“Yes, I’ll go,” said Pepper promptly.
“So will I,” came from Jack. “But mum’s the word, remember. We don’t want any of the teachers to learn what is going on.”
“We’ll be as silent as oysters in a stew,” said Stuffer.
“Sure an’ ’twill be a great sphort to put the clapper in ould Crabtree’s bed,” said Emerald Hogan.
“Who is going to do that?” asked another.
“I’ll do it—if Pep and Jack get the clapper,” answered the Irish cadet promptly.
A little later Jack and Pepper set off on their quest, stealing away from Putnam Hall campus unobserved. They got half way to the church and then passed Reff Ritter and his cronies, who went by without speaking.
“This is dead easy,” remarked Jack, as they climbed in the church window. They had a lantern with them, and lighting this, mounted the stairs to the gallery, and then ascended the long ladder leading to the belfry floor. Here they opened the trap door and then closed it again, as already stated.
The bell was close at hand and it was a comparatively easy matter to detach the iron clapper. Pepper came down the ladder with it and then made the startling discovery with which our story opens. The trap door had been bolted from the under side and the two cadets were prisoners in the belfry, at a distance of seventy-five feet from the ground.