On the Friday afternoon preceding the final week of the term Tom and Sam walked down to the lake, intending to go out in a boat for a short row.
As they drew close to the boathouse they heard loud talking and then a cry of pain.
"Please don't," came in the voice of a young cadet. "Please, please don't, Flapp!"
"But I just will, you little imp!" came in Lew Flapp's harsh voice.
"I'll teach you to play the sneak!"
"But I—I didn't mean to do anything, really I didn't," answered the other. "But I felt so sick, and I—"
"Oh, I know you, Moss. For two pins I'd break your head for you!" And then came the sounds of several blows in quick succession.
"It's Flapp!" cried Sam. "He is beating somebody most shamefully."
"It's little Harry Moss," returned Tom, leaping to the front. "The big bully! Why can't he take a fellow of his own size?"
He rushed around the corner of the boathouse and there beheld a scene that aroused his warmest indignation. Harry Moss was crowded into a corner and over him stood Lew Flapp, beating him with a heavy boat chain.
Flapp had just raised the chain for another blow when Tom ran in and caught his arm.