“Hullo, glad to see you back!” whispered Andy, as they took their seats. “How did you get out of it?”
“I’ll tell you after school,” said Jack, and Pepper said the same.
Josiah Crabtree tried to question them, but they referred the assistant teacher to Captain Putnam. Later in the day the master of the Hall and Crabtree had a long session together, but what was said none of the students ever learned. But after that Josiah Crabtree was decidedly meek for a long while to come.
“I think he got a calling-down,” said Pepper, to Jack.
“Well, don’t you think he deserved it?” returned the young major.
After this affair Dan Baxter and his cronies were more bitter than ever against Pepper, Jack, and the others. Of course the plot to injure the boys had been gotten up by the bully, to pay them back for spoiling the proposed feast.
“Crabtree must have made a mess of it,” growled Dan Baxter.
“That’s it,” answered Reff Ritter. “Well, we’ll have to try something else.”
“Right you are,” answered the bully. “And next time we’ll make a sure thing of it.”
Several weeks passed along rather quietly. During that time the weather changed rapidly. The rain had washed away the snow and most of the ice, and now the grass began to grow green and the trees pushed forth their leaves and the bushes their buds.