CHAPTER II

THE CADETS OF PUTNAM HALL


It was true, the team was running away. One of the horses was a spirited
animal and he now had the bit in his teeth. The boys in the rear of the
turnout looked back, to see Peleg Snuggers still lying in the highway.
The stage belonging to Pornell Academy had turned down a side road.

"Can't you stop them, Andy?" asked Jack Ruddy.

"I don't see how," was the answer from the youth on the front seat. "I
can't get hold of the lines."

"We must stop 'em somehow!" cried Fred Century. "Otherwise we'll have a
smash-up, sure!"

"Whoa! whoa!" yelled half a dozen, but these cries only served to scare
the team more, and away they shot along the country road, sending the
carryall swaying from side to side.

"Look! look!" yelled Andy, suddenly. "The regular road is shut off! They
are repairing it!"

The boys gazed ahead and saw that some wooden horses and planking had
been placed across the highway. This side of the barrier some bars had
been taken from a fence, so that those using the road might drive
around, through an orchard belonging to a farmer named Darrison.