For several days nothing was talked of at Putnam Hall but the mysterious disappearance of the students’ watches and jewelry.  The cadets could not get the matter off their minds, and as a consequence recitations became very poor.

“I shall offer a substantial reward,” said Captain Putnam, and one afternoon a notice was posted in the school proper and in the gymnasium, offering one hundred dollars for information leading to the capture of the thief.

“Say, I shouldn’t mind earning that reward!” murmured Dale.

“A fellow could have no end of a good time on a hundred dollars!” murmured Stuffer.  “Think what a spread he could give!” And his eyes sparkled in anticipation.

“It would be a bad thing for Stuffer to get the reward,” came from Andy.

“Why, I’d like to know?” demanded that cadet.

“Because you’d eat yourself into a state of acute indigestion.”

“Rats!  I don’t eat any more than you do,” grumbled Stuffer.

“Well, I don’t see any chance of your getting the reward,” was Jack’s comment.  “That thief had hidden his tracks well.”

With the deep snow on the ground, drills had to be held in the gymnasium, and several contests were also arranged.  The cadets got up a tug-of-war between one team headed by Pepper and another headed by Dale, and the excitement over this contest waged so high, that the thefts were, for the time being, forgotten.

The tug-of-war was held late one afternoon in the gymnasium.  A line was drawn on the floor and the long rope laid across this.  On either side wooden cleats were nailed down, so that the contestants might brace their feet.

The two teams consisted of eight cadets each.  With Pepper were Andy, Jack, and Fred Century, while on Dale’s side were Bart Field, Bart Conners and some other cadets already introduced.

“Now, then, Pepper!” cried one of his friends.  “See what you can do!”

“Don’t give him a chance, Dale!  Yank him right over the line!” cried one of Dale’s friends.

“I’ll bet Pepper Ditmore loses,” said Nick Paxton, who was present.  Ritter and Coulter had said they did not consider a tug-of-war between such teams worth witnessing.

Frank Barringer was timekeeper and referee, and at the appointed hour he made both teams line up and catch hold of the rope.

“All ready?” he asked.

There was a moment of silence.

“Drop!” was the cry, and on the instant both teams tightened their holds on the rope and dropped down on the wooden cleats.

“Hold them, Pepper!”

“Don’t let ’em haul you up, Dale!”

“Glue yourself down, Jack!”

“Stone foundation, Fred!  Stone foundation!”

So the cries ran on, as the two tug-of-war teams held on to the long rope like grim death, each team determined not to give in an inch.

For fully five minutes the rope remained as when the teams had first dropped.  Then, of a sudden, Dale gave a hiss and up came his men, to haul in on the rope several inches and then drop as before.