"That is true, Fred," answered Jack soberly. "But a good citizen has got to be ready to do his duty, no matter what the cost."

"Oh, I know that! Just the same, this going to the front is a serious business. Even if a person isn't killed, he may come back minus an arm or a leg, or something like that."

"Well, don't you go to talking like that to Mary and Martha."

"I don't intend to. Just the same, what I said is true."

"I know it."

CHAPTER X

ON THE WAY HOME

"Oh, Jack, you don't mean it! Father and Uncle Sam have really volunteered for the war!"

It was Martha Rover who spoke. She and her brother were seated in a small summerhouse attached to Clearwater Hall. Not far away sat Mary and Fred.

"It's the truth, Martha," answered Jack; "and here is the telegram that was sent. We at once went to Colonel Colby and got some particulars."

"But he may be shot down and killed!" and Martha's face grew white as she spoke.

"That's a chance every soldier takes when he goes to the front, Martha. But let us hope that dad will escape--and let us hope that Uncle Sam will escape, too."

Jack and Fred had come over early in the morning and had asked permission of Miss Garwood to see the girls on an important errand.

They had left the school building under the curious eyes of Ruth and a number of their other chums.

"Well, in one way, I'm glad of this," declared Mary, her pride showing in her face. "It's exactly what I thought dad would do the minute we got into the war. I knew he wouldn't want to be thought a slacker."

"But, Mary! suppose they got killed--or even wounded?" murmured Martha.

"Martha Rover! do you want your father to hang back when he thinks it's his duty to go to the front?" demanded Mary, her eyes snapping questioningly.

"No, no!" answered her cousin quickly. "I know it's the right thing to do. Just the same, it worries me a great deal; and I know it will worry mamma, too."

"You mustn't say anything about being a slacker," admonished Jack. "If it should get to the ears of Uncle Tom, it might make him feel very bad."

"Oh, I don't put Uncle Tom down as a slacker," returned Mary quickly.

"I think he is making a great sacrifice, by staying behind to keep the business together, and to serve on that Loan Committee and the Red Cross Committee."

The young folks talked it over for some time, and decided to wait until they got further word from home. Then the two girls went back into the school to tell Miss Garwood and their chums the news, while the boys hurried to Colby Hall, arriving there during the morning recess.

"Say, but we've had some fun since you went away!" cried Andy gaily, when they appeared. "Pud Hicks, the janitor's a.s.sistant, got the surprise of his life."

"How is that?" questioned Fred.

"Why, Pud was using a vacuum cleaner in the upper hall when he saw something in a dark corner that he couldn't quite make out. The thing got stuck in the cleaner, and he put down his hand to see what it was.

The next minute he let out a yell like a wild Indian and came flying down the corridor, scared stiff."

"What was it--the snapping turtle?" asked Jack.

"You've struck it. The turtle must have crawled into the corner, and when he felt Pud's hand on him he took a good solid hold on Pud's little finger.

"I had just gone upstairs to get a book when I saw Pud tearing around.

Half a dozen fellows were there, and the way Pud cut up was like a circus. Shout Plunger came tearing upstairs to find out what it was all about, and Pud gave the snapping turtle a sling, and it hit Shout right in the face and then fell down inside his coat. Shout put his hand inside to find out what it was, he being too deaf to hear the talk about a snapping turtle, and then the turtle got busy and got Shout by the hand. Then there was more fun!"

"What did they do with the turtle at last?" questioned Jack.

"Oh, Shout wouldn't take any chances," answered Andy. "He put the turtle down on the floor and smashed it with his heel; and then, of course, the fun was all over."

"Did they find out how the turtle came to be there?" questioned Fred.

"No, they didn't. Codfish came along, and he started to say something, but I put up my fist and motioned to him, and then he shut up like a clam."

"He'll give you away sooner or later, Andy," remarked Jack.

"If he does, he'll pay for it," retorted the fun-loving Rover.

Several days went by, and during that time the boys learned not a little concerning the catastrophe at the Hasley Sh.e.l.l-Loading plant, the local papers giving a full account of the affair. Fortunately the report that several had been killed was untrue, but about sixteen men had been injured, and several of them quite seriously.

There were many speculations concerning what had started the explosions. It was proved that the first had occurred in one of the cars which was standing loaded on the railroad track, while the second explosion had come less than a minute later from what was known as Storehouse No. 3. Then had followed an explosion at Storehouse No. 2, and after that the explosions had come so rapidly and there had been so much excitement that no one could tell exactly what had happened next. But fortunately the explosions had been confined to the storehouses and the loaded cars on the track. The main building of the sh.e.l.l-loading plant had suffered considerably, but a portion was still standing, and some underground vaults, filled with high explosives, had not been reached. Had these explosives gone up, it is more than likely Haven Point, as well as Clearwater Hall and possibly Colby Hall, would have been shaken to their foundations and with great loss of life.

A rigid investigation had been started by three different parties--the owners of the plant, the local authorities, and the Secret Service of the national government. The Secret Service men, of course, made no public report, but the others in authority came to the conclusion that the explosions had been started either by some spies working for the sh.e.l.l-loading plant or by two suspicious-looking men who had been seen several times around the place--the same fellows described by Jed Kessler.

"Maybe those two fellows on the outside had confederates on the inside," remarked Jack, in talking the affair over with his cousins.

"More than likely that's the truth of it," said Randy. "Those fellows often work in gangs."

During the days following the victory over Hixley High, a number of the cadets had gone down to Haven Point at various times, and several brought back the report that they had met Slugger Brown and Nappy Martell driving through the town in their runabout. Slugger and Nappy had put on a lordly air, bowing very condescendingly to those they knew, but refusing to stop for any conversation.

"Those fellows make me weary in the bones," was the way Dan Soppinger expressed himself. "What ever brought 'em to Haven Point? If I had been fired out of the school the way they were, I wouldn't want to show my face around here again."

"Yes, Dan; but you aren't the sort they are," declared Jack. "I don't believe either Slugger Brown or Nappy Martell has a particle of real pride. They think just because they have a little more spending money than most fellows, they can lord it over anybody."

It worried all of the Rovers to think that Brown and Martell were hanging around Haven Point, and Jack telephoned to Clearwater Hall several times, calling up Ruth and also his sister Martha, asking if they had been annoyed in any way by the pair.

"We saw them again down near our boathouse," said Ruth over the telephone. "They acted as if they wanted to talk to us, but we did not give them any chance to do it."

"If they dare to say a word to any of you, just let us know and we'll take care of them," declared the oldest Rover boy.

On the third day came a long letter to Jack and an equally lengthy communication for Fred. The letters were from their fathers, and in them d.i.c.k and Sam Rover gave the particulars of how they had volunteered for service in France and how d.i.c.k had been commissioned a captain and Sam a lieutenant. They mentioned the fact that they were soon to leave New York City, along with a number of other volunteers, to go to Camp Huxwell, a beautiful site selected by the government and located on the Atlantic coast.

"Why, say, that isn't very far from here!" exclaimed Jack. "I've often heard them talk about that place."

Jack's father also mentioned the fact that Colonel Colby had obtained a commission as a captain and that a great many others of his old school chums from Putnam Hall, and likewise two of his comrades from Brill College, were going. He added that if Jack wanted to come home to see him off, he could do so.