“This trouble, sir, is all due to a misunderstanding,” pursued the young major. “We thought you wanted us to study the Latin lesson up to and including paragraph twenty-two. We were not prepared to go any further than that, even though Dave Kearney did get through all right. We think the whole matter might be dropped where it is—and we are willing to go back to our studies.”
“Drop it!” snapped Josiah Crabtree. “Never! If I do nothing more, I am going to thrash the boy who threw that inkwell at me and covered my face with ink.”
He said this so fiercely that Reff Ritter grew pale and looked around anxiously. The bully wondered if the other cadets present would help him to keep his secret.
“I want the student who threw that inkwell to stand up,” went on the teacher, as Jack, having had his way, sat down.
Nobody moved, although several pairs of eyes were turned upon Reff Ritter. Many lads present would have been glad to have seen the bully punished, but they did not consider it honorable to expose him.
Crabtree had Pluxton Cuddle go through the roll, but this gave the teachers no satisfaction. Each and every cadet answered that he had nothing to say.
After the last student had been questioned there was another pause and an ominous silence. The boys were curious to know what Josiah Crabtree would do next. The teacher was in a quandary.
“We will take this up again another time,” he snapped, finally. “You may return to your lessons, and to-morrow we’ll have for a Latin lesson down to the end of paragraph thirty-two. Do you understand?—down to the end of paragraph thirty-two—not thirty or thirty-one, but to the end of thirty-two.” And then turning he wrote the statement on the blackboard. “Now there will be no further misunderstanding,” he added sourly. Then he dismissed Peleg Snuggers and the gymnastic instructor, put away the cat-o’-nine tails in his desk, and turned to talk with Pluxton Cuddle in a whisper, so that the scholars might not hear what was said.
“Phew! I wonder if he really expects us to take such a long lesson?” exclaimed Pepper in a low voice. “Why, from twenty-two to thirty-two are ten paragraphs, and we never had over six before.”
“He is going to get square in one way if not in another,” answered Andy. “Just the same, I’ll wager a lot of the fellows won’t have the lesson to-morrow.”