“Say, Ritter, I thought I could trust you,” continued Roy Bock. “This isn’t fair at all. I thought we were going to hatch out something against Ruddy, Ditmore, and those fellows.”
“Not to-day,” murmured Dale, and he had all he could do to keep from laughing over the turn of affairs. Andy was in a corner, holding his sides and chuckling, and all of the other cadets were grinning broadly.
The Pornell students wanted to argue, but Jack and his chums would not listen. With strong ropes they tied each of the enemy fast to a beam in the ice house.
“W’ll be back bye and bye,” cried Jack, in an unnatural voice,
“Don’t leave us!” cried Gussic. “This bag is horribly dirty. I’ve got my whole head full of it!”
“Come back!” yelled Ritter, from his bag. “Say, if you’ll let us out we’ll call it square. If you don’t, I’ll——”
“What will you do?” asked Jack, from a distance.
“Report you to Captain Putnam.”
“Do it—I don’t care,” was the young major’s answer, and then he and his chums departed, rolling the ice house door shut as they did so. They waited till they had covered a hundred yards or so and then of a sudden every cadet present burst into a roar of merriment that lasted for several minutes.
“It’s the richest ever!” cried Andy, the tears fairly running down his cheeks. “We’ve got ’em all prisoners and each party thinks the other guilty!”