The Rover Boys on the River | Page 5

you cadets some harm."
"Did he mention any names?"
"He seemed to be extra bitter against three brothers named Rover."
"Humph!"
"Are the Rovers here?" went on the youth.
"I think they are, sonny. I'm one, this is another, and there is the third,"
and Tom pointed to Dick, who was at a distance, conversing with some
other cadets.
"Oh, so you are the Rovers! How strange that I should speak to you of
this!"
"Which way did this Lew Flapp go?" questioned Sam. "Off the way
you are bound."
"I'll wager he tries to make trouble for us on our way to Putnam Hall,
Tom."
"It's not unlikely, Sam."
"Shall we tell Captain Putnam of this?" Tom shook his head.
"No, let us tell Dick, though, and a few of the others. Then we can keep
our eyes peeled for Lew Flapp and, if he actually does wrong, expose
him."
A little later Tom and Sam interviewed Dick on the subject, and then

they told Larry Colby, Fred Garrison, George Granbury, and half a
dozen others.
"I don't believe he will do much," said Larry Colby. "He is only talking,
that's all. He knows well enough that Captain Putnam can have him
locked up, if he wants to."
By eight o'clock that evening the field in which they were to encamp
for the night was reached. Tents were speedily put up, and half a dozen
camp-fires started, making the boys feel quite at home. The cadets
gathered around the fires and sang song after song, and not a few
practical jokes were played.
"Hans, they tell me you feel cold and want your blood shook up," said
Tom to Hans Mueller, the German cadet.
"Coldt, is it?" queried Hans. "Vot you dinks, I vos coldt mid der
borometer apout two hundred by der shade, ain't it? I vos so hot like I
lif in Africa alretty!"
"Oh, Hans must be cold!" cried Sam. "Let us shake him up, boys!"
"All right!" came from half a dozen. "Get a blanket, somebody!"
"No, you ton't, not by my life alretty!" sang out Hans, who had been
tossed up before. "I stay py der groundt mine feets on!" And he started
to run away.
Several went after him, and he was caught in the middle of an adjoining
cornfield, where a rough-and-tumble scuffle ensued, with poor Hans at
the bottom of the heap.
"Hi, git off, kvick!" he gasped. "Dis ton't been no footsball game
nohow! Git off, somebody, und dake dot knee mine mouth out of!"
"Are you warm, now, Hansy!" asked Tom.
"Chust you wait, Tom Rofer," answered the German cadet, and shook
his fist at his tormentor. "I git square somedimes, or mine name ain't--"

"Sauerkraut!" finished another cadet, and a roar went up. "Hans, is it
true that you eat sauerkraut three times a day when you are at home?"
"No, I ton't eat him more as dree dimes a veek," answered Hans,
innocently.
"Hans is going to treat us all to Limberger cheese when his birthday
comes," put in Fred Garrison. "It's a secret though, so don't tell
anybody."
"I ton't vos eat Limberger," came from Hans.
"Oh, Hansy!" groaned several in chorus.
"Base villain, thou hast deceived us!" quoted Songbird Powell. "Away
to the dungeon with him!" And then the crowd dragged poor Hans
through the cornfield and back to the camp-fire once more, where he
was made to sit so close to the blaze that the perspiration poured from
his round and rosy face. Yet with it all he took the joking in good part,
and often gave his tormentors as good as they sent.
"They tell me that William Philander Tubbs is going to Newport for the
summer," said Tom. a little later, when the cadets were getting ready to
retire. "Just wait till he gets back next Fall, he'll be more dudish than
ever."
"We ought to tame him a little before we let him go," said Sam.
"Right you are, Sam. But what can we do? Nearly everything has been
tried since we went into camp."
"I have a plan, Tom."
"All right; let's have it."
"Why not black Tubby up while he is asleep?"
"Sam, you are a jewel. But where are we to get the lamp-black?"

"I've got it already. I put several corks in the camp-fire, and burnt cork
is the best stuff for blacking up known."
"Right again. Oh, but we'll make William Philander look like a regular
negro minstrel. And that's not all. After the job is done we'll wake him
up and tell him Captain Putnam wants to see him at once."
Several boys were let into the secret, and then all waited impatiently for
Tubbs to retire. This he soon did, and in a few minutes was sound