Major Jack and the other under Ritter. At last Captain Putnam put in an
appearance, and Major Jack explained matters. As a consequence, the
cadets went back to the Hall, and then Josiah Crabtree and Pluxton were
called on to explain. Crabtree was retained, after a stern lecture from
the master of the school, but Cuddle was discharged.

It was Captain Putnam's custom to take his students out once or twice a
year to what was called an encampment--the lads marching to some spot
where they could pitch their tents and go in for a touch of real army
life, with target shooting, sham battles, and the like. In the next
volume of the series, called "The Putnam Hall Encampment," I told how
the cadets left the Hall and marched to a distant lake. Their camping
outfit was sent ahead by wagons, but the wagons got lost, and were
finally found in the possession of Roy Bock and some other students of
Pornell, they having made off with them while the drivers were in a
roadhouse obtaining refreshments. For this trick, Pepper and some of the
others got after the Pornellites and made them prisoners in a cave, from
which they could escape only by going out a back way, through some
water and mud, and thorny bushes.

While they were playing a certain trick in Cedarville, Jack and Pepper
fell in with a youth named Bert Field. He was a queer lad, but did the
chums a good turn, and in return they promised to help him. He was
trying to locate a certain old man who was defrauding him out of some
property. The old man was discovered during a visit to a mysterious mill
said to be haunted, and by the chums' aid Bert Field got what was coming
to him. It was thought best to send Bert to school, and he said he
wanted to go to Putnam Hall.

"We'll be glad to have him with us," said Jack, and so it was settled.