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Updated: May 14, 2025
He was accompanied by a heavy-set man wearing a long overcoat and a soft hat. The two were in earnest conversation. "That looked like Reff Ritter to me," cried Pepper. "It was Ritter," answered Andy. "Who was the man?" asked the young major. "That is what I want to know!" cried Andy. "Say, I'm going to follow them!"
"Battalion, attention!" came firmly from Major Jack Ruddy, and all the young soldiers stiffened up in their places. He ran his eyes over the two companies, to see that every cadet was "toeing the mark." He did not see Reff Ritter. "Present arms! Carry arms! Shoulder arms!" came the various commands, and the cadets made the movements with their guns.
"All right!" cried Pepper. "A sail will suit me down to the ground." Jack and Andy were also pleased to go, and the quartet of boys were soon down at the boathouse, where the Skimmer was tied up. They were just getting aboard of the iceboat when they saw another craft heave in sight. "Who is that on board?" asked Andy. "It is Reff Ritter," answered Pepper, "and Gus Coulter is with him."
"No, I haven't!" answered the acrobatic youth, and then, of a sudden, he sprang high in the air, to come down on Ritter's shoulder. Then he caught the bully around the neck with one arm. "Hi! hi! let up " began Ritter. "I'll not let up!" retorted Andy. "You brought this on yourself, Reff Ritter, and now you can take the consequences. How do you like that, and that, and that?"
"You you jumped in and saved me from drowning, didn't you?" "Yes. But anybody would do that, Gus, for a schoolmate." "No, they wouldn't; Reff Ritter wouldn't. He would have left me to drown!" And Coulter shuddered. "You're a real hero, Jack Ruddy! And I'm a a skunk; yes, a mean, low-down skunk and I always have been!" And now Gus Coulter buried his face in his hands.
In the meantime, Andy and his chums had been trying to find out something about Cameron Smith. They were equally unsuccessful, for no one they knew in Boston had ever heard of that individual. His name was not in the directory. "There was something strange about him," said Andy. "I wish Ritter would tell us more about him. But I know it would be useless to ask Reff.
"Reff had to save himself. He was chilled to the bone when we got him out," answered Jack. "If you had been Reff you wouldn't have run away and left me to drown," went on Coulter, stubbornly. At this Jack was silent. "You don't know it all, Jack Ruddy. Reff and I had a quarrel. He said he he didn't want to have anything more to do with me. I believe he he would have been glad to have me drown!"
For this any ordinary youth would have been grateful, but gratitude did not appear to be a part of Reff Ritter's make-up, and he soon showed himself to be as mean as ever. For some time matters ran along smoothly at Putnam Hall, but then came trouble of an entirely new kind.
Many who had laughed over the teeth affair thought it too bad that The Imp should be locked up in a cold room. But others, including Reff Ritter and Gus Coulter, said it served him right. "He was too fresh," growled Coulter. "Let him stay there a week; it will do him good," added Ritter. "You leave things to old Crabtree," said Dan Baxter. "He knows how to put the screws on a cadet."
"He says his father is in business again and is doing better," answered Paxton, who was present. "Hello, Reff!" he called out. "Want another passenger?" "I don't want you!" answered the bully, briefly. "All right, you don't have to have me!" growled Paxton. "Say, Century, do you want to race me?" asked Ritter, as he brought the Rosebud alongside the dock. "I don't know," answered Fred, slowly.
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