Chapter XVII. A Stirring Scene in the Schoolroom - The Rover Boys on the Farm by Edward Stratemeyer
The hunt for the snake was continued all of the next day, but without success. By that time the excitement had died down and a good many of the cadets forgot all about the incident. A few said it must be a joke and they laughed behind George Strong's back.
"It's one of Tom Rover's tricks," said one pupil. "I'll wager he is laughing in his sleeves at Mr. Strong and Captain Putnam."
"Do you think it was a live snake?" asked another.
"No, it was probably a toy affair on a string."
In the secrecy of their room Tad Sobber and Nick Pell laughed heartily over the excitement created—that is, Pell laughed and the bully laughed with him. But Sobber, behind it all, was worried.
The truth of the matter was, he had hoped that the snake would be killed. The man who had sold him the reptile had said it was from Central America and poisonous, but had added that the snake was sick and not liable to do any harm. Sobber would not have cared had Dick or his brothers been bitten by the snake, but that the reptile was at large was another story.
"Do you think he'd be poisonous enough to kill anybody?" asked Pell, suddenly, and he sobered down as he spoke.
"Oh, no, of course not," answered the bully, but he turned his face away as he spoke. He had given five dollars for the snake and now he was willing to give a like sum to make certain of its death.
In the afternoon Sam led the way to a little case of reptiles which hung on the wall of the school laboratory. In this was a stuffed snake almost the size of that which had disappeared.
"I guess we can frighten Sobber and Pell with that," he said to his brothers.
"Anyway, we can try," answered Tom, falling in with the plan at once.
"We want to be careful of what we do," added Dick. "Otherwise, the pair will smell a mouse."
They talked the matter over, and managed to get the snake upstairs without anybody seeing them. Then they paid a visit to the dormitory occupied by the bully and his cronies and passed some strong black threads across the floor and elsewhere. After that they told Songbird and their other chums of what had been done.
That night Sobber, Pell and their friends went to bed as usual. But hardly had they turned out the lights when they heard a curious rustling sound on the floor near the door.
"What is that?" asked Pell, who was inclined to be nervous.
"I don't know, I'm sure," answered Sobber.
The rustling continued, and something seemed to move across the floor. Wondering what it could be, the bully got up and lit a light. Then he gave a yell and leaped back.
"The snake!"
"Where is it?" screamed Pell, sitting bolt upright and his hair raising on ends.
"There it is, over in the corner."
"The snake! The snake!" called out the other boys in the room, and some were so scared that they dove under the bed clothing.
The light was not strong enough to see clearly, and nobody had the courage to make more of an illumination. Sobber stood in the center of the room and as he did this the snake suddenly seemed to fly through the air right at him.
"Oh!" he screamed. "Go away!" and he flopped on his bed and threw a blanket over him. He felt the reptile cross the bed and lay there quaking in mortal terror. Then he heard something moving across the floor.
"That snake is bound to bite me!" he muttered to himself. "Oh, why did I bring it to the school!"
"Call Captain Putnam, somebody!" came from Nick Pell. He was so frightened he could scarcely speak.
There was an emergency bell near the door, to be used in case of fire, and this one of the boys touched. At once the alarm sounded out, and in a few minutes the hallways were filled with pupils as on the previous night, while some of the teachers and Peleg Snuggers appeared with chemical fire extinguishers in their hands.
"Where is the fire?"
"Shall I telephone for the Cedarville fire department?"
"Has anybody been burnt?"
"What room is it in?"
Such were some of the questions asked. Then Captain Putnam rushed on the scene.
"It's the snake again!" wailed one of the cadets, who now stood bolt upright on his bed, his eyes bulging from his head.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, the snake is in here," answered Tad Sobber. "Why, it fairly jumped over my bed!"
"He tried to bite me in the face!" came from Nick Pell, who was so excited he scarcely knew what he was saying.
More lights were lit, and Captain Putnam went off to get a shotgun.
"If I catch sight of it, I'll blow it to pieces," he said to George Strong.
A long search followed, and then came a sudden cry from a corner of the dormitory.
"There he is!"
"Shoot him, Captain Putnam!"
The master of the Hall took aim and came up slowly. Then he suddenly dropped the barrel of his shotgun, stepped forward, and took hold of the snake by the tail.
"It's a stuffed snake," he said. "It belongs in the case in the laboratory."
"A stuffed snake?" queried Tad Sobber, and when he realized the truth he was the maddest boy in that school.
"See here," said the master of the Hall, turning to Dick. "Was this what you saw last night?"
"No, sir," was the prompt reply. "What we saw was a real, live snake."
"Indeed it was," said George Strong.
"Are you sure this one is from the case in the laboratory, Captain Putnam?" questioned Andrew Garmore, one of the teachers.
"Yes, I know it well. Besides, here is the label on it."
"Well, I looked at the case early this morning and it was filled as it has always been."
"It's a trick on me!" roared Tad Sobber, angrily. "Just wait, I'll get square with somebody for this!" And he looked sharply at the Rovers.
"Sobber must like snakes—I saw him at the museum in Cedarville one day," answered Dick, and eyed the bully boldly. At this Sobber grew red in the face and slunk out of sight.
"Get to bed, all of you," said Captain Putnam sharply. "I'll investigate this in the morning."
As on the night before, it took the school a long time to quiet down. The Rover boys and their chums had a hearty laugh over the success of the trick.
"My! but Sobber is mad," said Fred. "You want to watch out, he'll do almost anything to get square."
The promised investigation the next day did not materialize, for the reason that Captain Putnam was called away on important business. Thus two days passed, and the snake incident was again practically forgotten by the majority of the students.
On the following day the master of the Hall came back and said he would start his investigation that afternoon after the school session.
"And let me tell you one thing," he announced. "Whoever brought that real snake into this academy will have to suffer for it."
That afternoon in one of the classrooms some of the pupils were reciting history when of a sudden a wild shriek rang through the air and Nick Pell was seen to bounce up out of his seat and run away from his desk as if a demon was after him.
"What is it, Pell?" demanded the teacher.
"The—the snake!" groaned Nick. "Oh, I'm a dead boy!"
"Where is it?" asked a score of voices.
"In my desk! It just bit me in the hand! Oh, I'm a dead boy, I know I am!" And Nick Pell shook from head to foot in his terror.
The announcement that the snake was in Nick's desk was received in various ways by the boys present. Some thought it must be the real snake and others thought it might be only a trick. With caution the teacher approached the desk, armed with a ruler. Then came a hissing sound and the snake stuck out its head.
"It's alive!" yelled a dozen cadets.
"Kill it! Kill it!"
"You go and kill it!"
"I haven't anything."
"Neither have I."
"Throw a book at it," suggested Tom, and let fly his Cæsar. His aim was good and the snake was hit in the neck and tumbled to the floor. Then the boys threw books, rulers and inkwells at the reptile, and it was driven into a corner. Dick took up a big geography, let it fall on top of the snake, and stood on it. The reptile squirmed, but could not get away, and in a few seconds more it was killed.
"That's the end of that snake," said Sam, breathing a sigh of relief. "And I am mighty glad of it."
"I am poisoned! I am poisoned!" screamed Nick Pell. "See, my hand is swelling up already!"
"Do you think he was really bitten?" whispered Tom.
"It looks like it," answered Dick. "Too bad—if the snake really was poisonous."
By this time Captain Putnam had come in. He glanced at the dead snake and gave a start.
"Did that thing bite you, Pell?" he questioned.
"Yes, sir, right here—in—the—the palm of the hand," cried the youth addressed. "See how it is swelling."
"I'll telephone for a doctor at once. Come to my office and I will see what I can do for you."
Nick had certainly been bitten and now the hand was twice its ordinary size, while the pain was acute. The boy shook like a leaf.
"I'm poisoned, I know I am!" he wailed. "It's all Tad Sobber's fault, too! Oh, if I should die!" And then of a sudden he fell to the floor in convulsions.