The Rover Boys in the Land of Luck: or, Stirring Adventures in the Oil Fields

CHAPTER XIII
WERNER'S ATTACK

"Hold on, Bill Glutts!" cried Randy, as he ran after the youth whom he had not seen since the Winter before.

"You leave me alone!" returned Glutts, and then, in order to run faster, he dropped the bundle he was carrying.

"Don't let him get away!" burst out Fred, and made a wild dash over some low bushes in Glutts's direction. In a moment more he had caught Glutts by the arm.

"Let go of me!" screamed the former cadet, and in alarm he tried to push Fred away. But the youngest Rover boy clung fast, and then Glutts aimed a blow with his fist at Fred's face.

Had the blow landed as intended, it would have hurt severely; but the youngest Rover ducked, and then hit Glutts a stinging blow on the chin.

By this time Randy and Gif were coming up, and almost before he knew it Bill Glutts was surrounded. Gif caught the former bully of the Hall by the shoulder.

"This is a nice way to act, Glutts," he said sternly. "What business had you to touch our lunch?"

"How did I know it belonged to you?" whined Glutts, much crestfallen over the sudden turn affairs had taken. "We found the stuff on the rocks."

"You can't play the innocent that way," broke in Randy. "You and Gabe Werner must have followed us to this island. Gee!" he added quickly, "where is Werner?"

"Jack went after him," answered Fred; "and so did Andy and Spouter."

"We didn't follow you at all," answered Bill Glutts. "We have as much right on this island as anybody. We ran across that lunch by accident. We didn't know that anybody was coming back to get it," he added lamely.

In the meanwhile Jack was hurrying after Gabe Werner, and, strange as it may seem, Ruth followed close behind him, at the same time calling to the others for help. She remembered the anonymous note which had been delivered, and she was afraid that Gabe Werner might try to do the young captain serious injury.

Gabe Werner was legging it among the trees. He was trying to reach the shore of Bluebell Island, but became confused among the rocks and bushes and presently had to swing around in something of a semicircle, and this soon brought him face to face with Ruth.

"Oh!" cried the girl, in increased alarm. "Don't you dare touch me, Gabe Werner! Don't you dare!"

"Get out of my way!" roared the bully, and then, as he heard Jack crashing through the brushwood directly behind him, he brushed Ruth rudely to one side.

"Jack! Jack! Here he is!" the girl screamed.

The young captain did not need to be told this, for he saw Gabe Werner just ahead of him. He made a flying leap forward, and was barely able to catch Werner by the tail of his coat.

"You can't get away! You might as well give it up," he said, and as the bully kicked out savagely, he caught Werner by the foot and sent him headlong.

"Oh, Jack! Jack! Do be careful!" cried Ruth in increasing alarm, and then she set up a call for assistance.

"I'm not afraid of Gabe Werner, and he knows it," answered the young captain.

"I'll fix you for this!" roared Werner. "I owe you a lot for the way you've been treating me." And with these words he scrambled to his feet and aimed a blow at Jack's face.

The young captain moved to one side so that the blow struck him on the shoulder. He came back quickly with one on Werner's right ear, and followed this up with another on the bully's nose, which made that organ bleed profusely.

By this time there was more noise in the under-brush, and Andy and Spouter could be heard calling.

"This way! This way!" answered Ruth.

While she was calling, and while Andy and Spouter were doing their best to brush aside some thorny bushes which held them back, the struggle between Jack and Werner continued. The bully landed on Jack's shoulder again and then on his chest, and in return received a crack on the chin which all but keeled him over.

"I said I'd get you, Jack Rover, and I will!" spluttered Werner, after this last attack. And then, as Jack made a move as if to strike him again, the bully stepped around to one side, bringing himself once more close to Ruth. His right hand had gone down into his coat pocket, and now he brought out something in a small paper bag.

"I said I'd fix you, and this is how I'm going to do it! Look there, if you dare!" called out Werner, and pointed to a tree limb just over their heads.

Fearing some trick, Jack gave only the faintest of glances upward, but Ruth, more innocent, gazed wide-eyed at the limb pointed out. As he spoke, Werner broke open the paper bag and hurled its contents forward.

"There! Take that, Jack Rover!" he shouted triumphantly. "Take that, and see how you like it!"

It was a package of pepper which Gabe Werner had carried. As it was thrown forward a small portion of it went in Jack's face, but the most of it was sent in a spray over the young captain's shoulder and hit poor Ruth.

"Oh! Oh!" screamed the girl. "Oh, I am blinded! He threw pepper in my eyes!"

"You hound, you!" exclaimed Jack, and even though his eyes smarted not a little from the few grains of pepper that had entered, he managed to leap upon the bully and give him a swinging crack in the jaw. But then Werner threw the young captain backward over a rock, and just as Andy and Spouter put in an appearance he dodged in among some heavy brushwood and quickly disappeared.

"What did he do?" demanded Spouter.

"He threw something in our eyes. Ruth got the worst of it," answered Jack. "Go on after him; we'll have to attend to our eyes."

Jack's eyes were bad enough, but Ruth's were much worse. The girl could hardly keep from screaming with pain, and Jack was just then in no condition to assist her. Seeing this, Andy and Spouter set up a yell for some of the others to go after Werner, and then did what they could to relieve the sufferers.

"Come on down to the lake," advised Spouter. "I guess water will be about the best thing you can use. Anyhow, you can wash out the pepper if there is any left."

Both cadets assisted Ruth to the water's edge, and Jack stumbled after them. Here the eyes, which had already begun to inflame, were washed out carefully, and then, as Ruth continued to complain of the pain, they bound up her eyes with their handkerchiefs.

"I think mine will be all right after a while," said Jack. "They smart a little, but that's all."

"Don't you think Ruth had better see a doctor?" suggested Spouter.

"By all means. We'll get back to town just as soon as we possibly can. He can probably give her some sort of ointment that will relieve the pain and take away the inflammation."

By this time the others were coming up. The news that Ruth had received a dose of pepper in her eyes excited everybody.

"Gabe Werner ought to be put in jail for this," said Martha.

"Isn't it the most dreadful thing you ever heard of!" came from May.

The excitement was so intense that for the time being the boys forgot all about Bill Glutts. As a consequence when they turned to where they had left that unworthy, Glutts had disappeared.

"Well, he got a good beating, anyhow," said Randy. "I think that will teach him to leave our stuff alone after this."

At first some of the boys were inclined to make another hunt for Werner and Glutts. They knew the bullies must have come to the island in some kind of a boat.

"If we can find their boat we can take it with us," said Spouter. "Then they can either stay on the island or try to swim ashore."

"We can't waste any more time," declared Jack. "We must get Ruth to a doctor. And I'd like to see a doctor myself. My eyes feel terribly scratchy."

"Yes, yes! I want to see a doctor at once," said Ruth. "My eyes hurt dreadfully."

Some of the boys gathered up what was left of the lunch, and all made their way to the water's edge, where the rowboats had been left. As they did this they heard the sudden put-put of a motor-boat, and a few seconds later they saw the craft shoot out of a tiny cove at the upper end of the island and head for the eastern shore of Clearwater Lake.

"There they go! There are Glutts and Werner!" exclaimed Gif.

"And in a motor-boat, too!" added Randy. "Too bad! If they were in a rowboat we might be able to catch them."

"Oh, let them go," said Mary hastily. "I am more worried about Ruth's eyes than anything else."

"We're all worried about that," answered her brother. "Come on, we'll get over to Haven Point just as fast as we can. I only hope we find one of the doctors at home."

They tumbled into the boats, the girls leading Ruth, who still had her eyes bandaged.

"Do you think you can row, Jack?" questioned Fred.

"Of course I can," replied the young captain. He was not going to admit that the injury to his eyes was making him feel sick all over.

May sat beside Ruth and did what she could for the sufferer. All of the boys bent to their oars and a straight course was taken for the town.

"Wouldn't it be dreadful if Ruth was blinded for life?" remarked Alice Strobell on the way.

"Oh, Alice! don't suggest such a thing as that," came from Annie Larkins in horror.

"Well, people have been blinded in that way more than once," remarked Randy. "It all depends on how bad a dose she got."

"Jack said the pepper must have been intended for him," came from Andy. "I can't imagine that Werner would be wicked enough to try to injure Ruth that way."

"Maybe he didn't intend to do it when he started," returned his brother. "But when Werner gets mad he's liable to do almost anything. You know that as well as I do."

"That's true. When he gets into a rage he goes almost insane."

"What an ending to our outing!" sighed Alice.

"And we didn't eat a mouthful of the lunch!" added Annie. She had spent over an hour in fixing some fancy sandwiches.

"Was that pepper from some you brought along?" questioned Randy quickly.

"As far as I know we didn't bring any pepper along. We had a saltcellar, and that's all," answered Alice.

"Then it must have been a deliberate attempt on Werner's part to blind Jack!" cried Andy. "Oh, what a pity we didn't catch him! Then we could have handed him over to the authorities."

When the boys and girls reached one of the docks at Haven Point Andy and Randy ran on ahead and speedily procured a taxicab. Into this Ruth and Jack were hustled, and then Randy, sitting beside the driver, directed him to take the sufferers to the nearest doctor.

At the first physician's house they learned that the doctor was away for the afternoon. Then they hurried to another part of the town, and there found Doctor Borden, an older man who had occasionally come to both the girls' school and the military academy.

"Pepper in your eyes! Is it possible!" said the old physician. "Come into my office at once. Sometimes that sort of thing is very serious."

"You wait on the lady first, Doctor," said Jack. "She is by far the worse off."

"Very well," said the doctor. "Come this way," and he led Ruth into his private office.

CHAPTER XIV
BOUND FOR HOME

While the doctor was attending Ruth the others of the party arrived at the physician's residence. They found Jack walking up and down in the anteroom while Randy sat in a chair doing what he could to comfort his cousin.

"What does the doctor say about Ruth?" questioned May quickly.

"He hasn't come out yet. They are in there," and Randy pointed with his hand to the inner office.

"Oh, Jack, how do your eyes feel?" questioned Martha, coming up and gazing earnestly at her brother.

"To tell the truth, they don't feel very good, Martha," he answered. "But I won't mind that so much if only Ruth gets out of it."

The boys and girls sat down, some in the outer office and some on the piazza of the doctor's residence. They had to wait nearly a quarter of an hour before the door of the inner office opened.

"I think the young lady will feel much better by to-morrow," said Doctor Borden, as he led Ruth forth. He had placed a new and heavier bandage over her eyes. "I'll call at the school to see her the first thing to-morrow morning. You need do nothing to the eyes until that time." He looked at the other girls. "I presume you young ladies are with Miss Stevenson?"

"We are," several of them answered.

"Then there ought not to be any trouble about getting her back to the school in safety," and the physician smiled faintly.

"I'll get a taxicab," said Randy, and lost no time in doing so.

"I don't want to go back to the school until Jack has been taken care of," declared Ruth. "I want to know just how bad off he is. The doctor tells me he doesn't think my eyes will be permanently injured." She was trying to bear up bravely, even though her eyes hurt her a good deal. But what the doctor had put on them was gradually allaying the pain.

Jack entered the inner office, and the doctor made a thorough examination of each eye.

"You were lucky to get off so well, Rover," he announced at the conclusion of the examination. "I'll give you a lotion to put on to-night before retiring, and I'll give you a treatment of it now. Then bathe the eyes again in the morning, and I think in a day or two you will be as well as ever."

"And what about Miss Stevenson's eyes?" questioned the young captain anxiously.

"I can't say very much about them as yet. Of course, I didn't want to worry her, so I did not tell her how bad it might be. Still, I'll know more about it to-morrow morning."

This was as much as Doctor Borden would say. Jack received the treatment and was given a small bottle filled with the lotion, and then, after settling with the physician, he was ready to leave.

"Do you want any of us to go to the school with you?" he asked of Ruth and the other girls.

"No, Jack; it won't do any good," answered the blindfolded girl. And as he took her hand and pressed it warmly, she added: "Please don't worry about me."

"But I'm going to, Ruth," he answered in a low tone. "Somehow, I feel that your injury is my fault."

"Nonsense! It was Gabe Werner's fault entirely! That boy ought really to be in jail! But, Jack, you are quite sure that your eyes are all right?" she went on anxiously.

"Yes, Ruth. The doctor says that I'll be as well as ever in a day or two. You are the only one to be worried over. I'll tell Martha to telephone to me to-morrow just as soon as the doctor has seen you." And so it was arranged.

Randy had obtained a large taxicab and into this all the girls crowded, taking care, however, to make Ruth as comfortable as possible on the rear seat. Then the girls of Clearwater Hall started for the school.

"I'll bet Miss Garwood will be surprised when she sees Ruth," was Andy's comment, as he watched the girls riding away. Miss Garwood was the head of the girls' school.

"Poor Ruth," murmured Fred. "What a miserable outing this has been!"

Fortunately for the cadets, they found the Colby Hall stage in town, and all piled in and were speedily taken to the school. Here Jack and Randy went up to their rooms, while the others reported to Colonel Colby.

"Threw pepper into Jack's eyes, did he!" said the colonel wrathfully. "What a dastardly thing to do! I am glad that Werner is no longer a pupil at the school. If he were I should feel it my duty to hand him over to the authorities. You say he did not come back to Haven Point?"

"No, sir," answered Gif. "They motored over to the other side – over to where the Hasley ammunition factory used to be located."

"I see. Then probably both he and Glutts will take good care not to show themselves in the vicinity of Haven Point," said Colonel Colby.

And in this surmise the head of the school was correct. Long afterwards it was learned that Werner had put the motor-boat into the hands of a man to bring it back to the party of whom it had been hired, and then he and Glutts had tramped three miles across the country to a railroad station where they took a train for parts unknown.

The colonel came up to see Jack and have a look at his injured eyes, and then sent Mrs. Crews up to the young captain to bathe his eyes with the lotion the doctor had given him and bind them up.

"It's too bad! too bad entirely!" said Mrs. Crews, who was quite a motherly woman. "I hope your eyes are as well as ever in a day or two." And then she added with a twinkle in her own optics: "I suppose that is what you get for running off with that baby carriage."

"If it is, it's a terrible price to pay, Mrs. Crews," answered Jack, and then told her about Ruth.

"Now that's too bad entirely," said the matron of the school. "Oh, who would want to harm a dear young lady like Miss Stevenson? It's awful how wicked some young men are," and she shook her head dolefully.

Jack took it easy for the rest of the day, and one after another his chums came in to sympathize with him.

"I can't understand a fellow like Werner," remarked Ned Lowe. "If he isn't careful he'll land in prison."

"What gets me is that a fellow like Glutts keeps on tagging after him," put in Dan Soppinger. "Sooner or later Werner is bound to lead Glutts into something pretty bad."

Jack passed a restless night, not only because his eyes hurt him, but because he could not get Ruth out of his mind. What if the girl's eyes should be permanently injured? The mere thought of such a catastrophe horrified him.

In the morning he bathed his eyes again, as Doctor Borden had directed. He had been excused from his classroom, and so sat around where he could readily be called to the telephone if any message came in for him. It was not until about eleven o'clock that his sister rang him up.

"The doctor left a few minutes ago," said Martha over the wire. "He was with Ruth about half an hour, and gave her quite a treatment. He was very much encouraged, and said he thought she would come around again all right in a few days, but that she must be careful for several weeks about how she strained her eyes or went out in the wind."

"But he really thinks she will come around all right?" questioned Jack anxiously.

"Yes, Jack, he was almost sure of it. And, oh! I am so glad, and so are all the other girls."

"Well, it's a great relief to me, Martha," he returned, and his voice showed what a weight had been lifted from his mind.

After that the days to the end of the term passed quickly. There were the usual examinations, and all of the Rovers were glad to learn that they had passed successfully. In the meanwhile Jack's eyes continued to mend, so that on the final day at the Hall they felt practically as good as ever.

The young captain and Fred had gone over to Clearwater Hall, ostensibly to call on their sisters, but in reality to find out about Ruth. She came down to greet them, and they were surprised and delighted to find that she no longer wore the bandage over her eyes.

"I can't go out in the strong sunlight yet, nor in the wind," said the girl. "Nor can I do much reading or studying. But the eyes no longer pain me, and for that I am very thankful."

"Doctor Borden says it will take a week or two before her eyes are normal again," explained Martha. "But that isn't so bad when you consider what might have occurred," and she gave a little shiver.

Colby Hall was to close several days before the girls' school, but the two Rover girls had received permission to go home with their brothers. This was the last chance Jack had of seeing Ruth, and the last chance that Fred would have to see May, and both made the most of it.

"I'll write to you, sure, Ruth," said the young captain. "And I hope your eyes will allow you to reply."

"Oh, I'll send you something, Jack, even if it's only a postal," was the quick answer. "Please don't worry about me. I am sure my eyes will come around all right sooner or later."

"If they don't I'll never forgive myself for taking you on that outing," said the young captain feelingly.

With the examinations at an end, the Colby Hall cadets were allowed to do very much as they pleased, and on the last night at school there was the usual horseplay and cutting up generally. Some boys tried to catch Stowell, but the sneak of the school outwitted them by receiving permission to leave the Hall twelve hours early.

"Well, good riddance to bad rubbish!" announced Fatty Hendry, when he heard of this. "I think Colby Hall could get along very well if Stowell stayed away for good."

"I'm sure I wouldn't worry if he did stay away," returned Walt Baxter.

"And now hurrah for little old New York!" cried Andy, on the following morning.

"Little old New York and our dads!" added his twin.

"I wonder if they have arrived yet?" put in Fred quickly. "I don't think so, or they would have sent us a telegram."

"Either that, or they want to surprise us when we get there," said Jack.

Their trunks had been sent on ahead, and directly after breakfast they set to work to finish packing their suitcases. Then they went around saying good-bye to the professors and Colonel Colby, and did not forget "Shout" Plunger and Bob Nixon, giving the latter some tips to remember them by.

"Off at last!" cried Fred, as the auto-stage rumbled up to take the first crowd of boys to the railroad station. In they piled, and were soon whirled away in the direction of Haven Point.

At the railroad station they were met by Martha and Mary. The other girls could not come, as all had examinations that morning. Soon the train rolled in, and the Rovers and a number of the other cadets piled in, Jack and Fred being accompanied by their sisters.

"I'll be glad to get home again and see mother and Aunt Grace and Aunt Nellie," remarked Martha, as she settled herself in a seat beside her brother.

"And how about dad, Martha?" questioned Jack.

"You don't have to ask that question," she returned quickly. "You know I am just as crazy to see him as you are. And I'm crazy to see Uncle Tom and Uncle Sam, too."

"I'll bet they'll have some stories to tell about their doings in France."

"Yes, indeed, Jack. Oh, how they all must have suffered! And how thankful I am that they are coming back to us whole and hearty. Just think if they had come back minus an arm or a leg, or frightfully injured in some other way!"

"I have thought of that, Martha, more than once. I can tell you, when I think of the thousands of good, strong, healthy young fellows who went over there and gave up their lives or came back crippled, I feel that our folks have much to be thankful for."