Chapter V. The Defeat of the Bully - The Rover Boys on a Hunt by Edward Stratemeyer

"Go ahead, Jack! You've got to win!"

"Don't let 'em beat you, Bill. Put it all over those Rovers."

"Oh, Jack, don't let them get the best of you!" cried Ruth.

"You've got to win!" screamed Martha.

"Here is where Glutts shows 'em what the Yellow Streak can do!"

So the cries ran on as the two bobsleds slowly gathered momentum and started down the long slope leading to Clearwater Lake.

At the beginning Glutts had a little the better of it, because the right side of the slide seemed to be more slippery than the other. He was the first to gain the top of the nearest rise and he shot over this while Jack's bobsled was still climbing the slope.

"Hurrah! Bill Glutts is ahead!"

"He said the Yellow Streak could beat any thing in this vicinity."

"Oh, do you really think Glutts will win?" questioned Ruth anxiously, as she turned to Dan Soppinger.

"Well, I should hope not!" answered Dan.

"If he does win there will be no holding him down," put in Ned Lowe, another chum of the Rovers. "He'll crow to beat the band all winter."

Forward went the two bobsleds, each steersman doing his best to guide his sled where running might be the easiest.

Just as Jack topped the first rise and started to speed down on the other side, he saw Bill Glutts start to resume his old tactics. The bully was running close to the center of the course, and now he overlapped the other side by at least six inches.

"Hi, there, Glutts! Get over on your side!" yelled one of the cadets who was helping to police the course.

"That's right, Bill. Get over, or you'll be disqualified," added another.

"Keep to the right! Keep to the right!" was the cry from several others. And then, knowing that the eyes of all the cadets in that vicinity were upon him, the bully slowly steered over to his side of the course. And he was not any too quick, for otherwise there might have been a serious disaster. Down the slope of the first hill rushed the Blue Moon. Jack was on his side, but had not more than six inches to spare. Had Glutts kept on as he was running the Blue Moon would have sideswiped the Yellow Streak, and there would undoubtedly have been a serious accident.

"Here comes the Blue Moon!"

"Say, but they are gathering some speed!"

"Hurrah, the Rovers are ahead!"

"Go on, Glutts! Go on! Don't let 'em beat you!"

It was true that the Blue Moon was now ahead and was slowly but surely increasing the distance between the Rovers and those aboard the Yellow Streak.

"Push her ahead, Bill! Push her ahead!" yelled Nick Carncross desperately.

"We've got to win!" cried Codfish.

"I'm doing the best I can," muttered Bill Glutts between his set teeth, and his eyes glowed with hatred as he saw the Blue Moon vanishing over the second rise of the course.

After that, as Fatty Hendry remarked, "it was all over but the shouting." Down toward the highway skirting the lake shot the Blue Moon. Then it ran swiftly along the final lap of the course and came out on Clearwater Lake, shooting several hundred feet beyond the finishing mark. The line was crossed while the Yellow Streak was still on the roadway beyond the lake shore.

"Hurrah! The Blue Moon wins!"

"My, but that was some run, believe me!"

"What will Bill Glutts have to say now?"

"He can't say this wasn't a fair race."

The run for the Blue Moon had certainly been a swift one, and while Jack was congratulated on his victory, he was also praised for the way in which he had handled his speedy bobsled.

"We certainly came down fast," remarked Randy. "I thought my ears were going to blow right off my head," and this remark caused a general laugh.

Glutts had finished the race twelve seconds behind his opponent and was in anything but a happy frame of mind.

"There were a number of sticks and stones on my side of the slide, and they held us back," he protested lamely. "I guess some of the fellows who didn't want to see the Yellow Streak win put 'em there."

"I can't believe that, Glutts," answered Major Mason flatly. "I looked over the course, and it was just as clear on one side as it was on the other."

"Don't be a sorehead, Bill, just because you lost," put in Fatty Hendry. "Be a good sport and shake hands with Jack over your defeat."

"I'll do as I please," roared the bully. "I don't need any advice from you. You fellows are all against me." And with this remark he turned his back on the crowd, and soon he and his cronies were making their way up along the lake shore, dragging the Yellow Streak behind them.

"It was a well won race, Captain Rover," said Professor Grawson. "You can be proud of being the possessor of such a speedy bobsled. On Monday I shall take great pleasure in getting that knife for you."

"Thank you, Professor. And I'll take great pleasure in accepting the knife," said Jack, with a grin.

"Well, that's the time you squared up with Bill Glutts," remarked Spouter, after the fun on Long Hill had come to an end and the boys had said good-bye to the girls and were on the return to Colby Hall. "You certainly paid him back for shoving you into that snowbank."

"I don't know whether I did or not," answered the young captain. "Evidently Glutts doesn't know when he's had enough. I suppose he'll be more bitter now than ever against me."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about Glutts," put in Gif. "He's nothing but a great big overgrown butcher boy." He said this because it was a well-known fact that Bill Glutts was the only son of a wholesale butcher who had made a small fortune in manufacturing and selling frankfurters.

"I don't see how a fellow like Nick Carncross can take up with him," remarked Fatty Hendry.

"I know why he does that," came from Ned Lowe. "Bill has had plenty of money to spend lately—an uncle or somebody sent him quite a wad—and Nick's pocketbook, I imagine, is rather thin."

"Say, Ned, come around to our rooms to-night and give us some music just to celebrate this glorious event!" cried Fred, for Ned Lowe was quite a performer on the mandolin and usually had some very funny songs to sing.

"All right, I'll be glad to come," answered the mandolin player. "Any eats?"

"Oh, maybe we can scrape up something," answered Randy. The idea of a little spread on the quiet appealed to him.

The idea of a little spread appealed to the others, too, and as a consequence it was arranged between the Rovers and their chums that two of them should go to Haven Point for some things for the spread. This task was delegated to Andy and Fred, and they hurried off early in the evening, returning with several packages containing sandwiches, cake, candy, nuts and a large hand of bananas. In the meantime, the other Rover boys and Ned Lowe had gathered in Gif Garrison's room, and there enjoyed themselves singing and listening to Ned's playing of the mandolin.

As soon as the monitors had gone their rounds to see that everything was quiet for the night, Spouter, Gif, Fatty, Ned, Dan, Walt and several others found their way to the Rover boys' suite.

"Now, don't make too much noise," admonished Fred, who let them in. "Remember Bill Glutts and his gang will be only too glad to find out what is going on and report us."

"And we don't want to get any black marks when it's so near the end of the term," added Jack.

"Right-o," came from Andy.

The new arrivals proceeded to make themselves at home, and then the Rovers passed around the good things which had been obtained.

"Say, this is all right," declared Walt, munching a tongue sandwich.

"Couldn't be beat," came from Gif, who had his mouth full of layer cake.

"Here, Fatty, have some nuts!" cried Andy gayly, and let several almonds slide down the fat youth's collar.

"Hi, there! Let up!" cried Fatty. "I don't eat nuts that way," and he made a pass at Andy with a pillow.

"No horseplay, now! Cut it out, Andy," warned Jack.

After that the cadets conversed in low tones and at the same time enjoyed the many good things to eat.

"What are you going to do with those banana skins, Andy?" questioned his twin, as he saw the youth place several of the skins in a bit of newspaper.

"Oh, I've got a plan to use them," was the answer.

"Well, if there is any fun on foot, let me in on it," went on Randy promptly.

"I was thinking we might send some of these good things over to Bill Glutts, Codfish and Nick Carncross," went on the fun-loving Rover. "It might make 'em feel better over their defeat."

"What! Give up some of these good eats to them?" demanded Fred.

"Well, I don't know whether they would be very good eats or not," answered Andy, closing one eye suggestively. "Do you see what I've got in this little package?" he went on, bringing a small paper bag from his pocket. "Smell it."

Fred did so, but with caution. Then he gave a sudden sneeze.

"Cayenne pepper!"

"Right you are, Freddie boy! How did you guess it?" and Andy grinned broadly.

"Say, that's the talk!" burst out Randy. "Let's send them over a few sandwiches and a couple of slices of cake, all well doctored with cayenne pepper."

"They'll be suspicious, especially if you take them over," remarked Jack. "We ought to get some outsider to do the job."

"I'll do it if you want me too," responded Walt Baxter promptly. "I don't love those chaps any more than you do. You just fix up some sandwiches and the cake, and I'll go around and explain that Dan and Ned and Fatty, and some of the rest of us, are giving the Rovers a little spread in honor of the victory and that we don't think it any more than right that they should have some of the good things."

So it was decided, and a little while later the cover of a pasteboard box was fixed up as a tray, containing several tempting looking sandwiches, some slices of layer cake, and two bananas. Then Walt Baxter marched off with the things in the direction of the room occupied by Bill Glutts.

"Come on and listen to what happens," said Andy, and presently, having slipped off their shoes, he and the others followed Walt down the corridor, but kept well in the background.

When Baxter arrived at Bill Glutts' room he heard low voices, and was much pleased to learn that Glutts was talking to Nick Carncross. When he knocked lightly on the door there was an uneasy stir within.

"Maybe it's one of the monitors come back," whispered Carncross uneasily.

"Who is there?" questioned Glutts sharply.

"It's I—Walt Baxter," was the answer. "Open the door, Glutts. I've got something good for you fellows."

The door was opened cautiously, and Walt explained his errand, at the same time holding out the improvised tray.

"I don't know that we want anything," said Glutts rather sourly.

"Oh, well, we might as well take it," put in Carncross hastily. He was a growing cadet, and always hungry.

"We'd like to have Codfish have some of this, too," said Walt. "Will you see that he gets some?"

"Sure!" answered Carncross readily. "He's right across the hall. I'll call him."

In a few minutes more Codfish came from his room clad in his pajamas and slippers. He sneaked over into the room occupied by Glutts and Carncross, and then the three began dividing the things Walt had brought for them.

"I'll have to go now," said Walt hastily. "Remember, this is with regards from our whole crowd," he added significantly.

"Thanks," muttered Carncross briefly, while Glutts and Codfish said nothing.

Then the bully closed the door and he and his cronies prepared to enjoy the things which had been brought to them.