_ CHAPTER XII. HO! FOR THE WEST!
For a few seconds there was the sound of a confused stumbling about. Blows were struck, but they seemed to land on desks and tables. Mingled with them were the murmurs of strong French and German words, and the heavy breathing of the two teachers.
Then, as the door at the farther end of the room opened, allowing light from the hall to come in, a voice asked:
"What's the matter?'
"Matter enough! I am terrible insult!" exclaimed Mr. Socrat from behind a table where he was crouching.
"I must be apologized by alretty!" muttered Mr. Garlach, in deep tones.
"What is this all about?" demanded Dr. Mead, who had made the first inquiry. "What does it mean?"
"Ach! I vill tell you!" spoke the German teacher.
"I will leave at once razzer zan stay where he iss!" came from the Frenchman.
"Come to my office," said Dr, Mead. "I am afraid it's another of the boys' pranks."
The two Instructors, muttering against each other, followed the head of the academy down the corridor.
"Now's our chance to sneak!" exclaimed Jack. "Say, it was the best ever!"
"What was in the notes that made them so mad?" asked Sam.
"Why, the one Garlach got stated that the Germans were a race of thieves and robbers and would never be anything better. Professor Garlach, on the other hand, seemed to have written to his French friend that the latter nation was nothing but a lot of long-legged frog-eaters, who were more ladies than they were men!"
"No wonder they went up into the air!" exclaimed Bony Balmore. "It was like a match to gunpowder."
"Lucky we could turn the lights out," commented Nat Anderson, "or they'd be fighting yet."
"Maybe they will have a duel," suggested John Smith.
But in some way Dr. Mead managed to patch matters up. Nor was any punishment visited on the boys. The doctor evidently made allowances for the closing of school, and the consequent slacking of discipline that was bound to occur. The next day, though the French and German professors glared more darkly than usual at each other, there was no reference to the notes.
The closing exercises were soon over and then, after a few formal words of farewell for the term from Dr. Mead, Washington Hall was declared closed until the fall.
"Whoop!" yelled Jack, as he came with a rush from chapel where the final program had been rendered. "Hold me down, someone!"
"I will!" exclaimed Nat, jumping on his chum's back, and bearing him to the earth.
"I'll help!" cried several, and soon half a dozen had piled upon Jack, in the middle of the campus.
"Down!" he cried, half smothered. "That's enough!"
"Fall in line for a grand march!" shouted Fred Kaler, as he tooted on a tin fife. "L-l-M-let m-m-m-me--l-l-l--Pzzant!" spluttered Will. "Let me lead!"
"Too late!" cried Sam, as he ran out and got at the head of the impromptu procession.
"Came on and get Socrat and Garlach in line!" called Jack. "We'll make 'em march side by side and forget all their troubles."
The idea was received with shouts of laughter. Off the lads started on a run for the rooms of the two professors.
"Come on!" cried Jack to Mr. Garlach.
"Ach! Vat iss it now?" inquired the instructor, vainly struggling against the hold Jack had of him. "You boys vill drive me to distraction!"
"Got to take part in the grand march!" went on Jack.
Before Mr. Garlach knew what was happening, he found himself being hustled out of his chambers and fairly carried along in a rush of the students.
Sam Chalmers had in the meanwhile gone to Professor Socrat's study.
"Come on!" he cried. "Take part in the grand salute to the French flag."
"La belle France!" cried the teacher. "Vive l' Republic!"
"That's the cheese!" fairly shouted Sam. "Hurry up!"
And, before Professor Socrat could catch his breath he found himself being hurried along the corridor and out on the campus.
"Hurrah for France!" cried a score of voices.
"My compliments!" exclaimed Mr. Socrat, bowing low to the assemblage of students.
"Long may the German flag wave!" came another cry.
"Ach! Dot is goot to mine heart!" said Mr. Garlach.
"Zat is an insult to me!" spluttered the Frenchman, as Sam hurried him on.
"Don't mind 'em. They don't know what they're saying," was Sam's comment.
"Vy do they shout for dot frog-eating nation?" inquired Mr. Garlach of Jack.
"Mistake I guess," was the reply. "The boys are not very good on language yet."
Then, before either of the instructors could protest, they found themselves side by side, being carried along in a press of students who marched around the academy, singing at the top of their voices, and each one rendering a different air.
"Whoop! Isn't this great!" shouted Jack in Nat's ear.
"The best ever!" was the answer. "It only happens once in a lifetime!"
But all things must have an end, and at last the grand march came to a close. The students fairly outdid themselves, and had to halt every now and then to rest from the combined exertion of laughing and leaping as they paraded.
"Three cheers for Washington Hall!" called Jack.
The volume of sound was deafening.
"Now three for Professor Garlach!"
How the boys did yell. The professor looked as pleased as a lad with his first pair of trousers, and bowed low to Mr. Socrat whom he had detected in the act of cheering for him,
"Three cheers for Professor Socrat!" yelled Jack.
Mr. Garlach joined in the cries for his late enemy, and then the two teachers shook hands, while the boys cheered again.
"Now good loud ones for Dr. Mead and all the rest of the teachers!" called Jack, and by this time the cheering habit was so implanted that the lads cheered everything they could think of from vacation to Socker the janitor.
Now the crowd began to break up. Several students found they must catch trains, and there were general leave takings. Good-byes were being said on every side, and there were many promises to write letters and keep up new friendships or cement old ones.
Jack found so many wanting to bid him farewell for the term that he was kept busy shaking hands, and the number of boys he promised to let hear from him during vacation would have kept two private secretaries busy.
Finally, however, matters began to quiet down. Most of the students had left the campus to pack up their belongings while a number had already departed for home. Jack, Nat Anderson and John Smith found themselves alone at least for a few minutes.
"Well, this is like old times," said Jack.
"Wow!" exclaimed John in true Indian tone. "Heap big time!"
"Reminds me of a circus broken loose," commented Nat. "But say, Jack, our train goes in an hour. Are we going to take it or stay over--"
"Not on your life!" exclaimed Jack. "Washington Hall will be as lonesome as a desert island in about an hour and I'm off."
"I think I'll go also," said John.
"Now, about our western trip," put in Nat. "Where will we connect with you. John?"
"Well," replied the Indian student. "I am going up to Canada to pay a short visit to some friends of my father's, who were very kind to him before he died. I think I will be with you in a week, and I can come on to Denton."
"That will do first-rate," said Nat. "Jack and I will be on the lookout for you. We'll be ready to start in a week, I guess."
"The sooner the better for me," put in Jack.
"That's so, I forgot you are anxious to solve the mystery of your father's disappearance," Nat said. "Well, perhaps we can hurry a bit."
"No, I guess that time will be about right," Jack went on. "I'll have to spend some time with my aunts, and I want to have a talk with Judge Bennett and get some further details. I guess we'll let it stand at a week."
"Well, good-bye until then," said John, shaking hands with his two friends, and he was soon on his way to the Rudmore station. The others followed a little later. Several hours' riding found Jack and Nat at Denton.
"I wonder if they'll have the brass band out to meet us," suggested Jack.
"Perpetual porous plasters! They would if they only knew what a reputation we have achieved!" exclaimed Nat, as the train rolled in. "Hello, there's some of your folks!"
"That's so! My three aunts!" cried Jack, as he saw from the window the three maiden ladies with whom he had lived so long. Aunt Mary caught a glimpse of him, and waved her handkerchief, an example that was followed by the other two. The next instant Jack was being hugged and kissed as though he had been away ten years instead of a few months.
"We were so afraid the train would be late, or that you wouldn't come until the night one," said Aunt Josephine.
"Couldn't think of staying away from you any longer," Jack replied, his eyes a trifle moist as he realized the love his aunts bore toward him, and he hugged and kissed them in turn.
"So long!" called Nat, as he walked up the station platform. "I'll see you later. Got to pack for our trip."
The next few days were busy ones for Jack. In the first place he had to tell his aunts all about his school experience, that is such parts of it as he thought they might care to hear and this took time. Then he had to see Judge Bennett, and the family lawyer explained further details about Jack's father. Jack also asked the judge for the curious ring, as he thought he might have to use it on his western trip.
"You must take good care of it, Jack," the lawyer said. "No telling what may hinge on it."
"If anyone gets it away from me he'll have the hardest proposition he ever tackled," Jack said earnestly.
In fact our hero was kept so busy, between this, arranging for his trip, and renewing his acquaintances with the town boys, that he was all unprepared when, one day, John Smith rang the door bell.
"Well, where in the world did you come from?" asked Jack.
"Straight from Canada. Didn't you get my letter?"
"By Jove! So I did, but I clean forgot to-day was Friday. Come right in."
Jack's aunts graciously received John, whom they welcomed for the part his father had played in the life of Mr. Ranger. It was decided that the Indian student should stay at Jack's house until Monday, when the start for the west was to be made.
Jack's aunts had, after an effort, given their consent to his making the western trip. More particularly as they felt it might lead to the discovering of his father. Once they got to this point it was clear sailing and they helped Jack to pack up.
There were final instructions from Judge Bennett to Jack. There were good-byes, said over a dozen times, from the aunts. There were farewell calls from a host of boys who envied Jack, Nat and John the experience they were about to have.
At last, though it seemed it moved on leaden feet, Monday came, and, at least an hour before train time, the three boys started for the depot. They had valises with them, but their trunks had been sent on ahead.
"Bounding buffaloes and copper-colored cowboys!" exclaimed Nat, as the whistle of the train sounded. "Here she comes!"
"Well, I'm glad of it," observed Jack. "I was getting tired waiting for it."
"It will seem good to get out on a range again," spoke John. "I'm counting on it."
"Westward ho!" cried Jack, as he jumped aboard the train, and waved his hand in farewell to his aunts, while the other two boys shook their hats in the air in salute to several lads who had come to see them off. _