The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest

by Capwell Wyckoff

  “For sending Vench over?” asked Dallenger, a third class man.

  “Yes,” nodded Stillman.

  “But you didn’t take it, did you?” inquired Don.

  “Why, yes, I suppose I did. I more or less had to.”

  “You did not,” said Cadet Chipps. “The major asked you if you had received the orders and you said that you had received them two days previous. Instead of checking up on you to see if you had the correct ones he let you go on. It distinctly was not your fault.”

  “Well, he said it was, and he talked pretty hotly, too, I assure you. Naturally, I couldn’t talk back to the major.”

  “You certainly could have,” retorted Don. “You didn’t have to be snappy about it, but as long as you were in the right you should have stood firm.”

  “Maybe,” shrugged Stillman, moving away. “But that’s easier said than done.”

  Talk concerning the major became more pointed and it is probable that some of it reached his ears. At any rate, on that very night, as Don, Jim and Terry were studying in their room there came a knock on the door and Jim bade the knocker enter. The door opened to admit the major and all three boys rose quickly and saluted. The major returned the salute shortly and faced Jim.

  “Mr. Mercer,” he said. “I want to take this opportunity to speak to you. Do you feel well enough to talk?”

  “Yes, sir,” answered Jim wonderingly.

  “I just want to tell you that I did not approve of your rash act at Hill 31,” said the major, excitement growing on him. “I understand that some of the cadets think you quite a hero and that in consequence you may become heir to a swelled head. I personally do not think that you did anything commendable, and you greatly endangered me by your foolishness. If anything had happened to you I would have been blamed. In the future you will be kind enough to mind your own business and stick to orders. You will perhaps recall that you had no orders to make any melodramatic dash up the hill in the face of the artillery fire. Do you understand?”

  “I do,” said Jim, his eyes flashing. “But I do not need orders to make me try to help someone out of difficulty, sir!”

  “That will do,” snapped the major. “You will find out that this is a military school and not a place where you can do as you like. I will place twenty-five demerits beside your name for what you did that day.”

  “Very well, sir,” said Jim, calmly.

  “Wait a minute, Major Tireson,” said Don, with equal quietness, but with a determined look in the set of his jaw. “You will do nothing of the kind!”

  The major’s eyes bulged. “Silence, sir! How dare you speak to me when I am not even addressing you?”

  “I repeat what I said,” returned Don, coolly. “You will place no demerit marks against Jim’s name. We both expect to graduate from here with clean records and we will permit no marks to be placed against us unless we knowingly break the rules. Jim didn’t do that and so you will not do what you said you will do!”

  “Mercer,” snarled the major. “I will order you under arrest!”

  “You may do what you like,” retorted Don. “But it will do you no good. Every cadet in this school knows that what happened is your fault, Major Tireson, and not anyone else’s. Every cadet is blaming Lieutenant Stillman for having taken demerit marks from you. You yourself know that you made no effort to check up and find out if the second lieutenant knew his orders, and under those circumstances Jim will not take any punishment from you or from anyone else!”

  For one moment the temporary headmaster glared at him and then his tone became cold. “Report yourself under arrest, Mr. Mercer,” he commanded.

  “Certainly, sir,” agreed Don with composure. “Until tomorrow evening, and if you have not released me by then I shall leave the school for good!”

  “Remain in your room under arrest, Mr. Mercer,” repeated the major, and turning on his heel he went out, banging the door after him.

  “Well, what do you know about that!” gasped Terry, sinking down on the bed.

  “I know that I’ll follow Don out if he tries to keep him under arrest,” answered Jim, briefly.

  “He won’t try it,” promised Don, grimly. And a few moments later, when Chipps and Rhodes came in on a visit, they told him the cadets would stand back of him.

  “In fact,” said Rhodes, getting up. “I think I’ll spread the word right now for a general rebellion!”

  “Oh, you aren’t going that far, are you?” asked Don.

  “Absolutely!” said the senior captain. “Major Tireson must be shown conclusively that he can’t pull off a stunt like that and get away with it. That would be making ninnies out of the whole cadet corps. Jim did the right thing and we won’t stand for treatment of that kind, as long as the major himself is the guilty one.”

  The two seniors departed to spread the word and before taps sounded the cadet body was seething with excitement. A definite plan was formulated and in the morning it was launched.

  The cadets, with the exception of Don, filed into chapel in the morning and sat quietly down. The services went off as usual and then the major gave the signal for dismissal. A few fourth class men got up, but the senior and third class remained seated. Following their example the second class remained seated also.

  The major looked at them in amazement. “I said assembly dismissed, gentlemen,” he said.

  There was nothing but silence over the entire hall and the major’s eyes blazed. “What does this mean?”

  Rhodes stood in his place and faced him quietly. “I have been delegated by the cadet corps to say that we will not return either to study or to drill until Cadet Mercer, of the fourth class, has been released and all blame for the campaign affair withdrawn from Lieutenant Stillman and Cadet James Mercer,” he stated.

  “Oh!” hissed the major, when he had fully comprehended. “A school rebellion, eh?”

  “We hope not, sir,” respectfully returned Rhodes. “But if necessary it will be. The cadet corps has also commissioned me to say that all blame for the Hill 31 affair is to be laid directly to you, Major Tireson. Here at Woodcrest we are taught that military service demands absolute efficiency, especially in the giving and interpreting of orders, and yet the biggest blunder, and one which might have cost two lives, has been made by our commanding officer. We feel that any cadet in the ranks, upon learning that Lieutenant Thompson was ill, would have immediately seen to it that his appointed successor had the correct orders, particularly as those orders had been changed. In the hearing of many of the cadets you were told that Lieutenant Stillman had received orders that were two days old, and yet you allowed that statement to go unchallenged. Under the circumstances the cadet corps feels that punishment of these cadets and the imprisonment of Cadet Mercer is an insult to our organization and will not permit it to go on!”

  “A very pretty speech,” sneered the major, livid with rage. “Sit down, sir!”

  “We will now march to the breakfast hall,” went on Rhodes, ignoring the order. “But we will not attend any class or any drill until you have complied with our request. We also feel that we are being lenient with you in not asking you to apologize to the cadets you have reprimanded!”

  “You sit down!” bellowed the major. “You won’t get a mouthful until you have returned to study and drill! Dictate to me, will you? I’ll punish every one of you and show you how to obey orders quickly!”

  “Any tactics such as those,” warned the senior, “will be followed by the worst thing that can possibly happen to the school. Every member will return to his own home and remain there until Colonel Morrell has returned or until you back down in your stand.” The senior captain turned his back on the enraged headmaster. “Corps, attention! March as orderly as possible into the dining room!”

  “I’ll have the food stopped and you won’t get a mouthful!” roared the major.

  “The minute you give such an order you will be put outside the building and the doors locked against you!” returned Captain Rho
des, quietly. Turning to the waiting cadets he cried briskly: “Get into action, boys. Forward march!”

  The corps marched impassively into the dining room and took up its place around the tables. The instructors lingered in the assembly hall for a moment, waiting for word from the major, but as none came, they joined the students in the dining room. Taking complete charge of the situation the senior captain asked a blessing on the food and then the cadets ate a hearty breakfast.

  Rhodes kept his eyes open during the meal, but nothing happened until the close when an instructor beckoned him to come outside. The senior left the room and the cadets waited while they finished their coffee. Rhodes returned after a few minutes and rapped for attention.

  “The rebellion is over, gentlemen,” he announced. “Major Tireson has agreed to release Cadet Mercer and to forget the entire affair. We will now return to our classes and drill in the spirit of the corps, if you please.”

  There was a slight feeling of disappointment on the part of the cadet body, but they went back to routine without murmur. Don was told later in the morning to go down and get his breakfast and report to his second call for classes. He did so, and later Rhodes spoke to him briefly.

  “Our threat to leave the school was what finally tamed him,” the senior said. “He wailed a bit about my disrespect and insults and so forth, but finally agreed to hush up the entire matter. You and Jim won’t have any more trouble on that score.”

  “I guess not,” agreed Don. “But I’ll bet he won’t love the Mercer brothers from now on!”

  One murmur ran through the body of cadets with increasing force. “I wish that something definite would be done about locating our colonel,” Lieutenant Sommers expressed it.

  CHAPTER 11

  Vench Breaks Silence

  For a time things went on as usual at Woodcrest. The major kept to himself and had almost nothing to do with the cadet corps. He led the morning services and looked briefly on at drill times, but aside from that he paid no attention to them. His attitude, the new boys were told, was directly opposite to that of the colonel, who mixed in with them and shared their life in a spirit of comradeship. The major was not popular and his absence was not greatly mourned.

  Once or twice strange men came and talked with the major, men who had the look of police detectives, but evidently nothing new had been learned of the missing headmaster’s whereabouts. The four friends kept a close watch on their own account and several times passed close to Clanhammer Hall purposely to see if there was anything to be learned. But they did not find out anything until Cadet Vench broke his long silence.

  The little cadet was growing more and more popular with the corps and was himself astonished at the change in his own life. He had never before realized that to be respected and liked meant everything in the world, and he was slowly learning what it was to have real friends. He had abandoned his over-wise attitude, was now devoting himself to his studies, and on the whole was living a vastly improved life. The Mercers and their own immediate friends helped him all that they could without being tactless about it, and it was to this circumstance that they owed the fact that Vench told his story.

  He found the four of them back of the boathouse one late afternoon enjoying the declining sun and discussing sports. They were seated on the boat runway and the little cadet sat down beside them. They greeted him genially.

  “Well, what’s on your mind, kid?” said Terry.

  “I want to tell you guys something,” returned Vench.

  “Fire away,” invited Don.

  “I want to tell you what I saw in Clanhammer Hall that night!” said Vench, unexpectedly.

  They sat up in genuine interest. “I wish you would,” said Rhodes. “When you get through we’ll tell you why we are so anxious to know. Perhaps you can help us more than you realize.”

  “I hope I can,” returned Vench, looking around to see that no one was within earshot. “Well, listen, here is the story. As you know, I said I was going to put on a dance that would make history in this school. We were going to start fixing the place up that night when that business came up in the library, the slashing of the picture and all that. We knew that there would be guards around the school and that it would be even harder to try a stunt like that, but I was determined to put it over, so I went ahead and made plans. And my biggest plan was to have it in Clanhammer Hall.

  “At first I had planned to have it in the gym, the usual way, you know. But just about then I got the idea that it would add to the romance or thrill or whatever you want to call it by having it in Clanhammer Hall. Some of the fellows told me that it was strictly against the rules to go into that place, it was a sort of mysterious shrine, they said, but that made me all the more anxious to have it there. So we planned it that way and I asked if anybody knew anything about the outlay of the old place. No one did, so I decided to go in myself and look it over.

  “Don was patrolling up and down when I slipped out of the side door and I waited until he got out of sight down along the lake front. Then I sneaked to the back of the old building and pried open a cellar window. I dropped down into the place and looked around—I had a flashlight with me—and I saw that it was an ordinary basement with old ash cans and a big furnace and coal bins, and whatever else goes to make up a basement. After a couple of minutes I found the stairs and went up to the top, where I didn’t have any trouble breaking open the door and getting into the hall. I flashed the light into a room or two downstairs, one an old office and one a classroom that was mighty small, and I decided that upstairs would be the better place to go. We’d be safer, I thought, and so I went up the stairs to the second floor. The thing that puzzled me was this, I smelled cooking in that old place!”

  “What!” cried the others, in a breath.

  “Yes, real cooking, something with plenty of grease in it. I don’t know just what it was,” said Vench.

  “Well, I’ll be darned!” gasped Terry. “I saw evidence of the same thing. Somebody is making a regular hotel of that place!”

  “I had half a notion to go down and investigate,” continued Vench. “But I thought I’d take a look around the upstairs before I did. I thought I had a lot of courage to go into the place alone to begin with, but when I got to the upper floor I felt my courage ooze away. One look, I thought, and then I’d go down again and come back with the fellows. There was a small room right off of the staircase and I walked in there. Once inside I turned on the flash, and found to my dismay that it was going out. But in the feeble light that came from it I could see dimly around the room, which seemed to be a small study, with a faded carpet, a desk and a couple of chairs. There was just one small window in that room, rather high up, and as I stood there looking around my light went out.

  “I snapped it a couple of times to see if it would go on again, but nothing happened. The room was pitch black, and I was wondering how the devil I was going to get back to the cellar window. At the time I was bending over the useless flashlight, and then I felt the hair on my head begin to crinkle up and pull. There was a faint light coming from somewhere, and a minute later I saw a beam of yellow light in the hall. It was the light of a candle, and it was coming down the hall toward the room I was in. Although my legs seemed stiff as boards I did manage to somehow drop down behind that desk and watch.

  “After what seemed an age someone came to the door. The light had been moving toward me all the time, but I hadn’t heard a sound. Now a candle in a tin holder was thrust around the edge of the door and a minute later an old man looked into the room. His face was long, his hair all straggly and his eyes were narrow and close together!”

  “The same man I saw!” breathed Terry.

  “He looked around the room but did not come in. I guess he was only suspicious, for after a little while he went away, as noiselessly as he had come. He went up to the third floor, judging by the way the light went, and I waited until I was sure he had gone before I left that room. And I assure you I left it in a hurry. I
found the stairs all right and got to the cellar, where I got another scare when I saw Don looking in the window. That’s what I saw in Clanhammer Hall, and of course we didn’t have our dance.”

  “So that’s what you saw there!” exclaimed Jim, drawing a deep breath.

  “Yes, and I’ve been puzzled over it ever since. I kept it to myself and no one else knows it. Now let’s hear what you have to tell me.”

  Terry told his part and the others filled in. Vench was impressed. “Something very wrong with that old school,” he commented.

  “Do you think we ought to tell Major Tireson?” asked Don, of Rhodes. The senior thought it over and then shook his head.

  “No, I don’t,” he said. “That might clear things up and then again it might not. What I do think is this, we ought to go through Clanhammer Hall some day ourselves!”

  “But not at night!” objected Jim.

  “No, that would be foolish. In the first place, we wouldn’t be able to see anything, and in the second place I am no more keen to prowl around there after dark then you are. We’ll simply break in some afternoon, perhaps tomorrow, and look around ourselves. If we are caught there we can simply tell our story and say that we wanted to investigate. They can’t do much to us for that.”

  “No, I don’t think they can. Do you want to go through tomorrow afternoon?” asked Don.

  After some more talk they all agreed to break into Clanhammer Hall on the following afternoon and then they prepared for supper. The evening passed as usual and they went to bed. How long they had been asleep they did not know, but they were aroused by the furious ringing of the fire gong. With one accord they leaped from their beds.

  “Now what is going on?” began Jim, but Terry, who had raced to the window, interrupted him.

  “It’s a sure enough fire this time,” he called. “And, by George, it’s Clanhammer Hall!”

  They rushed to the window. One corner of the old school building could be seen from there and Terry had spoken the truth. The back of the place was on fire and the flames could be seen curling up against the sky. Already the campus was dotted here and there with cadets who had run out, scantily clothed.