“Ready since yesterday, and Jack’s wheel is ready, too,” was the answer.  “Oh, say, don’t you anticipate a dandy time at Point View Lodge?”

“Yes, indeed!  The Ford girls are just all right.”

“Best ever!” chimed in Jack.

“Don’t forget to fill your lamps!” cried Andy, as he turned away.

“Mine is full,” answered Jack.

“I’ll see to mine,” came from Pepper.  “Glad you mentioned it.  It will be quite dark on the road to-night, and I don’t want to run in a hole and take a header.”

“None of us want to do that.  We’d look fine going into the Lodge with our faces and hands all dirt and our uniforms torn.”

The cadets hurried away in various directions.  They had been talking in the gymnasium, near one of the dressing-rooms, and they did not know that anybody else was near.  But Mumps, the sneak, had overheard every word.  As soon as they had gone, the younger cadet hurried off toward the boathouse.  Here he found half a dozen students assembled, including Ritter and Coulter.

“Say, do you fellows know that Ruddy, Ditmore and Snow are going out to-night?” he said.  He always loved to tell the news, and thought himself quite important in so doing.

“Where to?” asked one of the cadets.

“To Point View Lodge—­the place where the Ford family live.  They’ve got an invitation to dinner.”

“Lucky dogs!” came from another cadet.  As he spoke he looked at Reff Ritter, but that individual merely scowled, and took surreptitious whiffs at a cigarette he was smoking.

“How are they going to Point View?” asked another who was present.

“Going on their bicycles,” answered Mumps.  “It’s quite a ride, isn’t it?”

“Oh, not for them.  They can make it in half an hour if they try.  But they’ll find it pretty dark to-night, I’m thinking,” added the cadet, with a glance out of the boathouse window at the leaden sky.

The talk continued and Ritter listened closely to every word.  Then he arose and motioned to Coulter, and the two walked outside.

“Did you hear what Mumps said?” he asked of his crony.

“About those chaps going to the Fords’ home?”

“Yes.”

“What of it?”

“I was thinking we might spoil their fun.”

“And get caught, as we did with the tar-barrels,” grumbled Gus Coulter.

“We’ll take good care that nobody sees us this time.”

“What are you thinking of doing?” asked Coulter, curiously.

“Come with me and I’ll tell you,” answered Reff Ritter, and took his crony by the arm.  Slowly they walked across the campus, and as they did so Ritter unfolded a plot that had just then come into his head.

“What do you think of it?” he asked, after he had finished.

“Very good; if it will work, and we are not caught.”

“We’ll not get caught if you’ll do as I say.  Listen, Gus, all you need to do is to stand on guard, to give me warning if anybody comes.  I’ll do the rest.”