The Mystery at Putnam Hall | Page 7

to see that old carryall put out of business. I've had so many nice rides in it."
"The axle will have to be mended before we can use it again," announced Peleg Snuggers. "We'll have to leave it here until the wheelwright can come fer it. I'll take the hosses back to the school."
"Look out that they don't run away with you," warned Pepper.
"Let me ride one of them!" cried the acrobatic Andy. "Give me the new one. I'll wager he won't get away from me."
"You'll break your neck!" answered the carryall driver.
"Not at all. Peleg, let me do it. I'm used to horses!" pleaded Andy.
Now, if the truth must be told, Peleg Snuggers did not relish taking the runaway team back to the school alone. He was a little afraid of the new horse, remembering how he had been kicked in the morning.
"Well, if you want to go, I'll let ye!" he said at last. "But, remember, 'tain't my fault if ye come back killed."
"Don't you worry; no horse will ever get the best of me," answered Andy.
A little later Amos Darrison brought out his three-seated carriage and all of the cadets but Andy got in. The baggage was left behind, the farmer promising to deliver it by wagon.
"See you later," cried Pepper to Andy. "Be careful!"
"Don't worry; we'll get there before you do," answered Andy.
Two blankets were arranged as saddles on the runaway team's backs and a few minutes later Andy and Peleg Snuggers started after the carriage.
"Let us catch up to them," cried the acrobatic youth, and urged his steed forward on a gallop.
"Be careful, I tell you!" cried the general utility man. "Be careful! He'll run away with you!"
But Andy was too light-hearted to pay heed to the warning, and soon he was well in advance of his companion. Then he sighted the carriage in the distance, and urged his horse to greater efforts.
"Whoop-la! Here we come!" he yelled, and set up a great shouting.
"It's Andy!" cried Pepper. "My, but he is riding some!"
"He always was a good one on horseback," said Fred.
"He wants to be careful; that horse is an ugly one," came from Jack. "I heard a man at the dock say he wouldn't own the beast at any price."
Soon Andy ranged up beside the carriage.
"You're too slow for me!" he sang out merrily. "I'll have to go ahead and tell Captain Putnam you are coming."
He slapped the horse on the neck. Hardly had he done so when up came the animal's hind hoofs, almost unseating him. Then the horse made a mad leap forward and started down the highway at top speed.
"My, see him go!"
"He is running away!"
"Andy, look out for yourself!"
"If he throws you he'll kill you!"
So the cries rang out from the carriage as horse and rider sped over the highway leading to Putnam Hall.
Andy paid no attention to what was said. Of a sudden he had his hands full trying to keep on the horse's back. The steed was galloping along with a peculiar motion.
"Whoa! whoa, Jim!" yelled Andy, but Jim paid no attention. He was off for a run and did not care what happened.
The blanket had not been securely fastened and before long it commenced to slip towards the horse's tail. Andy tried to haul it back. His efforts were but partly successful, and with an end of the blanket trailing around one of his hind legs, the steed became more unmanageable than ever.
On and on went horse and rider, until, in the distance, Putnam Hall loomed up. On one side of the highway were the woods lining the lake shore; on the other the broad campus leading to the school and other buildings.
"He'll slow up now," thought Andy. "Unless he bolts right into his stable. If he tries that I'll have to jump for it."
In front of the school building the roadway widened out into several curves. Andy thought Jim would take to one of the curves, but he was mistaken. On kept the steed, directly past the institution of learning.
On the campus were a score or more of cadets, who stared in amazement at the sight of the runaway horse with the boy clinging desperately to his back.
"It's Andy Snow!" cried Henry Lee, the captain of Company A.
"So it is," responded Bob Grenwood, the quartermaster of the school battalion. "How in the world did he get on that horse?"
"It's the one that was hitched to the carryall," put in Billy Sabine, another cadet. "Something is wrong."
"Let's tell Captain Putnam," said another.
"Whoa! whoa!" yelled Andy, frantically, when he realized that the horse was not going to pass into the grounds. "Whoa, I say! You've gone far enough!"
The only effect his words had was to make Jim travel a little faster. Away they went, past the gymnasium and the