“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.

CHAPTER IX

SETTLING DOWN TO STUDY

Dick meant what he said concerning coming back to Putnam Hall for the sake of learning something.  He felt that he had lost too much time from school already to lose more, and he pitched in with a vigor that was indeed surprising.

“I don’t see how you can do it,” said Tom one day.  “I can’t, to save my life.”  Yet Tom was by no means a poor scholar, and if he did not stand at the head of his class he was not far from it.  Sam was also doing his best, and all of this gratified Captain Putnam exceedingly.

“It shows they can work as well as play,” was what the captain told himself, and he wrote Anderson Rover a long letter, in which he praised the boys for their efforts.

The boys fell into their places at the academy with a naturalness that was surprising when one considered the adventures that had but lately befallen them.  Over and over again did they have to tell of their doings while on the Pacific, and as Crusoes, and some of the cadets never tired of listening to the stories.  A few, including Lew Flapp, did not believe them true, but the majority did, and that was enough for the Rovers.