"It's a snake!"
"And it's alive!"
"Look out, or he'll bite you!"
"There he goes on the floor!"
These and a number of other cries rang through the dormitory as the cadets saw the contents of the box. Several tried to back away, and Hans pitched over Tom and both went in a heap.
"Ton't you let dot snake bite me!" roared the German youth.
"Maybe he's poisonous!" came from Larry. He had sought safety by leaping on a bed.
Slowly the snake had lifted itself from the box, to glare at several of the boys. Then it's cold, beady eyes were fixed on Dick and it uttered a vicious hiss. This was more than the eldest Rover could stand and he let box and snake drop in a hurry. The snake glided out of sight under a bed.
"This is a joke right enough," murmured Sam. "Wonder who played it?"
"Do you think the girls would send a snake?" queried Larry.
"Of course not," answered Tom, who had scrambled up. "This is the work of some enemy."
"Look out! The snake is getting busy!" screamed Sam, and he was right; the reptile had left the shelter of the bed and was darting across the room, in the direction of Songbird.
The would-be poet did not stop to argue with his snakeship, but letting out a wild yell leaped to the top of a small stand which stood in a corner. The stand was frail and down it went with a crash, the wreckage catching the snake on the tail. It whipped around and made a lunge at Songbird's foot, but the youth was too nimble and leaped on the bed.
"We've got to kill that snake," observed Dick, after the reptile had disappeared for a moment under a washstand. "If we don't"
Crash! It was a plate which Sam shied at the snake, as its head showed for a moment. Then down went a shower of shoes, brushes, plates, and a cake of soap. But the snake was not seriously hurt. It hissed viciously and darted from one side of the dormitory to the other, and made all the boys climb up on the furniture.
"This racket will wake up everybody in the school," said Dick, and he was right. The boys had hardly time to get the most of the evidence of the feast out of the way when they heard a knock on the door.
"Look out there!" yelled Tom. "Don't open that door if you value your life!"
"What's the matter?" came in George Strong's voice.
"A snake!" answered Dick, and then went on in a whisper: "Quick, boys, get the rest of the stuff out of the way!"
His chums understood, and the remains of the feast were swept under bed covers in a jiffy.
"Did you say there was a snake in there?" demanded the teacher.
"Yes, sir," said Sam. "He's right close to the door now." And what he said was true.
Thinking the youngest Rover might be fooling, the first assistant teacher opened the door cautiously and peered into the dormitory. Then he, too, let out a cry of alarm, for the snake darted forward and made as if to bite him in the foot. Not to be caught he fell back, leaving the door open about a foot. Through this opening the snake glided and disappeared in the semi-dark hallway.
By this time Putnam Hall was in an uproar, and boys were pouring into the hallways demanding to know if there was a fire or a robbery. Soon Captain Putnam appeared, wrapped in a dressing robe and wearing slippers.
"Beware, all of you!" cried George Strong. "It's a snake and it is loose in this hallway somewhere."
"A snake!" ejaculated the master of Putnam Hall. "Where did it come from?"
"It was in the dormitory over there. I heard a noise and went to see what was the matter and the snake came out of the room and made off in that direction," and George Strong pointed with his hand.
"Humph!" muttered Captain Putnam. "This must be looked into. What kind of a snake was it?"
"I don't know, sir, but it was fully three feet long, and it hissed loudly as it went past me."
"Some more of the boys' tricks, I suppose. But this is going too far, especially if the reptile is poisonous."
Lights were lit and turned up as high as possible, and a search of all the hallways followed. When the cadets learned that a snake was really at large in the school many of the timid ones were badly frightened.
"He might poison a fellow and kill him," said one lad.
"Oh, I can't bear snakes," said another. "If he came for me I'd have a fit sure."
The search for the snake was kept up the best part of an hour, but without success. Peleg Snuggers was forced to join in the hunt and nearly collapsed when he saw something under a stand in a far corner.
"The snake! The snake!" he yelled and started to run away. But what he had seen proved to be nothing but a piece of old window cord, and the general utility man was laughed at so heartily he was glad to sneak out of sight.
"He must have gone downstairs," said Dick, and then a hunt was made below. Here some windows had been left open for ventilation, and Captain Putnam said it was possible the reptile had made its escape in that manner. He did not quite believe this, but he thought the snake must be harmless, and he wanted to say something to quiet those pupils who were timid.
"How did the snake get in your room?" he asked later on of the Rovers and their dormitory fellows.
"It came in this box," answered Dick, and brought forth the pasteboard box in question.
"Somebody knocked on the door and when we opened it the box was on the floor."
Captain Putnam looked at the box and the inscription.
"Your lady friends must have peculiar tastes," he said, smiling.
"Of course that was a trick—just to get us to take the box and open it," answered Tom.
"Do you suspect anybody, Thomas?"
"Well—not exactly," said the fun-loving Rover, slowly.
"What have you to say, Samuel?"
"I'm sure I can't imagine who could send that box."
"Richard, what can you tell of this?"
Dick paused and took a long breath.
"I can't tell you anything, just now, Captain Putnam," he answered slowly. "But I've got something of an idea of how that box got here. But I'd hate to accuse anybody unless I was sure of it."
"Mr. Strong said the snake was at least three feet long."
"It was certainly all of that."
"Was it a poisonous snake, do you think?"
"It was not a rattlesnake, nor was it any kind of a snake such as are usually found in this part of our country, of that I am sure."
"You got a good look at it then?"
"Yes."
"I certainly had no idea snakes of such size could be found close to the school."
"I am pretty sure that snake was never found around here. During my travels I have studied snakes a little, and that variety was a stranger to me."
"I see." The master of Putnam Hall mused for a moment. "Well, it is very queer. But, as the snake has disappeared, I think we may as well retire once more. I do not imagine we have anything to fear."
It was a good hour before the school was quiet. Many of the boys were afraid to go to bed, and the teachers could not blame them. The Rovers, and their chums got together to discuss the situation in whispers and at the same time remove all traces of the feast which had been so curiously interrupted.
"Dick, what do you make of this?" asked Tom.
"I think Tad Sobber is guilty, Tom—but I didn't want to tell Captain Putnam so."
"You think he got the snake out of that museum?"
"I do."
"I think that myself," put in Sam. "Don't you remember how he was talking to that barker, just as if they were friends? It was surely Sobber who played that trick."
"If it was Sobber we ought to pay him back," came from Songbird, grimly. "A snake! Ugh, it makes me creep to think of it."
"Don't you want to compose an ode in its honor?" questioned Tom, dryly. Might go like this:
"A hissing, gliding snake
Kept all the school awake;
Each boy in awful fright
Was looking for a bite!"
"You can make fun if you want to, but I think it is no laughing matter," observed Fred. "Supposing a fellow goes to sleep and wakes up to find that snake crawling over him! Phew! talk about nightmares!"
"It certainly would make a fellow feel queer," answered Sam. "But I say, Dick, if you are sure Sobber did it, why can't we pay him back in his?"
"I'm willing, but how can it be done?"
"Wait until to-morrow night and I'll show you," answered the youngest Rover. "That is, unless the snake is caught in the meantime."
"Have you a plan to get square?" asked Larry.
"Yes."
"Den go ahead sure," came from Hans. "Of dot Sobber fellow peen guilty he ought to be hung up on der pottom of der sea alretty quick!"
"Just wait, and we'll fix Mr. Tad Sobber," answered Dick. "He'll wish he never saw a snake." He had an inkling of what was in his brother Sam's mind to do.