Jack Ranger's Western Trip From Boarding School to Ranch and Range

"Now then, are you all ready?" inquired a voice in a hoarse whisper.

"Galloping grasshoppers! We're as ready as we ever will be, Jack

Ranger!" replied one from a crowd of boys gathered on the campus of

Washington Hall that evening in June.

"Nat Anderson, if you speak again, above a whisper," said Jack

Ranger, the leader, sternly, "you will have to play 'Marching Through

Georgia' as a solo on a fine tooth comb seven times without

stopping!"

"Sneezing snakes! 'Nuff said!" exclaimed Nat, this time in the required whisper. "Playing combs always makes my lips tickle."

"Now then, is every one ready?" asked Jack again. "If you are, come on, for it's getting late and we'll have to do this job quick and be back before Dr. Mead thinks it is time to send Martin the monitor after us. Forward march!"

Then the crowd of boys, from the boarding school of Dr. Henry Mead, known as Washington Hall, but sometimes called Lakeside Academy, from the fact that it was on Rudmore Lake, in the town of Rudmore, started forth on mischief bent.

It was Jack Ranger's idea,-any one could have told that. For Jack was always up to some trick or other. Most of the tricks were harmless, and ended in good-natured fun, for Jack was one of the best-hearted lads in the world. This time he had promised his chums at the academy something new, though the term, which was within a month of closing, had been anything but lacking in excitement.

"Fred Kaler, have you got your mouth organ with you?" asked Jack, turning to a lad just behind him.

"He always has his mouth-organ, or how could he speak?" asked an athletic looking lad walking beside Jack.

"That's a poor joke, Sam Palmer," commented Jack, and he ducked just in time to avoid a playful fist Sam shot out.

"Want me to play?" asked Fred.

"Play? You couldn't play in a hundred years," broke in Nat Anderson,

Jack's best chum. "But make a noise like music."

"Play yourself, if you're so smart!" retorted Fred.

"Simultaneous Smithereens!" cried Nat, using one of his characteristic expressions. "Don't get mad. Go ahead and play."

"Yes, liven things up a bit," went on Jack. "Give us a good marching tune. We're far enough off now so none at the Hall can hear us."

Fred blew a lively air and the score of boys behind him began to march in step.

"What is it this time?" asked Sam in a low tone, of Jack. "You haven't let on a word."

"We're going to administer a deserved rebuke to a certain character in this town," Jack answered. "You've heard of Old Smelts, haven't you?"

"That fellow who's always beating his wife and hitting his little girl?"

"That's the old chap. Well, I heard he just got out of the lock-up for being too free with his fists on the little girl. Now if there's anything that makes me mad it's to see a kid hurt, girl or boy, it doesn't matter. I've got a surprise in store for Mr. Smelts."

"What is it?"

"You've heard of the Klu-Klux-Klan, I suppose?"

"You mean that southern society that made such a stir during the

Civil War?"

"That's the one. We're going to be Klu-Klux-Klaners to-night."

"But we haven't got any uniforms."

"You'll find them in yonder wood!" exclaimed Jack in tragic tones, and he pointed to a clump of trees just ahead.

"What's this, amateur theatricals?" asked Nat, catching the last words.

"Maybe," replied Jack. "Now Fred you can pay off your orchestra," he added. "I want to do a little monologue."

The boys crowded around Jack, and he told them what he had related to

Sam.

"I have provided the necessary uniforms to enable us to take the part of Klu-Klux-Klaners," he said. "Old Smelts is a southerner and knows the significance of the thing. We'll throw a good scare into him, and maybe he'll let his wife and daughter alone. Now we're to put on the sheets and the tall white helmets, and you leave the rest to me. Do just as I do when we get to Smelts's house."

"Hemispheres and hot handkerchiefs!" exclaimed Nat. "This is going some!"

Jack went to the foot of a big hollow tree, from which he pulled a large bundle. This he opened and showed a number of ghostly uniforms. He distributed these among the boys, who at once donned them, making a weird looking band in the little glade.

"Every one stand still until I put the finishing touches on," commanded Jack.

With a bottle of phosphorous he outlined waving flame lines around the holes cut for eyes, nose, and mouth on each white-shrouded figure,

"Now we're ready," announced the leader. "Smelts's house is just beyond this wood. Follow me, and, Fred, when you see me put my hand on my head that means I want slow tremulous music, like they have in the theater when, the heroine is dying."

"Your wishes shall be obeyed," spoke Fred, in hollow tones, whereat the others laughed.

"Silence!" commanded Jack.

It was a good thing those in charge of Washington Hall could not see the pupils just then. If they had the prank would have cost the participators dear. But, after all, as Jack said, it was in a good cause. On they went until their leader held up a warning hand.

"Arrange yourselves in a circle about me," he whispered. "I am going to beard the lion in his den."

He walked up to a small cottage that stood some distance from any other dwellings on a lonely street in the village, and knocked loudly.

"Who's there?" came a voice, in answer, a few seconds later from an upper window.

"Tobias Smelts, come forth!" called Jack in deep tones. "We would hold speech with thee!"

The boys could see a man thrust his head further out of the casement.

"Come forth and linger not!" called Jack.

"Oh! Oh! It's the Klu-Kluxers! It's the Klan! They're after me!" exclaimed Smelts. "Oh, what shall I do?"

"Come forth if ye would not have us drag ye out!" cried Jack. "We have business with thee!"

"What'll I do?" wailed Tobias.

"Better go 'fore they come in here after ye," a woman's voice could be heard to say. "Remember what they did to Pete Baker in South Caroliny!"

The head was drawn in, with many a groan.

"Get ready, he's coming," whispered Jack.

A few minutes later a very much frightened man, clad in his shirt and trousers came out on the front steps, around which the boys in their ghostly disguise were gathered.

"Advance!" commanded Jack, and Tobias, his knees trembling, walked on until he stood in the midst of the frolicking students.

"Bind him to the stake!" commanded the leader.

A small, pointed stake had been prepared and with a hammer it was driven into the ground. Then the man was fastened to it with several coils of clothes line.

"Now the faggots!" said Jack, and the boys dropped some pieces of wood at the victims feet. A second later Jack had emptied the phial of phosphorous over the wood, and the lurid light shone forth.

"They're burning me alive!" yelled Tobias. "Save me!"

"This is the fate dealt out to all who beat their wives and children!" chanted Jack. At the same time he raised his hand to his head and Fred played tremulous music on the harmonica, lending a weirdness to the scene.

"Please don't kill me, good Mr. Klu-Klux-Klan men," begged Tobias.

"I'll never do it again. I promise you I never will!"

"Do you promise by the great seal of the United States?" inquired

Jack, in sepulchral accents.

"Yes, Oh yes; I'll promise anything!"

"'Tis well! This was but the first trial by fire. The next time will be more severe!" and with that Jack kicked aside the phosphorous covered sticks and signaled to those holding the ends of the ropes to loosen them.

Tremblingly Tobias crawled into the house.

"Be ye dead, Tobias?" asked his frightened wife, yet she was not a little gratified that her husband had made the promise the mysterious visitors exacted.

"Jest about," was the answer. "Oh, this is a terrible night!"

"Hence, my brave men," spoke Jack solemnly. "We have work elsewhere. But remember, Tobias Smelts, if thou dost so much as raise a finger to a woman or child we shall hear of it through our ghostly messengers and will visit thee again."

"I'll be good! Oh, I'll be good!" promised Tobias.

Then at a nod from Jack the white-robed figures filed away into the darkness, Fred playing a dirge.

"Say, that was the best sport yet," said Sam, when they were at a safe distance.

"Yes, and it was a good thing," said Jack. "That old codger'll not beat his wife any more, I reckon."

And it might be said in passing that he did not for a while. The visit of the masquerading Klu-Klux-Klan was a most effective remedy, and the whole village wondered what had cured Tobias temporarily at least, of his bad habit.

"Say, but you're all right," remarked Bob Movel to Jack, as the boys rid themselves of the costumes in the woods a little later.

"Towering tadpoles! I should say he was!" exclaimed Nat. "What will you do next?"

"I guess we'd better be getting back to the Hall," said Jack.

"Professor Grimm might take a notion to sit up late and spot us."

While the boys were slipping quietly back to their rooms, having enjoyed a night's fun, which also had its useful side, we may take this opportunity of introducing them more formally to the reader.

Those who read the first volume of this series, entitled "Jack Ranger's Schooldays; Or, The Rivals of Washington Hall," need not be told how it was that our hero and his friends came to be at that seat of learning. Jack was a bright American lad, who lived with his three maiden aunts, Josephine, Mary and Angeline Stebbins, in the village of Denton. Jack was to inherit some money when he became of age, but the conditions under which it was to come, as well as the secret of who his father was, bothered him not a little.

In the first volume of the series I told of his life in Denton, and the lively times he and Nat Anderson had before they were sent to the Academy. There things were even more lively, and there occurs a sort of sequel to a strange occurrence that happened in Jack's town.

At Denton, one night, Jack saw a man rob a jewelry store, but the only thing he took, as it developed, was a strange ring. It was one with a big moss agate, with the outline of a pine tree on it, and a lot of emeralds and rubies set around its center. This ring belonged to Jack's aunts, who had sent it to the jeweler's and when Jack told his relatives of the theft, and described the appearance of the man, they were much excited. However, they would tell him nothing.

At the academy, after many other adventures, including aiding and abetting the fighting of a mock duel between Professor Garlach, the German teacher, and Professor Socrat, the French instructor, Jack made the acquaintance of one John Smith, a half-breed Indian who had come to the academy for instruction. John had considerable Indian blood in his veins, as he proved on more than one occasion. Nevertheless, he and Jack Ranger became great chums.

One day John Smith disappeared. His friends found that his room had been entered at the school, and there were evidences of a hurried search having been made. Nat discovered, in John's absence, a curious ring under a steam radiator. It was the exact counterpart of the one the burglar stole in Denton. Jack was much puzzled at this, and more, when it developed that John had been kidnapped by some mysterious men. At last the semi-Indian lad was saved by Jack and Nat.

John Smith told Jack as much of the secret as he knew. It appeared that his father had given him the ring just before his death, and told him if he was ever poor or in trouble to take it to a man named Orion Tevis, and state who the bearer was.

Some time before that, the elder Smith had been in Oregon and Tevis came to him to get him to be a guide to a wild forest country in the far north. There he had bought five thousand acres of valuable land. Some schemers had stolen the papers connected with it and were making for the place, to take possession first, as that would give them a sort of title.

Tevis was too sick to make the journey himself, and got Smith to go with some of his own companions. John's father took a man named Clark and one called Roberts with him. Mr. Roberts, or Robert Ranger, which was his real name, was Jack's father. Because of some strange circumstances he had not seen his son in many years.

Roberts, for so he was known many years, Clark, and Smith succeeded in claiming the land for Tevis. He gave them each ten thousand dollars for their work and had three rings made as mementoes. They were like the one stolen from the jewelry store.

In addition Tevis said that at any time the men or their relatives needed his help they could have it.

Clark, later, was killed, John Smith's father retired on his little fortune and Jack's father got into trouble. It seemed that the land schemers offered him a large sum to help them contest Tevis's title. He refused, but learned that, if they could get him into court, they could throw the timber claim into litigation, and force Tevis to pay a large sum to compromise. Rather than do this Roberts told Smith he would become a wanderer over the earth.

Mr. Ranger sent his money to his sisters, Jack's aunts, for the use of his son, and then disappeared. He knew that if he could evade legal service for eleven years he would be free, and that was why he never sought to see his boy or sisters.

The Indian student believed that the man who stole Jack's aunts' ring, and those men who made an unsuccessful attempt to get his, thought they could, by use of the emblems send two boys, pretending to be Jack and John to Tevis, and get a lot of money from him.

John Smith's only knowledge of Tevis was that his address could be secured from the Capital Bank, at Denver, Colorado, and that he was somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, in retirement. Jack having heard this story, resolved that he and John Smith, would, some day, go in search of Mr. Ranger. However, Jack's aunts said he must finish his term at the academy, and this time was nearly up.

The students returning from their adventure were now approaching Washington Hall, and walking quietly along. Jack and John Smith were in the lead, and the others were strung out behind them.

Suddenly around a bend in the road there swung a big touring automobile. No lights were on it, and only for the subdued roar of the motor the car's approach would not have been noticed. As it was, Jack did not see it until it was almost upon him.

"Look out!" cried John Smith suddenly.

At the same time he sprang forward and pushed Jack to one side. To do this he had to get almost in the path of the car, and was struck by one of the projecting springs. He was knocked to one side, but not before he had pushed Jack out of harm's way, the latter being hit only a glancing blow.

"Why don't you look where you're going?" called an angry voice, as the car sped on.

"Are you hurt, John?" cried Jack, springing to pick up his friend.

"No, only bruised. They have nerve to go running without lights and then ask us where we're going. I wonder who they were."

"I have an idea." said Jack. "That voice sounded like Adrian

Bagot's."

"What, that sporty new student?"

"That's who."

"Well, he'd better go a bit slow, I'm thinking."