Part 1 (2/2)

”Said Chuckwalla Bill, 'Oh, boys, plant me With my boots on--on the wide prair-eee'-- Where the coyotes howl, they planted Bill-- An' so far as I know, he's sleepin' there still!”

”Here they come,” grinned Butch, hearing a tumult in the bunkhouse, and a confused Babel of voices. ”Hicks has awakened the camp. Now watch the fellows wreak summary vengeance on his toothpick frame!”

From the sleep-shack, aroused at that weird hour by the clamor of the irrepressible youth, T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., tumbled others of the squad, in varying stages of ; big Beef McNaughton, right half-back, Roddy Perkins, the t.i.tian-haired right-end, Pudge Langdon, a ponderous tackle, and Monty Merriweather, a clean-cut, aggressive candidate for left end. From within, other wrathy youths howled vociferous protests at their tormentor:

”Stop that noise; put your muzzle on again, Hicks!”--”Where's the fire?

Say, Hicks, m.u.f.fle your exhaust!”--”Say, Coach, must we endure this day and night?”

The bunkhouse fairly erupted angry collegians, boiling out like bees swarming from a disturbed hive; Hefty Hollingsworth, the Herculean center-rush. Biff Pemberton, left half-back, Bunch Bingham, Tug Cardiff, and Buster Brown, three huge last-year subst.i.tutes; second-string players, Don Carterson, Cherub Challoner, Skeet Wigglesworth, and Scoop Sawyer. A dozen others, from sheer laziness, hugged their bunks devotedly, despite the terrific turmoil outside.

”It's a disgrace, ashame!” exploded Beef, his elephantine frame swathed in blankets to conceal a lack of vest.i.ture, ”Last night, until midnight, that graceless wretch roosted on 'Lookout There' and because the glorious moonlight made him sentimental and slushy, he tw.a.n.ged his banjo and warbled such mushy stuff as 'My Love is young and fair. My Love has golden hair!' When does he expect us to sleep?”

”He doesn't!” explained Monty Merriweather, with succinct lucidity, grinning at his comrades. ”Say, fellows, you know how Hicks dreads a cold shower-bath; well, some of you rage at him from the other side of the rock, while I climb up the rope-ladder and close with him! Then some of you prehistoric pachyderms ascend, and we'll chuck that pestersome insect into the cold, cold lake--”

”Done!” chuckled Butch Brewster, delightedly. So, while he, Beef McNaughton, Hefty Hollingsworth, and others beguiled the jeering Hicks, expressing in dynamic, red-hot sentences their exact opinions of his perfidy, the athletic Monty imitated a mountain-scaling Italian soldier.

He climbed stealthily up the swaying rope-ladder; nearer and nearer to the unsuspecting youth he crept, while the cherubic Hicks, to tantalize the group below, again burst forth:

”Whoop-eee! I'm a bold,man ()! I got ten notches on my ole six-gun--I'm a . I wings a man before breakfast every day! I got a private burying-ground, where I plants my victims ()!

Yip-yip-yip-! Oh, I'm a--Ouch, Monty--leggo me--Oh, I'll be good--why didn't I pull that rope-ladder up here? Don't bust my banjo --don't let Butch get me--”

Monty Merriweather, reaching the flat top of the rock, had courageously flung himself, without regard for the Bad Man's desperate record, on the startled Hicks, whose first thought was for his beloved banjo. While he held the blithesome tormentor helpless, Butch, Beef, and Roddy Perkins climbed the rope-ladder, and the grinning youth was soon in their clutches, while the collegians below, like a Roman, mob aroused by the oratory of Mr.

Mark Antony, howled for revenge:

”Bust the old banjo over his head, Butch!”--”Sing to him, Beef--that's anrevenge on Hicks!”--”Tie him to the rock--make him miss his breakfast!”

”Hicks,” growled Butch, eyeing his sunny comrade ominously, ”you ought to be tarred and feathered, and shot at sunrise! When Bannister opens, you will be a Senior, and you'll disgrace '19's dignity! This is a sample of what we have endured at college for three years, and the worst is yet to come! You have committed the awful atrocity of awakening Camp Bannister at five A. M. with your ridiculous imitation, of a Western desperado. To dampen your ardor, we will chuck you into the cold lake--just as you are!”

”Help! a.s.sistance! Aid! Succor!” shouted the happy-go-lucky Hicks, as the behemoth Butch and Beef seized him, swinging him aloft with ludicrous ease, ”Police! Fire! Murder! Take care of my banjo, Monty. Tell all the fellows at old Bannister I died game, and plant Hair-Trigger Bill with his boots on! Oooo, Beef, Butch, , that water is !”

T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., relieved of banjo and revolvers, but his shadow-like structure still clad in shoes, trousers, with imitation ”chaps”

and flamboyant red s.h.i.+rt, with his cla.s.sic head still adorned by the sombrero, was swung back and forth by the two bulky football stars--once--twice--

”Three--Let him go!” shouted Butch Brewster, and like a falling meteor, the splinter-like youth, who had already fallen from grace, shot from the rock, head-first, disappearing with a spectacular splash in the icy waters of Lake Conowingo. Knowing Hicks to be as much at home in the water as a fish in an aquarium, the hilarious squad on sh.o.r.e prepared to jeer his reappearance above the water; however, their program was interrupted by old Hinky-d.i.n.k, who stood in the cook-tent doorway, belaboring a dishpan l.u.s.tily with a soup-ladle, and shouting:

”Breakfus' am served; fus' an' las' call fo' breakfus; all dem what am late don't git no breakfus!”

”Breakfast!” exclaimed Monty Merriweather, who, with Roddy, Butch, and Beef, remained on the rock, despite the summons of the Cookee. ”Hurry up, Hicks, I'm ravenous. Say, Butch, suppose all that Western regalia makes him water-logged; he's a terribly long while down there! Didn't he look like the hero in a moving-picture feature? We've given him the water-cure, but he will do that same stunt over again. That sunny-souled Hicks is simply Incorrigible!”

A second later, the grinning, cheery countenance of T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., shot above the water, and simultaneously with his appearance, just as though he had been chanting below the surface, for the entertainment of the finny denizens of Lake Conowingo, the irrepressible youth roared:

”A hotter shootin' match Last Chance never saw-- But Sure-Shot Pete was some quicker on the draw!”

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