CHAPTER XXII

WHAT BOBBY SAID

The battle between the Rockledge and the Belden Schools continued furiously until noon. The former had the advantage because of their entrenchments on the island, but Hi Letterblair was not a bad general, and Barry and his helpers were often put to it to hold the enemy in check.

At one time when the Rockledge troops made a sally, four of them were captured and were held prisoners for an hour. Then they were rescued, Bobby and Fred being of the rescuing party.

Altogether the snow-battle was carried on in good temper, but there could not help being some rough work, especially when it came to hand-to-hand encounters.

Fred Martin and Ben Allen, one of the Lower School boys on the other side of the lake, had a short and vigorous fist fight in one scrimmage, and the captains put them out of the battle and sent them back to their respective schools in disgrace.

Noon came and an armistice was declared until the next morning at nine o'clock. It was agreed that the battle should begin just as it left off--with Rockledge holding the island against Belden.

The masters of both schools had begun to take an interest in the snow fight and that afternoon Dr. Raymond gave a pleasant talk to his boys in the big study, on the science of battle formation and military maneuvers.

The boys were interested. Captain Gray tried to put into execution in the next forenoon's fighting some of the advice the Old Doctor had given them. But Hi Letterblair had been advised by his instructors, too.

The teachers from both schools walked over to the island to watch the fight. It was a less rough-and-tumble affair than that of the previous day's battle, and in the end Rockledge lost the fort and island to the enemy.

Time was called, and both sides retired to renew the battle on the third morning. Captain Gray instructed his followers just what to do, and, at the beginning of the third morning's attack, Rockledge had recovered the fort, and captured half the Belden School in less than an hour!

It was great fun, and the boys learned to keep their tempers better as the fighting continued on more scientific lines. A storm came on and spoiled the fun, however, for the rest of the week.

Captain Gray came to Bobby and said: "You're all right! I've been getting the facts about that fight you put up at the island, holding off the Belden crowd, and it was smart of you.

"I thought Max Bender had more gumption in him. But he's a big bluff. Well! we won't talk about him. But I've told the Old Doctor what you did--"

"I didn't do any more than the other fellows," said Bobby, rather sheepishly. "They all put up a good fight."

"Sure! But they all say you did it--you kept them at it, and told them what to do. And Hi Letterblair says he'd have taken the fort right then, if it hadn't been for you. Oh, you can't escape the credit for it, old chap!"

Bobby knew that, although the boys might praise him, and even the Old Doctor himself might be his friend, there was one member of the faculty who did not approve of him. Mr. Leith seldom spoke to him, save when it was necessary in class-room.

New Year's Day came, and the presents from home were given out in the big hall after breakfast. It was a time of great hilarity and fun; but Bobby had hard work to keep back the tears when there were put into his hands presents addressed in his mother's and his father's writing--presents prepared far back in the summer before they had gone on that fatal voyage, and left in the care of Mrs. Martin.

Michael Mulcahey and Meena had not forgotten the boy, either. Their little presents breathed of love and friendship. Meena had a tender place in her heart for Bobby, after all. Michael wrote that she had refused to marry him on Christmas day, for the seven hundred and fifteenth time!

It was hard work by this time for Bobby Blake to believe that Gray's imaginary shipwreck was the real truth. Surely, if his parents were alive, some word must come from them.

The owners of the steamship that had been lost had never heard from any survivor. The newspapers had ceased to speak of the affair. It had become one of the many marine mysteries recorded within the last few years.

"S'pose you shouldn't ever hear about them till you grew up, Bobby?" suggested Fred, with awe. "They'd come home, and find you grown up and living in the same house, and--"

"I wouldn't be living there," declared Bobby, choking back that big lump that _would_ rise in his throat.

"Where'd you be?" demanded Fred, in wonder.

"When I'm big enough, I'll go off and look for them."

"You will? Way down to Brazil?"

"I'd search all over South America. Maybe some bad tribe of natives has them. I'll find and rescue them," said Bobby, nodding his head.

"Scubbity-_yow_!" cried the ever enthusiastic Fred. "That'll be great. I'll go with you, and we'll hide in the jungle, and catch a native and make him show us the way to the village where the captives are held.

"Crickey, Bobby! you'd make out you were a magician, and you'd have a storage battery, and things, and you'd show them blackies more magic than they ever saw before, and they'll kill their old medicine man and make you chief of the tribe.

"And then we can get into the temple where your folks are held prisoners, and release them. We'll all get out through the secret passage and take enough gold and precious stones with us to load a donkey, and come home as rich as mud! Say! it's a great idea."

"Well! what do you think of _that_?" was Bobby's comment. "You must have been reading some of Sparrow's story-papers."

"Huh! they're jolly good stories."

"Wait till the Old Doctor catches him at it," said Bobby. "Those are just foolish stories. Nothing ever really happens like it says in those stories."

"Aw--well," said Fred, grinning, "it would be great if they _did_ happen, wouldn't it?"

Lessons began right after New Year again, and it seemed harder than ever to buckle down to them because of the fun that week between Christmas and the first of the year.

"Wish it would be vacation all the time," grumbled Pee Wee, who had spent several days in bed because of the way he had abused his stomach.

"Goodness, Pee Wee!" exclaimed Bobby. "If every day was a holiday, you'd be sick all the time."

"No I wouldn't," returned the fat boy, who had figured the thing all out. "If we had holiday dinners every day, I'd get used to them and wouldn't get sick. See?"

Although Bobby had concluded that he had no chance at all for the Medal of Honor, he tried to stand as well as he could in his classes, and never again did Mr. Leith, or anybody else, catch him in an infraction of the rules of the school.

Not that he refused to go in for any legitimate fun, but he kept out of mischief, and did his best to keep his chum and the other boys of the Lower School out of trouble, too.

After that first snow-ball fight with Belden at the island, Bobby Blake became quite an influence among the smaller boys of Rockledge. The story of his taking charge of the defense of the island, after the defection of Max Bender, was common property, although Bobby himself would never discuss the matter.

Off and on, there was both snow and ice for two months following the great battle, but the boys had only the two half holidays a week in which to play on the frozen lake.

By and by the lake became unsafe, too, and, after a time came the spring thaw, the ice went out, and the boys could get into the boats again.

Every morning when he got up, Bobby ran to the window first of all and sniffed the moist, sweet air. Spring was on the way. And spring sets the blood to coursing more swiftly in the veins of every healthy boy.

For two months the boys of the Second Dormitory had not seen their camp in the woods on the larger island at the other end of Lake Monatook. When it was whispered around that there was a chance for a trip there the next Saturday, all were agreed.

Bobby and Pee Wee were the committee to "rustle up" the necessities for a feast at the camp. No potatoes and corn this time of year; the school commissary department had to be approached.

No boy in the school, save Barry Gray himself, had more influence with Mary, the head cook, than Bobby Blake. Like the other servants about Rockledge, the good woman knew all about the loss of Bobby's parents at sea. Besides that, he was always polite and friendly, and never mischievously tried to raid the pantry.

Pee Wee's influence lay in his inordinate love for sweet cakes and the like, for which he was always willing to spend his pocket-money. Many of the fat boy's dimes and quarters reached Mary's palm for "bites" between meals.

It chanced to be a good day with Mary, and the committee of two got the promise of a big hamper of good things for the first picnic of the year. Bobby had refused to be one of those who asked for the privilege of going up the lake. He knew that the request would have to be made to Mr. Carrin or Mr. Leith, and neither of them, he feared, were favorably inclined to him.

The permission was granted, however, and the crowd of nearly twenty boys raced down to the boathouse immediately after they were released from study at eleven o'clock on Saturday morning.

They had three boats, four boys at the oars in each. Some of the big fellows were going to get out the shells and begin practicing for the June regatta, but Bobby and his friends were eager to see their old camp.

"If those Bedlamites haven't found it and busted the camp all up," grumbled Pee Wee, pulling at an oar. "'Member how they pelted us with hot potatoes that time?"

"I hope they'll keep on their own side of the lake this spring," said Mouser.

"I expect they have as much right at the islands as we have," ventured Bobby. "Only it ought to be 'first come, first served.'"

"We'll serve them out nicely, if they bother us this spring," grunted Fred, who was likewise pulling.

"We'll beat them as we did in the snowball fight," cried Shiner.

"If we can spell 'able,'" laughed Bobby.

"Aw, we'll spell it all right, won't we, Ginger?" demanded Sparrow Bangs.

"Let me at them--that's all," boasted Fred.

When they got to the upper island, there was nobody there. They pulled their boats ashore and went up into the wood. There was the shack they had built the previous fall, almost as good as new.

Of course, the roof was rotting and wet, but it was pretty dry inside and they patched up the walls and roof in a little while.

Then they built a fire, made cocoa, opened a can of condensed milk, and spread out the sandwiches and pie that Mary had furnished. In the midst of the picnic, a chunk of sod popped right into the tin cup out of which Pee Wee was drinking.

"Oh! who did that?" demanded the fat boy.

In a moment a big sod came slap into the fire, and scattered the burning brands. Then followed a fusillade from the woods on two sides of the camp!

"The Bedlamites! I see that Larry Cronk!" yelled Howell Purdy.

The feast was spoiled. The boys from the rival school had pulled up a lot of soft, wet turf, and they bombarded the boys from Rockledge nicely.

It was an uneven fight at first, for the picnickers had been totally unprepared for such an attack.

Nobody wanted to run, however, and Bobby and Sparrow stemmed the tide of defeat with pine-cones, until their mates could cut clubs and come to close quarters.

The Rockledge boys were driven out of their camp. With great hilarity, Larry Cronk and his mates held the camp, and drove off their antagonists every time they attacked.

"They're too many for us," growled Fred, when the Rockledge crew finally retired. "Why! there are four boatloads of them."

"I tell you," whispered Shiner, "let's get back at them."

"Crickey! we've been back at them enough," complained Pee Wee. "I'm beaten black and blue. And look at our clothes--all mud! We'll hear about this, when we get back to the school."

In fact, it was a sorrowful and angry group that went down to the boats. These were on one side of the island, while those belonging to the Belden boys were beached on the other side.

Shiner had whispered his bright idea to Bobby and some of the others. Bobby was a little slow to accept it, but finally was convinced. The Beldens were watching them from the summit of the rocks.

Only one of the Rockledge boats was pushed into the water. Bobby, Shiner, Sparrow and Skeets Brody got in and took up the oars. They rowed away around the island.

Meanwhile the other boys collected a lot of pebbles as though they proposed to attack the Beldenites again. This would have been foolish, however, for the enemy had much the better position.

The two gangs were not above threats shouted to each other and make-believe dashes from either side. With volleys of stones and sod they kept up the interest in the fight for half an hour.

Then suddenly there came a shriek from some boy left on the other side of the island as a sentinel. He came flying, yelling his distress.

"Into the boats, boys!" Fred Martin commanded. "Bobby's got them."

They pushed off the two remaining boats and jumped in. At that moment the absent Rockledge boat appeared around the end of the island, and strung behind it, in one, two, three, four order were the boats belonging to the Belden boys. The latter were marooned.

"We've beaten them this time!" yelled Howell Purdy, with delight.

"You bet!" agreed Pee Wee. "We've been more'n a year getting them fixed just right. 'Member, Ginger, I told you and Bobby how those Bedlamites stole _all_ our boats once? How about it now?"

There was great hilarity indeed. The boys from Rockledge manned the Belden boats and the whole flotilla pulled toward the south shore. At this place the lake was quite five miles wide and the island was in the middle. So the pull was quite arduous.

Besides, the wind had come up and there was a threatening black cloud mounting the sky. Soon thunder began to mutter in the distance, and the lightning tinged the lower edge of this cloud.

The first heavy thunder shower of the season was approaching.

As they rowed to the mainland, the Rockledge boys could see their enemies standing disconsolately on the shore, and wistfully looking after their boats.

"They'll get a nice soaking," declared Shiner. "Oh! maybe I'm not glad!"

"So am I," said Fred. "And we'll hide these boats--eh?"

"Sure," agreed Sparrow Bangs. "I know a dandy place right down at the edge of Monckton's farm. They wouldn't find them in a week of Sundays in the mouth of that creek."

The rain had begun to fall before the boys reached the shore. It was a lashing, dashing rain, with plenty of thunder and the sharpest kind of lightning. Several of the Rockledge boys were afraid of thunder and lightning, but they all took shelter in an old tobacco barn--the farmers of the Connecticut Valley raise a certain quality of tobacco.

For an hour the storm continued. Then the thunder died away, and the rain ceased. By that time it was almost dark, and the boys stood a good chance of being belated for supper.

They hid the stolen boats and went home in their own. As they rowed steadily down the edge of the lake, they looked out across the darkening water to the island, and did not see a spark of light there.

"Maybe they haven't a match," said Bobby, suddenly, after a little silence.

"I should hope not!" snapped Fred.

"Anyway, there's no dry wood after this rain," said his chum.

"Good!" repeated the red-haired one.

"They're going to have a mighty bad time," ruminated Bobby. Fred only grunted, and Bobby fell silent.

Just the same, there was a troublesome thought in Bobby Blake's mind. He had little to say after they got to the school, and remained silent all through supper.

The boys had changed their clothes. The clouds had blown away and it was a starlit evening. They had their choice of playing outside for a while, or going to the big study until retiring hour.

"I say," said Shiner, going about quickly among the Second Dormitory lads, "Bobby wants us all in the gym. Something doing."

Jimmy Ailshine was a good Mercury. He got most of the boys who had been to the island together, in five minutes.

Bobby looked dreadfully serious; Fred was scowling; Sparrow looked as though he did not know whether to laugh, or not.

"Go on, Bobby!" advised Pee Wee, yawning. "What's doing!"

"I'll tell you," shot in Bobby, without a moment's hesitation. "We've done an awfully mean thing, and we've got to undo it."

"What's _that_?" demanded Howell Purdy, in amazement.

"What we did to those Bedlamites," said Bobby, firmly. "We mustn't let them stay there all night. Some of us have got to take their boats back so that they can get ashore."