“Humph! Wish he had stayed home,” growled Pepper. “If this sort of thing keeps on, I’ll rebel.”
“So will I!” cried Andy.
And several others said the same. Little did they dream then, however, of the rebellion so close at hand, and of the adventures which were to follow.
CHAPTER VII
AN ENCOUNTER ON THE LAKE
“I am going out for a sail,” said Jack, on Saturday afternoon. “Will you go along, Pep?”
“Certainly,” was the ready response. “Anybody else going?”
“Yes, Dale and Stuffer. Fred Century is going out in his boat too, and take several others of our crowd.”
“Going to race again?”
“I don’t think so,” answered the young major. “He hasn’t said anything. Of course I’ll race him if he wants to.”
As my old readers know, there had been in the past two races between the Alice, the sloop owned by Jack, and the Ajax, the craft belonging to Fred Century. These had taken place while Fred was a student at Pornell Academy. In the first race a sudden gust of wind capsized the Ajax and Jack and his chums had to go to the rescue of Fred and his friends. In the second race, which included another sloop belonging to a young man who lived near the two schools, the Alice came in ahead, with the Ajax second. On this race Roy Bock and his cronies lost considerable money by betting, and they circulated a story that Fred had “sold out” to the Putnam Hall boys. This caused a great rumpus, and a fight in which Bock and several other Pornell students got a good drubbing. Then Fred had a bitter interview with Doctor Pornell, and left the Academy and came to Putnam Hall.