Chapter VII Fun with Codfish - The Rover Boys under Canvas by Edward Stratemeyer
The idea of having a little fun with Codfish had occurred to Andy and Randy on the day previous, when they had been out collecting some boxes and barrels for the bonfires which they hoped to have--provided, of course, that Hixley High was beaten in the baseball contest. They had talked the matter over for some time, and had then set to work, laying their plans to give the sneak of the school the surprise of his life.
"What's doing, Jack?" questioned Walt Baxter, in some surprise.
"Going to put one over on Codfish?" questioned Gif.
"Just you wait and see," announced Jack. And then, turning to Spouter, he continued: "In about five minutes I wish you would go over to Codfish and tell him somebody wants to see him up in his room without delay. Put it to him good and strong so that he goes up at once."
"Trust me for that," answered Spouter, with a grin. "I'll tell him his grandfather has just died and the lawyer is up there waiting to hand him an inheritance of a million dollars."
"Don't pile it on as thick as that!" cried Fred. "If you do, he'll take it for another joke, and won't go at all."
All of the crowd kept their eyes on Codfish, and when the time was up Spouter approached Stowell as if in a great hurry.
"I say, Henry," he said in an earnest voice, "there's a man wants to see you. They just sent him up to your room."
"To see me! What for?" questioned Codfish in surprise.
"I don't know. He seemed to be a very nice man, though. He was in a great hurry. You had better not keep him waiting. He said it was very important," and without waiting to be questioned further, Spouter hurried away.
Codfish looked after the other cadet rather doubtfully, and stood still for a moment. Then, however, his curiosity got the better of him, and he hurried off in the direction of the Hall.
"Come on, fellows!" cried Jack in a low voice. "But don't let him suspect that you are following him, or it may spoil the fun."
Stowell entered the school by a side door and ran up the nearest stairway to the main corridor above. The others hastened around to the front entrance and came up by another staircase. They were just in time to see the sneak hurrying into the room he occupied.
"Hist!" came in a low voice from the other end of the corridor, after the door had closed upon Codfish, and then from a shadowy recess Andy and Randy appeared.
"Did you get everything fixed up?" questioned Jack hurriedly.
"All fixed," answered Andy laconically. "Come on in here," and he motioned to a room next to that occupied by Stowell. This belonged to a student who, for the time being, was away from the school.
Once inside of this room, Randy and Andy took the others to where there was a door connecting that apartment with the one occupied by the sneak. This was partly open, so that they could look into Stowell's room with ease.
"Hello there!" they heard the sneak exclaim. And then followed the switching on of an electric light. "It's only one of their rotten jokes! I knew it all along!" murmured the cadet.
He looked around the room, and then a cry of astonishment burst from his lips. In the center of the floor were piled at least ten boxes of various sizes and shapes. Some of the boxes had had straw in them and others excelsior, and part of this was strewn on the floor.
"Huh! Some of those fellows are mighty smart, putting these boxes in my room!" growled Codfish to himself. "I'd just like to know who did it! If it was that Spouter Powell, I think I'll go and tell on him!"
"Here is where I got in fine!" murmured Spouter.
Codfish glanced further, and his eyes fell on the interior of the closet of the room, the door to which stood wide open. Then he gave a gasp.
"My gracious! if they haven't taken all my clothing, and my hats, and even my shoes!" he groaned. "This is the worst yet!" He rushed to the closet, and another look convinced him that the place was entirely empty. Then he ran to a corner where stood a clothes tree, which had contained some of his athletic outfit. This was likewise empty. Then he rushed to his chiffonier.
"Gone! Everything gone! Not a thing left!" he groaned. "Oh, if this isn't the worst yet! If I don't tell on somebody for this!"
Coming back to the middle of the room, he surveyed the pile of boxes suspiciously. Then a sheet of paper resting on the top box claimed his attention.
"'For anything that is missing look in the boxes,'" he read from the slip of paper. "Oh, dear! I suppose those fellows were just mean enough to stuff all my things in those packing cases. I wonder what they did that for? Maybe they thought they were going to cart them down to the bonfire and burn them up, and burn all my stuff, too. Just wait and see if I don't fix somebody for this!"
There was rather a small box on top of the others, and this Codfish started to open first. One end of the lid was nailed down, but the other was loose, and he pulled up on this with vigor.
And then the sneak got the first of a series of surprises. The lid of the box held down a large rubber frog, and this bounced out of the box, hitting him full in the face. He staggered back and fell over on his bed.
"Hurrah! First round!" whispered Andy delightedly.
"Just wait for the second," said Randy.
There was nothing else in the box but excelsior, and having rummaged about in this, Codfish threw the box aside and started to investigate the next receptacle.
The lid to this was screwed on, and he had quite a job opening it. The other cadets watched with interest, doing their best to keep from laughing. When the box was opened, Codfish found that it contained a layer of excelsior. Under this, however, were a number of bundles wrapped in newspapers, each containing a small portion of the stuff taken from his chiffonier.
"Huh! thought they were smart, didn't they?" he muttered, as he put the things where they belonged. "Just wait! I'll fix 'em for this."
The next box contained some of his clothing, which he hung in the closet. Then he tackled a rather large box which was bound up with an old clothesline. He had to tug at the line quite a little to get it loose, not thinking in his excitement that it would be easier to cut the line. The top of the box was filled with all sorts of rubbish.
Beneath this were some more of his things, and then at the very bottom a rather small wooden box with a sliding cover.
Any ordinary school boy would have suspected some trick in connection with this box. But not so Codfish. He looked at it carefully, and then, bringing it close under the light, proceeded to pull the sliding cover back.
And then he was treated to another surprise, this time far more disagreeable than the other. The box contained a large codfish, one which, as Andy afterwards explained, had seen better days.
"Phew, what a smell!" cried the sneak, as he allowed the decayed codfish to fall out on the floor.
The odor when released from the air-tight box was so overpowering that he had to go over and throw open the window.
"Codfish for the Codfish!" sang out Andy gaily, unable to keep quiet any longer.
The sneak of the school whirled around suddenly, and there beheld in the doorway of the next room the Rover boys and their chums in a group, all grinning at him.
"How'd you like the fish, Codfish?" questioned Fred.
"Thought you said you didn't have any boxes in your room," came from Jack.
"I didn't know you were raising frogs for a living," remarked Randy.
"Why don't you take those boxes down and put them on the bonfire?"
questioned Gif.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself--littering up your room with all that straw and excelsior," was Walt's comment. "If you aren't careful, you'll get some mighty bad marks for doing that."
"What did you do with the man who wanted to see you?" questioned Spouter. "Did you tell him that you were too busy to talk?"
"You're a fine bunch of fellows!" howled Codfish, not knowing what to say. "You had no business to play a trick like this on me!"
"Play a trick on you?" questioned Andy innocently. "Who has been playing a trick? Why, we don't know what it is to do anything like that!"
"I think somebody said you wanted to see us, but I don't know what for," added Randy.
"If anybody should ask me, I would say you had a queer way of cleaning house, Codfish," remarked Fred calmly.
"And to think he stole one of the codfish from the pantry!" said Jack.
"By the way it smells, he must have taken it the day he enrolled here."
"Maybe he likes codfish good and strong," suggested Gif.
"I'll 'codfish' you fellows if you don't leave me alone!" howled the sneak. He was so vexed he almost felt like crying. "You just wait till Colonel Colby or Captain Dale hears about this!"
"Yes, I wonder what the colonel will say when he finds out you stole one of the codfish belonging to the school," said Andy. "You oughtn't to have done it, Henry, my boy. If you wanted anything to eat, why didn't you ask one of the teachers for it?"
"Maybe he chews on codfish in the middle of the night when he can't sleep, or when he is trying to solve a problem in algebra," suggested Randy.
"I don't do any such thing, and I didn't take that codfish from the pantry, and you know it!" howled Codfish, in anger. "It's a put-up job, and you are the fellows who did it! All of you ought to be sent away from this school."
"If he took a codfish, maybe he took some other things, too," said Jack. "I think this ought to be investigated."
"And how did you happen to get all these boxes?" demanded Fred. "I know them. They were collected for the bonfire some days ago."
"You certainly have no right to have them in your room, Codfish," said Gif. "Better hustle 'em down and put 'em on the fire before the rest of the fellows hear of this."
"And if you've got things belonging to the school victuals besides that codfish, you'd better fork 'em over," admonished Jack.
"You clear out, every one of you! I don't want to hear another word!"
screamed Codfish, in a rage. "You just wait until I report you! I think you're all too mean for anything! Go on away!" And he tried to close the door to the other room in their faces. But they held it back so he could do nothing.
"Come on, fellows, let's put those boxes where they belong!" cried Jack. And, marching into the room, he picked up one of the packing cases, and the others quickly followed suit. Then they marched out into the hallway, leaving Codfish staring after them in bewilderment.
"I know you've got some other things belonging to the school besides that fish!" cried Andy. "You've got the pockets of your overcoat just stuffed with good things!"
"Haven't any such thing!" declared the sneak. And then, struck by a sudden idea, he ran to the clothing closet and brought forth his overcoat, which had been in one of the boxes. He rammed his hand into one of the pockets, and then suddenly withdrew it with a yell of fright and pain.
And his fright and pain were not without good reason, for clinging to the thumb of the hand he had inserted into the pocket of the overcoat was a small, but exceedingly active, snapping turtle!