spoke and he addressed Gus Coulter and Nick Paxton. The three cronies were in a wing of the school, out of sight and hearing of the other pupils.
“What did you put in the note?” asked Paxton with interest.
“Oh, I wrote in a disguised hand and stated that I knew the cadets had banded together to keep mum about the bell clapper and the only way for Captain Putnam to get at the bottom of the affair was to ask each officer and private, starting from the major down. I put the note on the captain’s desk and he must have it by now.”
“Good!” chuckled Paxton. “If he starts in by questioning Ruddy he’ll soon get at the bottom of the matter, for the major won’t dare to tell a falsehood.”
“And more than likely he’ll lose his position,” put in Coulter. “I hope he does.”
“He ought to lose it,” answered Reff Ritter. Not for a moment did he give Jack credit for the good turn he had done him.
While the three lads were talking Captain Putnam had entered his office and taken up the note. He read it with interest and his brow contracted.
He was much disturbed, for since the open rebellion of the cadets, when they had refused to be starved into submission by Pluxton Cuddle, he had made the students promise not to band together in secret against the discipline of the school. Ritter knew this, and this was why he sent the note.
“I cannot permit this,” murmured the head of the school to himself. “I must make a complete investigation to-morrow,—and the guilty parties must be made to suffer.” And then he held a conference with Josiah Crabtree and George Strong. Crabtree was in favor of punishing nearly everybody, but George Strong, with his usual goodheartedness, counseled moderation.