CHAPTER VIII
A SCENE IN THE GYMNASIUM
Lew Flapp spoke in such a loud, overbearing voice that a crowd began to collect in the corner where the punching apparatus was located.
"What's up?" asked more than one cadet.
"Lew Flapp and Dick Rover are going to try to beat each other at punching the bag," was the report.
"Rover will have to do his best then. Flapp is a prime one at bag punching. It's about the only thing he can do real well."
"This isn't a fair contest," put in another student. "Flapp took lessons from a man who used to do bag-punching on the vaudeville stage."
"If that's so I wouldn't try to beat him, if I was Dick Rover."
Dick heard some of this talk but said nothing. He was soon ready for the trial, and stepping up to the punching bag he began to undo the top strap.
"That bag is all right," blustered Lew Flapp.
"Yes—for you," answered Dick. "But you must remember, I am not quite so tall. I must have it an inch lower."
"It seems to me yon are mighty particular."
"I have a right to be. When you do your punching you can raise the bag as high as you please."
"That's the talk," came from several standing near. By this time Larry was on the floor again, and he came up to learn what Dick was doing.
"Dick, they tell me he is the best bag-puncher here," whispered Larry.
"I can't help it."
"He will crow over you if you don't do at well as he can do."
"Let him."
Dick began his punching exercise slowly, for he had not tried it for some time, and was afraid he was a little stiff. But, it may be added here, there was a punching bag in the barn at the Rovers' farm, so the youth knew exactly what he was doing.
"Oh, anybody can do that," remarked Lew Flapp presently. "That's as simple as A. B. C."
"Well, can you do this?" returned Dick, and branched off into something a trifle more difficult.
"To be sure I can."
"Then what about this?" and now Dick settled down to some real work. Clap! clap! went the bag, this way and that.
"Yes, I can do that, too," answered the tall boy.
"I'd like to see you."
Lew Flapp was only too anxious to show his, skill, and having adjusted the bag to suit him, he went at the work once again, doing just what Dick had done.
"Now do this!" he cried, and gave a performance of his most difficult exercise. It was certainly well executed and at the conclusion many of the cadets began to applaud.
"Dick Rover will have to hump himself to do that," remarked one.
"I don't believe he can touch it," said another.
With care Dick fixed the bag and went at the exercise. It was something he had not practiced for a considerable time, yet he did not miss a stroke, and he wound up with a speed fully equal to that exhibited by his opponent.
"Good for you, Dick!" cried Larry heartily.
"They'll have to call it a tie," suggested another cadet.
"I'm not done yet," said Dick. "Can you do this?" he asked of Lew Flapp, and then commenced an exercise he had learned some time before, from a boxing instructor. It was full of intricate movements, all executed so rapidly that the eye could scarcely follow them. The cadets looked on in wonder, Lew Flapp staring angrily at the performance.
"Wonderful!"
"I didn't know Dick Rover could do such punching!"
"Say, Flapp, you'll have to get up early in the morning to beat that."
"Oh, you shut your mouth!" retorted Lew Flapp angrily. "I can do ten times better, if I want to."
"Let us see you."
"I—I—I'm in no condition to go ahead just now. Remember, I was punching the bag for an hour before Rover got here."
"How can that be, when all of us just came from the mess hall?" questioned Larry.
"He's trying to sneak out of the trial," said a voice in the rear of the crowd.
"I'll sneak you!" roared Lew Flapp, in a rage. "I want you all to know that I ain't afraid of Dick Rover, or anybody else."
"Do you want the trial to continue?" questioned Dick, in an even tone.
"Didn't I just say I was tired out? But I'll show you what I can do some time," blustered Lew Flapp.
"Oh; all right."
"You needn't think you're king-pin of the punching bag," went on the tall boy, who had lost control of his temper because of the exhibition.
"Thank you, Flapp, what I think and what I don't think isn't any of your business."
"Pooh! I've heard about you and your two brothers, Dick Rover. They tell all sorts of stories about you, but I don't believe the half of them."
"Come, come, what's the use of quarreling," put in Larry pleasantly.
"I'm sure I don't want to quarrel," answered Dick. "He challenged me to punch the bag against him, and I did so, that's all."
"You're dead stuck on yourself, Rover," went on Lew Flapp slangily. "You think you're the only toad in the puddle. But you ain't, let me tell you that. As soon as I heard about you, I made up my mind I wouldn't knuckle under to you."
"This isn't right!" cried Larry. "Dick is my friend, and let me say he never asks any cadet to knuckle under to him, unless the cadet did something that wasn't on the level."
"That's true! That's true!" came from half a dozen of the students. "Dick Rover is all right!"
"So you're all turning against me, eh?" burst out Lew Flapp fiercely, his face growing dark with rage. "I was warned of this before I came here."
"Who warned you?" asked Tom, who had just put in an appearance.
"A gentleman who used to teach here."
"What was his name?" questioned several.
"Mr. Jasper Grinder. He said he had left be cause the Rover boys tried to run everything."
"That old fraud!" cried Larry.
"He left because he was kicked out," came from another.
"And he is a criminal," put in Dick. "I can prove it, if he wants me to do it."
"Oh, you can talk all you please," growled Lew Flapp. "I know what I know, and don't you forget it. And what is more, Dick Rover, don't you expect me to knuckle under to you. If you try that game, you'll get what you least expect," and so speaking Lew Flapp forced his way out of the crowd and left the gymnasium.
"Well, of all the idiots I ever met! " came from Tom. "He believes in meeting trouble three-quarters of the way, doesn't he?"
"I think Jasper Grinder must have stuffed him full of stories about us," said Dick. "That's the way that rascally teacher expects to get square on Captain Putnam—by ruining the reputation of the school."
"Oh, it's mostly Lew Flapp's fault," put in a pupil who had been at the Hall for some time. "The very first day Flapp arrived he had a row with little Tommy Browne, and knocked Tommy down, and a few days after that he had a fight with Jack Raymond, and was pounding Jack good when Mr. Strong came up and made them run off in different directions. He's a good deal of the same kind of a bully that Dan Baxter was."
"If that's the case, he had better keep his distance," said Dick determinedly. "I don't want any quarrels, but I despise a bully thoroughly."
"So do I."
"I wonder if this Flipflap ever heard of Dan Baxter," put in Tom. "If he has he ought to profit by the example."
"Hullo, Tom's got a new name for Flapp," said one of the boys.
"Isn't his name Flipflap?" questioned Tom innocently. "Or is it Flapjack?"
"It will be Flopdown, if he ever gets into a fight with Dick," said Larry, and then followed a general laugh.
"I really don't want any more fights," said Dick, when he could be heard. "I came back to Putnam Hall to dig in and learn something. I've had enough adventures to last a lifetime. If the others will only leave me alone I'll leave them alone."
"But if they won't leave you alone, Dick?" asked George Granbury.
"Then they had better look out for themselves, that's all," was the reply of the eldest Rover.