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Java Coding Problems
Second Edition

Become an expert Java programmer by

solving over 200 brand-new, modern, real-
world problems

Anghel Leonard

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI
Java Coding Problems

Second Edition

Copyright © 2024 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the
prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief
quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the
accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained
in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the
author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held
liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or
indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all
of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate
use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of
this information.

Senior Publishing Product Manager: Denim Pinto

Acquisition Editor – Peer Reviews: Gaurav Gavas

Project Editor: Namrata Katare

Senior Development Editor: Elliot Dallow

Copy Editor: Safis Editing

Technical Editor: Aniket Shetty

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Indexer: Rekha Nair

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Developer Relations Marketing Executive: Vipanshu Parashar

First published: September 2019

Second edition: March 2024

Production reference: 1120324

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Grosvenor House

11 St Paul’s Square

Birmingham

B3 1RB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-83763-394-4

www.packt.com
 Contributors

About the author

Anghel Leonard is a chief technology strategist with more than 20 years of
experience in the Java ecosystem. In his daily work, he is focused on
architecting and developing Java distributed applications that empower
robust architectures, clean code, and high performance. He is passionate
about coaching, mentoring, and technical leadership.

He is the author of several books and videos and dozens of articles related
to Java technologies.
About the reviewers
George Adams is a senior software engineer at Microsoft and the Java
Champion and steering committee chair at Eclipse Adoptium. He was a co-
founder of AdoptOpenJDK in 2016 and, since then, has led its community
outreach efforts. He was instrumental in moving the project to the Eclipse
Foundation. George also contributes to both the Homebrew project and the
Node.js Foundation, where he is a core collaborator and plays an active role
in several of the workgroups.

Ivar Grimstad is a Jakarta EE developer advocate at the Eclipse

Foundation. He is a Java Champion and JUG Leader based in Sweden. He
contributes to the Jakarta EE specifications and is the PMC Lead for
Eclipse Enterprise for Java (EE4J). He is also a specification lead for
Jakarta MVC and represents the Eclipse Foundation on the JCP Executive
Committee. Ivar is also involved in a wide range of open-source projects
and communities and is a frequent speaker at international developer
conferences.
Join our community on Discord
Join our community’s Discord space for discussions with the author and
other readers:

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Contents
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
1. Text Blocks, Locales, Numbers, and Math
Problems
1. Creating a multiline SQL, JSON, and HTML string
Before JDK 8
Starting with JDK 8
Introducing text blocks (JDK 13/15)
Hooking text blocks syntax
2. Exemplifying the usage of text block delimiters
3. Working with indentation in text blocks
Shifting the closing delimiter and/or the content
Using indentation methods
4. Removing incidental white spaces in text blocks
5. Using text blocks just for readability
6. Escaping quotes and line terminators in text blocks
7. Translating escape sequences programmatically
8. Formatting text blocks with variables/expressions
9. Adding comments in text blocks
10. Mixing ordinary string literals with text blocks
11. Mixing regular expression with text blocks
12. Checking if two text blocks are isomorphic
13. Concatenating strings versus StringBuilder
JDK 8
JDK 11
14. Converting int to String
15. Introducing string templates
What’s a string template?
The STR template processor
The FMT template processor
The RAW template processor
 16. Writing a custom template processor
17. Creating a Locale
18. Customizing localized date-time formats
19. Restoring Always-Strict Floating-Point semantics
20. Computing mathematical absolute value for int/long and
result overflow
21. Computing the quotient of the arguments and result overflow
22. Computing the largest/smallest value that is less/greater than
or equal to the algebraic quotient
23. Getting integral and fractional parts from a double
24. Testing if a double number is an integer
25. Hooking Java (un)signed integers in a nutshell
26. Returning the flooring/ceiling modulus
27. Collecting all prime factors of a given number
28. Computing the square root of a number using the Babylonian
method
29. Rounding a float number to specified decimals
30. Clamping a value between min and max
31. Multiply two integers without using loops, multiplication,
bitwise, division, and operators
32. Using TAU
What is TAU?
33. Selecting a pseudo-random number generator
Choosing an algorithm by name
Choosing an algorithm by property
34. Filling a long array with pseudo-random numbers
35. Creating a stream of pseudo-random generators
36. Getting a legacy pseudo-random generator from new ones of
JDK 17
37. Using pseudo-random generators in a thread-safe fashion
(multithreaded environments)
Summary
2. Objects, Immutability, Switch Expressions, and Pattern Matching
Problems
38. Explain and exemplifying UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32
Introducing ASCII encoding scheme (or single-byte
encoding)
 Introducing multi-byte encoding
Unicode
Java and Unicode
JDK 18 defaults the charset to UTF-8
39. Checking a sub-range in the range from 0 to length
40. Returning an identity string
41. Hooking unnamed classes and instance main methods
42. Adding code snippets in Java API documentation
Adding attributes
Using markup comments and regions
Highlighting
Linking
Modifying the code’s text
Using external snippets
Regions in external snippets
43. Invoking default methods from Proxy instances
JDK 8
JDK 9+, pre-JDK 16
JDK 16+
44. Converting between bytes and hex-encoded strings
JDK 17+
45. Exemplify the initialization-on-demand holder design pattern
Static vs. non-static blocks
Nested classes
Tackling the initialization-on-demand holder design pattern
JDK 16+
46. Adding nested classes in anonymous classes
JDK 16+
47. Exemplify erasure vs. overloading
Erasure in a nutshell
Erasure of generic types
Erasure and bridge methods
Type erasure and heap pollution
Polymorphic overloading in a nutshell
Erasure vs. overloading
48. Xlinting default constructors
49. Working with the receiver parameter
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 50. Implementing an immutable stack
51. Revealing a common mistake with Strings
52. Using the enhanced NullPointerException
WARNING 1! NPE when calling an instance method via a
null object
WARNING 2! NPE when accessing (or modifying) the field
of a null object
WARNING 3! NPE when null is passed in the method
argument
WARNING 4! NPE when accessing the index value of a null
array/collection
WARNING 5! NPE when accessing a field via a getter
53. Using yield in switch expressions
54. Tackling the case null clause in switch
55. Taking on the hard way to discover equals()
56. Hooking instanceof in a nutshell
57. Introducing pattern matching
The scope of binding variables in pattern matching
Guarded patterns
Type coverage
Current status of pattern matching
58. Introducing type pattern matching for instanceof
59. Handling the scope of a binding variable in type patterns for
instanceof
60. Rewriting equals() via type patterns for instanceof
61. Tackling type patterns for instanceof and generics
62. Tackling type patterns for instanceof and streams
63. Introducing type pattern matching for switch
64. Adding guarded pattern labels in switch
65. Dealing with pattern label dominance in switch
66. Dealing with completeness (type coverage) in pattern labels
for switch
67. Understanding the unconditional patterns and nulls in switch
expressions
Summary
3. Working with Date and Time
Problems
 68. Defining a day period
Before JDK 16
JDK 16+
69. Converting between Date and YearMonth
70. Converting between int and YearMonth
71. Converting week/year to Date
72. Checking for a leap year
73. Calculating the quarter of a given date
74. Getting the first and last day of a quarter
75. Extracting the months from a given quarter
76. Computing pregnancy due date
77. Implementing a stopwatch
78. Extracting the count of milliseconds since midnight
79. Splitting a date-time range into equal intervals
80. Explaining the difference between Clock.systemUTC() and
Clock.systemDefaultZone()
81. Displaying the names of the days of the week
82. Getting the first and last day of the year
83. Getting the first and last day of the week
84. Calculating the middle of the month
85. Getting the number of quarters between two dates
86. Converting Calendar to LocalDateTime
87. Getting the number of weeks between two dates
Summary
4. Records and Record Patterns
Problems
88. Declaring a Java record
89. Introducing the canonical and compact constructors for
records
Handling validation
Reassigning components
Defensive copies of the given components
90. Adding more artifacts in a record
91. Iterating what we cannot have in a record
A record cannot extend another class
A record cannot be extended
A record cannot be enriched with instance fields
 A record cannot have private canonical constructors
A record cannot have setters
92. Defining multiple constructors in a record
93. Implementing interfaces in records
94. Understanding record serialization
How serialization/deserialization works
Serializing/deserializing gacContainer (a typical Java class)
Deserializing a malicious stream
Serializing/deserializing gacContainerR (a Java record)
Deserializing a malicious stream
Refactoring legacy serialization
95. Invoking the canonical constructor via reflection
96. Using records in streams
97. Introducing record patterns for instanceof
Nested records and record patterns
98. Introducing record patterns for switch
99. Tackling guarded record patterns
100. Using generic records in record patterns
Type argument inference
Type argument inference and nested records
101. Handling nulls in nested record patterns
102. Simplifying expressions via record patterns
103. Hooking unnamed patterns and variables
Unnamed patterns
Unnamed variables
In a catch block
In a for loop
In an assignment that ignores the result
In try-with-resources
In lambda expressions
104. Tackling records in Spring Boot
Using records in controllers
Using records with templates
Using records for configuration
Record and dependency injection
105. Tackling records in JPA
DTO via record constructor
 DTO via record and JPA constructor expression
DTO via record and result transformer
DTO via record and JdbcTemplate
Team up Java records and @Embeddable
106. Tackling records in jOOQ
Summary
5. Arrays, Collections, and Data Structures
Problems
107. Introducing parallel computations with arrays
108. Covering the Vector API’s structure and terminology
The vector element type
The vector shape
The vector species
Vector lanes
Vector operations
Creating vectors
Creating vectors of zeros
Creating vectors of the same primitive value
Creating vectors from Java arrays
Creating vectors from memory segments
109. Summing two arrays via the Vector API
110. Summing two arrays unrolled via the Vector API
111. Benchmarking the Vector API
112. Applying the Vector API to compute FMA
113. Multiplying matrices via the Vector API
114. Hooking the image negative filter with the Vector API
115. Dissecting factory methods for collections
Factory methods for maps
Factory methods for lists
Factory methods for sets
116. Getting a list from a stream
117. Handling map capacity
118. Tackling Sequenced Collections
Applying the Sequenced Collections API to lists
Applying the Sequenced Collections API to ArrayList
and LinkedList
Applying the Sequenced Collections API to sets
 Applying the Sequenced Collections API to HashSet
Applying the Sequenced Collections API to
LinkedHashSet
Applying the Sequenced Collections API to TreeSet
Applying the Sequenced Collections API to maps
Applying the Sequenced Collections API to
LinkedHashMap
Applying the Sequenced Collections API to SortedMap
(TreeMap)
119. Introducing the Rope data structure
Implementing indexAt(Node node, int index)
Implementing concat(Node node1, Node node2)
Implementing insert(Node node, int index, String str)
Implementing delete(Node node, int start, int end)
Implementing split(Node node, int index)
120. Introducing the Skip List data structure
Implementing contains(Integer data)
Implementing insert(Integer data)
Implementing delete(Integer data)
121. Introducing the K-D Tree data structure
Inserting into a K-D Tree
Finding the nearest neighbor
122. Introducing the Zipper data structure
123. Introducing the Binomial Heap data structure
Implementing insert(int key)
Implementing findMin()
Implementing extractMin()
Implementing decreaseKey(int key, int newKey)
Implementing delete(int key)
Implementing unionHeap(BinomialHeap heap)
124. Introducing the Fibonacci Heap data structure
125. Introducing the Pairing Heap data structure
126. Introducing the Huffman Coding data structure
Encoding the string
Decoding the string
127. Introducing the Splay Tree data structure
128. Introducing the Interval Tree data structure
 Implementing insert(Interval interval)
129. Introducing the Unrolled Linked List data structure
130. Implementing join algorithms
Nested Loop Join
Hash Join
Sort Merge Join
Summary
6. Java I/O: Context-Specific Deserialization Filters
Problems
131. Serializing objects to byte arrays
132. Serializing objects to strings
133. Serializing objects to XML
134. Introducing JDK 9 deserialization filters
Pattern-based filters
Applying a pattern-based filter per application
Applying a pattern-based filter to all applications in a
process
ObjectInputFilter-based filters
135. Implementing a custom pattern-based ObjectInputFilter
136. Implementing a custom class ObjectInputFilter
137. Implementing a custom method ObjectInputFilter
138. Implementing a custom lambda ObjectInputFilter
139. Avoiding StackOverflowError at deserialization
140. Avoiding DoS attacks at deserialization
141. Introducing JDK 17 easy filter creation
142. Tackling context-specific deserialization filters
Applying a Filter Factory per application
Applying a Filter Factory to all applications in a process
Applying a Filter Factory via ObjectInputFilter.Config
Implementing a Filter Factory
143. Monitoring deserialization via JFR
Summary
7. Foreign (Function) Memory API
Problems
144. Introducing Java Native Interface (JNI)
Generating the header (.h) file
Implementing the modern_challenge_Main.cpp
 Compiling the C source code
Generating the native shared library
Finally, run the code
145. Introducing Java Native Access (JNA)
Implementing the .cpp and .h files
Compiling the C source code
Generating the native shared library
Finally, run the code
146. Introducing Java Native Runtime (JNR)
147. Motivating and introducing Project Panama
148. Introducing Panama’s architecture and terminology
149. Introducing Arena and MemorySegment
Introducing memory layouts (ValueLayout)
Allocating memory segments of value layouts
Setting/getting the content of a memory segment
Working with Java strings
150. Allocating arrays into memory segments
151. Understanding addresses (pointers)
152. Introducing the sequence layout
Introducing PathElement
Introducing VarHandle
Putting PathElement and VarHandle together
Working with nested sequence layouts
153. Shaping C-like structs into memory segments
Introducing StructLayout
154. Shaping C-like unions into memory segments
Introducing UnionLayout
155. Introducing PaddingLayout
Hooking size, alignment, stride, and padding
Hooking size
Hooking alignment
Hooking stride
Hooking padding
Adding implicit extra space (implicit padding) to validate
alignment
Adding explicit extra space (explicit padding) to validate
alignment
 156. Copying and slicing memory segments
Copying a segment
Copying a part of the segment into another segment (1)
Copying a segment into an on-heap array
Copying an on-heap array into a segment
Copying a part of the segment into another segment (2)
Slicing a segment
Using asOverlappingSlice()
Using segmentOffset()
157. Tackling the slicing allocator
158. Introducing the slice handle
159. Introducing layout flattening
160. Introducing layout reshaping
161. Introducing the layout spreader
162. Introducing the memory segment view VarHandle
163. Streaming memory segments
164. Tackling mapped memory segments
165. Introducing the Foreign Linker API
166. Calling the sumTwoInt() foreign function
167. Calling the modf() foreign function
168. Calling the strcat() foreign function
169. Calling the bsearch() foreign function
170. Introducing Jextract
171. Generating native binding for modf()
Summary
8. Sealed and Hidden Classes
Problems
172. Creating an electrical panel (hierarchy of classes)
173. Closing the electrical panel before JDK 17
Applying the final modifier
Defining package-private constructors
Declaring classes/interfaces as non-public
Throwing everything in a module
Conclusion
174. Introducing JDK 17 sealed classes
175. Introducing the permits clause
 Working with sealed classes in separate sources (same
package)
Working with sealed classes in separate packages
176. Closing the electrical panel after JDK 17
177. Combining sealed classes and records
178. Hooking sealed classes and instanceof
179. Hooking sealed classes in switch
180. Reinterpreting the Visitor pattern via sealed classes and type
pattern matching for switch
181. Getting info about sealed classes (using reflection)
182. Listing the top three benefits of sealed classes
183. Briefly introducing hidden classes
184. Creating a hidden class
Summary
9. Functional Style Programming – Extending APIs
Problems
185. Working with mapMulti()
186. Streaming custom code to map
187. Exemplifying a method reference vs. a lamda
Scenario 1: Calling printReset()
Scenario 2: Calling static printNoReset()
Conclusion
188. Hooking lambda laziness via Supplier/Consumer
189. Refactoring code to add lambda laziness
Fixing in imperative fashion
Fixing in functional fashion
190. Writing a Function<String, T> for parsing data
191. Composing predicates in a Stream’s filters
192. Filtering nested collections with Streams
193. Using BiPredicate
194. Building a dynamic predicate for a custom model
195. Building a dynamic predicate from a custom map of
conditions
196. Logging in predicates
197. Extending Stream with containsAll() and containsAny()
Exposing containsAll/Any() via a custom interface
Exposing containsAll/Any() via an extension of Stream
 198. Extending Stream with removeAll() and retainAll()
Exposing removeAll()/retainAll() via a custom interface
Exposing removeAll/retainAll() via an extension of Stream
199. Introducing stream comparators
Sorting via natural order
Reversing the natural order
Sorting and nulls
Writing custom comparators
200. Sorting a map
201. Filtering a map
202. Creating a custom collector via Collector.of()
Writing a custom collector that collects into a TreeSet
Writing a custom collector that collects into a
LinkedHashSet
Writing a custom collector that excludes elements of another
collector
Writing a custom collector that collects elements by type
Writing a custom collector for SplayTree
203. Throwing checked exceptions from lambdas
204. Implementing distinctBy() for the Stream API
205. Writing a custom collector that takes/skips a given number
of elements
206. Implementing a Function that takes five (or any other
arbitrary number of) arguments
207. Implementing a Consumer that takes five (or any other
arbitrary number of) arguments
208. Partially applying a Function
Summary
10. Concurrency – Virtual Threads and Structured Concurrency
Problems
209. Explaining concurrency vs. parallelism
210. Introducing structured concurrency
211. Introducing virtual threads
What’s the problem with platform (OS) threads?
What are virtual threads?
Creating a virtual thread
How many virtual threads we can start
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 Backward compatibility
Avoiding fake conclusions (potentially myths)
212. Using the ExecutorService for virtual threads
213. Explaining how virtual threads work
Capturing virtual threads
Pinning virtual threads
214. Hooking virtual threads and sync code
215. Exemplifying thread context switching
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
216. Introducing the ExecutorService invoke all/any for virtual
threads – part 1
Working with invokeAll()
Working with invokeAny()
217. Introducing the ExecutorService invoke all/any for virtual
threads – part 2
218. Hooking task state
219. Combining newVirtualThreadPerTaskExecutor() and streams
220. Introducing a scope object (StructuredTaskScope)
ExecutorService vs. StructuredTaskScope
221. Introducing ShutdownOnSuccess
222. Introducing ShutdownOnFailure
223. Combining StructuredTaskScope and streams
224. Observing and monitoring virtual threads
Using JFR
Using Java Management Extensions (JMX)
Running 10,000 tasks via the cached thread pool executor
Running 10,000 tasks via the fixed thread pool executor
Running 10,000 tasks via the virtual thread per task executor
Summary
11. Concurrency ‒ Virtual Threads and Structured Concurrency: Diving
Deeper
Problems
225. Tackling continuations
Introducing continuations
Continuations and virtual threads
 226. Tracing virtual thread states and transitions
NEW
STARTED
RUNNING
PARKING
PARKED/PINNED
YIELDING
RUNNABLE
TERMINATED
227. Extending StructuredTaskScope
228. Assembling StructuredTaskScope
229. Assembling StructuredTaskScope instances with timeout
230. Hooking ThreadLocal and virtual threads
231. Hooking ScopedValue and virtual threads
Thread-local variables’ shortcomings
Introducing scoped values
232. Using ScopedValue and executor services
233. Chaining and rebinding scoped values
Changing scoped values
Rebinding scoped values
234. Using ScopedValue and StructuredTaskScope
235. Using Semaphore instead of Executor
236. Avoiding pinning via locking
237. Solving the producer-consumer problem via virtual threads
238. Solving the producer-consumer problem via virtual threads
(fixed via Semaphore)
239. Solving the producer-consumer problem via virtual threads
(increase/decrease consumers)
240. Implementing an HTTP web server on top of virtual threads
241. Hooking CompletableFuture and virtual threads
242. Signaling virtual threads via wait() and notify()
Summary
12. Garbage Collectors and Dynamic CDS Archives
Problems
243. Hooking the garbage collector goal
244. Handling the garbage collector stages
245. Covering some garbage collector terminology
 Epoch
Single and multiple passes
Serial and parallel
Stop-the-World (STW) and concurrent
Live set
Allocation rate
NUMA
Region-based
Generational garbage collection
246. Tracing the generational GC process
247. Choosing the correct garbage collector
248. Categorizing garbage collectors
Serial garbage collector
Parallel garbage collector
Garbage-First (G1) collector
Z Garbage Collector (ZGC)
Shenandoah Garbage Collector
Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) collector (deprecated)
249. Introducing G1
Design principles
250. Tackling G1 throughput improvements
Delaying the start of the Old generation
Focusing on easy pickings
Improving NUMA-aware memory allocation
Parallelized full-heap collections
Other improvements
251. Tackling G1 latency improvements
Merge parallel phases into a larger one
Reduction of metadata
Better work balancing
Better parallelization
Better reference scanning
Other improvements
252. Tackling G1 footprint improvements
Maintain only the needed metadata
Release memory
253. Introducing ZGC
 ZGC is concurrent
ZGC and colored pointers
ZGC and load barriers
ZGC is region-based
254. Monitoring garbage collectors
255. Logging garbage collectors
256. Tuning garbage collectors
How to tune
Tuning the serial garbage collector
Tunning the parallel garbage collector
Tuning the G1 garbage collector
Tuning Z Garbage Collector
Tuning Metaspace (Metadata space)
257. Introducing Application Class Data Sharing (AppCDS, or
Java’s Startup Booster)
Tackling a JDK class data archive
JDK 10/JDK 11
JDK 12+
Tackling application class data archive
Before JDK 13
JDK 13+
JDK 19+
Summary
13. Socket API and Simple Web Server
Problems
258. Introducing socket basics
259. Introducing TCP server/client applications
Blocking vs. non-blocking mechanisms
260. Introducing the Java Socket API
Introducing NetworkChannel
Tackling socket options
261. Writing a blocking TCP server/client application
Writing a single-thread blocking TCP echo server
Creating a new server socket channel
Configuring the blocking mechanism
Setting server socket channel options
Binding the server socket channel
 Accepting connections
Transmitting data over a connection
Closing the channel
Putting it all together into the echo server
Writing a single-thread blocking TCP client
Creating a new (client) socket channel
Configuring the blocking mechanism
Setting client socket channel options
Connecting the client socket channel
Transmitting data over a connection
Closing the channel
Putting it all together into the client
Testing the blocking echo application
262. Writing a non-blocking TCP server/client application
Using the SelectionKey class
Using the Selector methods
Writing the non-blocking server
Writing the non-blocking client
Testing the non-blocking echo application
263. Writing UDP server/client applications
Writing a single-thread blocking UDP echo server
Creating a server datagram-oriented socket channel
Setting datagram-oriented socket channel options
Binding the server datagram-oriented socket channel
Transmitting data packets
Closing the channel
Putting it all together into the client
Writing a connectionless UDP client
Testing the UDP connectionless echo application
Writing a connected UDP client
264. Introducing multicasting
A brief overview of MembershipKey
265. Exploring network interfaces
266. Writing a UDP multicast server/client application
Writing a UDP multicast server
Writing a UDP multicast client
Blocking/unblocking datagrams
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Title: The Rod and Gun Club

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 The Battle with the Strikers.

ROD AND GUN SERIES.

THE
ROD AND GUN CLUB.

By HARRY CASTLEMON,
AUTHOR OF “THE GUNBOAT SERIES,” “BOY TRAPPER SERIES,”
“ROUGHING IT SERIES,” ETC.
 THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.,
PHILADELPHIA,
CHICAGO, TORONTO.

FAMOUS CASTLEMON BOOKS.

GUNBOAT SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 6 vols. 12mo.

Frank the Young Naturalist.

Frank in the Woods.
Frank on the Lower Mississippi.
Frank on a Gunboat.
Frank before Vicksburg.
Frank on the Prairie.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo.

Cloth.

Frank among the Rancheros.

Frank in the Mountains.
Frank at Don Carlos’ Ranch.

SPORTSMAN’S CLUB SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo.

Cloth.

The Sportsman’s Club in the Saddle.

The Sportsman’s Club Afloat.
The Sportsman’s Club among the Trappers.

FRANK NELSON SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo.

Cloth.

Snowed Up.
Frank in the Forecastle.
 The Boy Traders.

BOY TRAPPER SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.

The Buried Treasure.

The Boy Trapper.
The Mail-Carrier.

ROUGHING IT SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.

George in Camp.
George at the Wheel.
George at the Fort.

ROD AND GUN SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.

Don Gordon’s Shooting Box.

The Young Wild Fowlers.
Rod and Gun Club.

GO-AHEAD SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.

Tom Newcombe.
Go-Ahead.
No Moss.

FOREST AND STREAM SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols.

12mo. Cloth.

Joe Wayring.
Snagged and Sunk.
Steel Horse.

WAR SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 5 vols. 12mo. Cloth.

True to his Colors.

Rodney the Overseer.
Marcy the Refugee.
Rodney the Partisan.
Marcy the Blockade-Runner.

Other Volumes in Preparation.

Copyright, 1883, by Porter & Coates.
 CONTENTS
PAGE

Chapter I.
Some Disgusted Boys 5

Chapter II.
Birds of a Feather 25

Chapter III.
Lester Brigham’s Idea 45

Chapter IV.
Flight and Pursuit 66

Chapter V.
Don’s Encounter with the Tramp 87

Chapter VI.
About Various Things 108

Chapter VII.
A Test of Courage 130

Chapter VIII.
The Fight as Reported 152

Chapter IX.
In the Hands of the Mob 172

Chapter X.
Welcome Home 194

Chapter XI.
Hopkins’ Experience 217

Chapter XII.
Plans and Arrangements 239
 Chapter XIII.
The Deserters Afloat 261

Chapter XIV.
Don Obtains a Clue 284

Chapter XV.
Another Test and the Result 307
Chapter XVI.
The Rod and Gun Club 324

Chapter XVII.
Casting the Fly 344

Chapter XVIII.
Conclusion 360

THE ROD AND GUN CLUB.

 CHAPTER I.
SOME DISGUSTED BOYS.

“Well, young man, I will tell you, for your satisfaction, that I have got you
provided, for, for four long years to come.”
The speaker was Mr. Brigham. As he uttered these words he placed his hat
and gloves on the table, and looked down at his son Lester, who had just
entered the library in obedience to the summons he had received, and who
sat on the edge of the sofa, twirling his cap in his hands. The boy looked
frightened, while the expression on his father’s face told very plainly that he
was angry about something.
“I have had quite enough of your nonsense,” continued Mr. Brigham, in very
decided tones. “Since we came to Mississippi you have done nothing but roam
about the woods and fields with your gun on your shoulder, and get yourself
into trouble. You made yourself so very disagreeable that none of the decent
boys in the settlement would have anything to do with you, and consequently
you had to take up with such fellows as Bob Owens and Dan Evans. After
setting fire to Don Gordon’s shooting-box, and being caught in the act of
stealing David Evans’s quails, you had to go and mix yourself up in that mail
robbery. Why, Lester, have you any idea where you will bring up if you do not
at once begin to mend your ways?”
“Why, father, I had nothing to do with that,” exclaimed Lester, trying to look
surprised and innocent; “nothing whatever. You know, as well as I do, that I
was at home when those men who lived in that house-boat waylaid and
robbed the mail-carrier.”
“I am aware that you took no active part in the work,” said his father. “If
you had, you would now be confined in the calaboose. But you told Dan
Evans about those checks for five thousand dollars that my agent sends me
every month.”
“I didn’t,” interrupted Lester.
“Everything goes to prove that you did,” answered Mr. Brigham. “If you
didn’t, how does it come that Dan knew all about those checks? He made a
full confession to Don Gordon. The story is all over the country, and the
people about here are very angry at you. Suppose that Dan had shot Don
Gordon, as he tried to do? What do you suppose would become of you? I
really believe you would have been mobbed before this time. I wonder if you
have any idea of the excitement you have raised in the settlement?”
No; Lester had not the faintest conception of it, for the simple reason that
he had held no conversation with anybody, save the members of his own
family, since the afternoon on which Dan Evans was overpowered and robbed
of his mail-bag. When the full particulars of the affair came to his ears, he
was as frightened as a boy could be, and live. He knew that he was in a
measure responsible for the robbery, that it would never have been
committed if he had held his tongue regarding his father’s money, and the
fear that he had rendered himself liable to punishment at the hands of the
law, nearly drove him frantic. His terror was greatly increased by his father’s
last words. There had not been so much excitement in the settlement since
the war—not even when it became known that Clarence Gordon and Godfrey
Evans had dug up a portion of the general’s potato patch, in the hope of
unearthing eighty thousand dollars in gold and silver that were supposed to
be buried there. Don Gordon had more friends than any other boy in the
settlement, unless it was Bert, and the planters were enraged at the attempt
that had been made upon his life. If Dan Evans’s bullet had found a lodgment
in his body instead of going harmlessly through the roof, Dan and Lester
Brigham, as well as the three flatboatmen who stole the mail, might have had
a hard time of it.
Lester’s first care was to hide himself in the house, as he had done after he
and Bob Owens burned Don’s old shooting-box. He earnestly hoped that the
men would escape with their plunder; but when he learned that a strong
party, led by General Gordon, had pursued them in Davis’s sailboat and
captured them, he was ready to give up in despair. Judge Packard would have
to look into the matter now through his judicial spectacles, and Lester did not
want to be summoned to appear as a witness. Neither did Dan, who,
disregarding the advice Don Gordon had given him, took to the woods and hid
there, just as he did after he picked his father’s pocket of the hundred and
sixty dollars that David had made by trapping quails.
When Mr. Brigham saw that Lester took to staying in the house, and that he
had suddenly lost all interest in hunting and shooting, his suspicions were
aroused. He always kept his ears open when he went to the landing, and by
putting together the disjointed scraps of conversation he overheard while he
was waiting for his mail, he finally accumulated a mass of evidence against his
son Lester that fairly staggered him.
 “I couldn’t believe this of you until I went to Gordon and asked him what he
knew about it,” continued Mr. Brigham. “Then the whole story came out.
Lester, you will have to go away from here.”
“That’s just what I want to do,” exclaimed the boy, in joyous tones. “I never
did like this place. It is awful lonely and dull, and there is no one for me to
associate with. If I could only go off somewhere on a visit——”
“As I told you, at the start, I have got things fixed for you for four years to
come,” said Mr. Brigham. “You ought to have something to do—something
that will occupy your mind so completely that you will have no time to be
discontented or to think of anything wrong. I have decided to send you to
school; and I am sorry I didn’t do it long ago.”
When Lester heard this he threw his cap spitefully down upon the floor,
planted his elbow viciously upon the arm of the lounge, and looked very
sullen indeed. School-rooms and school-books were his pet aversions.
“I don’t want you to do that,” said he, angrily. “I would much rather stay
here.”
“Do you want to grow up in ignorance?” demanded his father.
If Lester had given an honest response to this question it would have been:
“No, I don’t want to grow up in ignorance, but I do want to live at my ease. I
desire to go to some place where I can find plenty to amuse me, and where I
shall have no labor to perform, either mental or manual.” But he did not quite
like to say that, and so he said nothing.
“You don’t know a single thing that a boy of your age ought to know,”
continued Mr. Brigham. “I have just had a long conversation with Gordon and
his two boys.”
Lester looked up with a startled expression on his face. “You haven’t
determined to send me to Bridgeport, have you?” he exclaimed.
“I have,” was the decided answer.
“To the military academy?” asked Lester, in louder and more incredulous
tones.
“That’s the very place. The systematic drill and training you will there
receive, will be of the greatest benefit to you, if you are only willing to profit
by them. That school has made men of Don and Bert Gordon already.”
“I should say so,” sneered Lester, suddenly recalling some items of
information that had come to him in a round-about way. “Don has been in a
constant row with the teachers ever since he has been there.”
“That is not true. He got himself into trouble when he first entered the
school, and lost his shoulder-straps by it; but he has toned down wonderfully
under the influence of those three boys he brought home with him, and he is
bound to make his mark before his four years’ course is completed.”
“But, father, do you know that the teachers are awful hard on the boys—
that if a student looks out of the wrong corner of his eye, or breaks the
smallest one of the thousand and more rules that he is expected to keep
constantly in mind, he is punished for it?” asked Lester, who was almost ready
to cry with vexation. It was bad enough, he told himself, to be sent away to
any school against his will; but it was worse for his father to select a military
academy, and then to hold that embodiment of mischief and rebellion, Don
Gordon, up to him as an object worthy of emulation. Lester had no desire to
learn the tactics, and he dreaded the discipline to which he knew he would be
subjected.
“I heard all about it during my talk with Don and Bert,” replied his father. “A
strong hand and plenty of work are just what you need.”
“But do you know that Bert is first sergeant of the company to which I shall
probably be assigned, and that one of its corporals is a New York boot-black?
Do you want me to obey the orders of a street Arab?”
“He could not have attained to the position he holds unless he had proved
himself worthy of it. The majority of the students, however, are the sons of
wealthy men, and they are the ones I want you to choose for your associates.
Make friends with them and bring some of them home with you, as Don and
Bert did, or go home with them, if they ask you. My word for it, you will see
plenty of sport there, if you will only do your duty faithfully. Gordon’s boys are
impatient to go back; and yet there was a time when Don disliked school as
heartily as you do.”
“When shall we start for Bridgeport?”
“A week from next Wednesday. New students are received up to the 13th of
the month; so we must make our application two days before the school
begins.”
“Of course we’ll not go up on the same boat with the Gordons?”
“Why not? Having been there before, they can save us a great deal of
trouble by telling us just where to go and what to do.”
 “But I don’t like the idea of traveling in their company. They will snub me
every chance they get.”
“You need not borrow any trouble on that score. They have good reasons
for disliking you, but if you conduct yourself properly, you will have nothing to
fear from them. Now, Lester, promise me that, if you are admitted to that
school, you will wake up and try to accomplish something. I will do everything
I can to aid and encourage you, and I will begin by putting it in your power to
hold your own with the richest student there.”
Lester perfectly understood his father’s last words, and he was considerably
mollified by them. If there were anything that could reconcile him to
becoming a member of the military academy, it was the knowledge of the fact
that a liberal supply of spending money was to be placed at his disposal.
Lester’s highest ambition was to be looked up to as a leader among his
companions. He had failed to accomplish his object so far as the boys about
Rochdale were concerned, but he was pretty sure that he would not fail at
Bridgeport. He didn’t, either. His money, which Mr. Brigham might better have
kept in his own pocket, brought him to the notice of some uneasy fellows at
the academy, who joined him in a daring enterprise, the like of which had
never been heard of before. It gave the village people something to talk
about, and furnished the law-abiding students with any amount of fun and
excitement. In fact the whole school term was crowded so full of thrilling
incidents, so many things happened to take their minds off their books, that
when the examination was held, some of the best scholars narrowly escaped
being dropped from their classes.
“I will do anything I can for you,” repeated Mr. Brigham, seating himself in
the nearest chair and taking a newspaper from the table. “If you will go
through the four years’ course with flying colors, and come out at the head of
your class, I shall be highly gratified, and I assure you that you will lose
nothing by it.”
Mr. Brigham fastened his eyes upon his paper, and Lester, taking this as a
hint that he had nothing more to say just then, picked up his cap and went
out. He made his way directly to his own room, and taking his squirrel rifle
down from the antlers that supported it—purchased antlers they were, and
not trophies of the boy’s own skill—he buckled a cartridge belt about his waist
and left the house. He wanted to go off in the woods by himself and think the
matter over; but it is hard to tell why he took his rifle with him, for he had no
intention of hunting, and he could not have killed anything if he had. Perhaps
it was because he had fallen into the habit of carrying a weapon on his
shoulder wherever he went, just as Godfrey and Dan did.
 “It is some comfort to know that the governor is not disposed to put me on
short allowance,” thought he, as he sat down on a log and rested his rifle
across his knees, “and perhaps I can manage to stand it for a while. If I can’t,
and father won’t let me come home, I’ll skip out, as Bob Owens did; only I’ll
not go into the army. But it can’t be all work and no play up there. There
must be some jolly fellows among the students who are in for having a good
time now and then, and they are the ones I shall run with. I am sorry Bert is
an officer, for he will tyrannize over me in every possible way. I feel disgusted
whenever I think of that.”
Lester Brigham was not the only boy in the world who felt disgusted that
day. There were three others that we know of. One of them lived away off in
Maryland, and the others lived in Rochdale. The last were Don and Bert
Gordon.
When their father came into the room in which they were sitting and told
them that Mr. Brigham was waiting to see them in the parlor, they followed
him lost in wonder, which gave place to a very different feeling when they
learned that this visitor had come there to make some inquiries regarding the
Bridgeport military academy, with a view of sending his son there. Bert gave
truthful replies to all his questions, and so did Don, for the matter of that; but
he did not neglect to enlarge upon the severity of the discipline, or to call Mr.
Brigham’s attention to the fact that no boy need go to that school expecting
to keep pace with his classes, unless he was willing to study hard. Believing
that Lester would make trouble one way or another, Don did not want him
there, and he hoped to convince Mr. Brigham that the academy at Bridgeport
would not at all suit Lester; but he did not succeed. The visitor seemed to
believe that military drill was just what his refractory son needed, asked the
boys when they were going to start, thanked them for the information they
had given him, and took his leave.
“Well, now, I am disgusted,” exclaimed Don; while Bert went over to the
window and drummed upon it with his fingers.
“I don’t see how you are going to help yourselves, boys,” said the general.
“Lester Brigham has as much right to go to that school as you have.”
“I know that,” replied Don. “But I don’t want him there, all the same.”
“Neither do I,” said Bert. “He will be in my company, and if I make him toe
the mark, he will say that I do it because I want to be revenged on him for
burning Don’s shooting-box and getting Dave Evans into trouble.”
 “Do your duty as a soldier, and let Lester say what he pleases,” said the
general.
“Oh! he’ll have to,” exclaimed Don. “If he doesn’t, he will be reported. Bert’s
got to walk a chalk line now, and if he makes a false step, off come his
diamond and chevrons. It’s some consolation to know that we can’t introduce
him to Egan and the rest. They would snub us in a minute if we did, and
serve us right, too. A plebe must be content to wait until the upper-class boys
get ready to speak to him.”
“Having passed four years of my life in that academy I am not ignorant of
that fact,” said the general, after a little pause, during which he recalled to
mind how he had once had his face washed in a snow-drift by a couple of
second-class boys whom he had presumed to address on terms of familiarity.
“But I hope you will do all you can for Lester. Remember how lonely you felt
when you first went there, and found yourselves surrounded by those who
were utter strangers to you.”
“Oh, we will,” said Bert, while Don scowled savagely but said nothing. “If he
will show us that he has come there with the determination to do the best he
can, we’ll stand by him; won’t we, Don?”
Of course the latter said they would, but he gave the promise simply
because his father desired it, and not because he had any friendly feeling for
Lester Brigham.
The other disgusted boy was Egan, who, on this particular day, was pacing
up and down the back veranda of his father’s house, shaking his fist at the
surf that was rolling in upon the beach, and acting altogether like one whose
reflections were by no means agreeable. What it was that had happened to
annoy him, we will let him tell in his own way.
Christmas, with its festivities, was now a memory. New Year’s day came and
went, and Don and Bert, each in his own way, began making preparations for
their return to Bridgeport. The latter, who was determined that the close of
another school year should find him with at least one bar on his shoulder,
devoted his morning hours to his books, while Don, to quote his own
language, proceeded to put himself through a regular course of training.
There was a long siege of hard study before him, but one would have
thought, by the way he went to work, that he was preparing himself for a
physical rather than an intellectual contest. He rode hard, hunted
perseveringly, kept up his regular exercise with Indian clubs and dumb-bells,
and looked, as he said he felt, as if he were good for any amount of work.
 Knowing how valuable a little advice would have been to them when they
first joined the academy, Don and Bert rode over to see Lester, intending to
give him some idea of the nature of the examination he would have to pass
before he would be received as a student, and to drop a few hints that would
enable him to keep out of trouble; but they never repeated the experiment.
Lester was surly and not at all sociable; and he was so very independent, and
seemed to have so much confidence in his ability to make his way without
help from anybody, that his visitors took their leave without saying half as
much to him as they had intended.
“I know what they are up to,” said Lester, who stood at the window
watching Don and Bert as they rode away. “They have reasons for wishing to
get on the right side of me. Somebody has probably told them that I am to
have plenty of money to spend, and they intend that I shall spend some of it
for their own benefit. I am going in for a shoulder-strap—I am not one to be
satisfied with a sergeant’s warrant—and the first thing I shall do, after I get it,
will be to take those stripes off Bert Gordon’s arms. He and his boot-black
can’t order me around.”
This soliloquy will show that Lester had changed his mind in regard to the
school at Bridgeport. He wanted to go there now. His father, who knew
nothing about the academy beyond what Don and Bert had told him, and who
judged it by the fashionable boarding-schools at which he had obtained the
little knowledge he possessed, had neglected no opportunity to impress upon
Lester’s mind the fact that a rich man’s son would not be allowed to remain
long in the ranks, and that there was nothing to prevent him from winning
and wearing an officer’s sword, if he would only use a little tact in pushing
himself forward. After listening to such counsel as this, it was not at all likely
that anything that Don and Bert could say would have any influence with him.
“He thinks he is going to have a walk over,” said Don, as he stroked his
pony’s glossy mane.
“It looks that way, but there’s where he is mistaken,” replied Bert. “Lester
will be walking an extra before he has been at the academy a week.”
“Well, we’ll not volunteer any more advice, no matter what happens to
him,” said Don. “We’ll let him go as he pleases and see how he will come out.”
The day set for their departure came at last, and Don and Bert,
accompanied by Mr. Brigham and Lester, set out for Bridgeport, which they
reached without any mishap. They rode in the same hack from the depot to
the academy, and when they alighted at the door, they were surrounded by a
crowd of boys who had already reported for duty, and who made it a point to
rush out of the building to extend a noisy welcome to every newcomer. School
was not yet in session, and the first-class boys were not above speaking to a
plebe.
Among those who were first to greet Don and Bert as they stepped out of
the hack, were Egan, Hopkins and Curtis. As these young gentlemen had
already completed the regular academic course, perhaps the reader would like
to know what it was that brought them back. They came to take what was
called the “finishing course,” and to put themselves under technical
instruction. After that (it took two years to go through it) Hopkins was to
enter a lawyer’s office in Baltimore; Egan intended to become assistant
engineer to a relative who was building railroads somewhere in South
America; while Curtis was looking towards West Point.
The boys who composed these advanced classes were privileged
characters. They dressed in citizens’ clothes, performed no military duty,
boarded in the village, and came and went whenever they pleased. When the
students went into camp, they were at liberty to go with them, or they could
stay at the academy and study. If they chose the camp, they could ask to be
appointed aids or orderlies at headquarters, or they could put on a uniform,
shoulder a musket, and fall into the ranks. They held no office, and the boy
who was lieutenant-colonel last year, was nothing better than a private now.
Don and Bert greeted their friends cordially, and as soon as the latter could
free himself from their clutches, he beckoned to Mr. Brigham and Lester, who
followed him through the hall and into the superintendent’s room.
 CHAPTER II.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER.

“Which one of these trunks do you belong to, Gordon?” inquired a young
second-lieutenant, whose duty it was to see that the students were assigned
to rooms as fast as they arrived.
“The one with the canvas cover is mine,” replied Don.
“Any preference among the boys?” asked the lieutenant. “You can’t have
Bert for a room-mate this term, you know. The second sergeant of his
company will be chummed on him.”
Don replied that he didn’t care who he had for a companion, so long as he
was a well-behaved boy; whereupon the lieutenant beckoned to a negro
porter whom he called “Rosebud,” and directed him to take Don’s trunk up to
No. 45, third floor.
“By the way, I suppose that that fellow who has just gone into the
superintendent’s room with Bert is a crony of yours?” continued the young
officer.
“He is from Mississippi,” said Don. He did not wish to publish the fact that
Lester Brigham was no friend of his, for that would prejudice the students
against him at once. Lester was likely to have a hard time of it at the best,
and Don did not want to say or do anything that would make it harder for
him.
“All right,” said the officer. “I will take pains to see that he is chummed on
some good fellow.”
“You needn’t put yourself to any trouble for him on my account,” said Don
in a low tone, at the same time turning his back upon a sprucely-dressed but
rather brazen-faced boy, who persisted in crowding up close to him and Egan,
as if he meant to hear every word that passed between them. “He is nothing
to me, and I wish he was back where he came from. He’ll wish so too, before
he has been here many days. I said everything I could to induce his father to
keep him at home, but he——”
“Let’s take a walk as far as the gate,” said Egan, seizing Don by the arm
and nodding to Hopkins and Curtis. “You stay here, Enoch,” he added, turning
to the sprucely-dressed boy.
“What’s the reason I can’t go too?” demanded the latter.
“Because we don’t want you,” replied Egan, bluntly. “I told you before we
left home, that you needn’t expect to hang on to my coat-tails. Make friends
with the members of your own company, for they are the only associates you
will have after school begins.”
“But they are all strangers to me, and you won’t introduce me,” said Enoch.
“Then pitch in and get acquainted, as I did when I first came here. You may
be sure I’ll not introduce you,” said Egan, in a low voice, as he and his three
friends walked toward the gate. “An introduction is an indorsement, and I
don’t indorse any such fellows as you are.”
“What’s the matter with him?” asked Don, who had never seen Egan so
annoyed and provoked as he was at that moment.
“Everything,” replied the ex-sergeant. “He’s the meanest boy I ever met—I
except nobody—and if he doesn’t prove to be a second Clarence Duncan, I
shall miss my guess.”
“The boy who came here with me will make a good mate for him,” said
Don.
“This fellow’s father has only recently moved into our neighborhood,”
continued Egan. “He went into ecstasies over my uniform the first time he
saw it, and wanted to know where I got it, and how much it cost, and all that
sort of thing. Of course I praised the school and everybody and everything
connected with it; but I wish now that I had kept still. The next time that I
met him he told me that when I returned to Bridgeport he was going with me.
I was in hopes he wouldn’t stick, but he did.”
“Mr. Brigham crowded Lester upon Bert and me in about the same way,”
said Don.
“Was that Lester Brigham?” exclaimed Curtis—“the boy who burned your
old shooting-box and kicked up that rumpus while we were at Rochdale? We
often heard you speak of him, but you know we never saw him.”
“He’s the very one,” replied Don.
“Then he will make a good mate for Enoch Williams,” said Egan. “Why, Don,
this fellow has been caught in the act of looting ducks on the bay.”
Egan’s tone and manner seemed to indicate that he looked upon this as one
of the worst offenses that could be committed, and both he and Hopkins were
surprised because Don did not grow angry over it.
“What’s looting ducks?” asked the latter.
“It is a system of hunting pursued by the pot-hunters of Chesapeake bay,
who shoot for the market and not for sport. A huge blunderbuss, which will
hold a handful of powder and a pound or more of shot, and which is kept
concealed during the day-time, is put into the bow of a skiff at night, and
carried into the very midst of a flock of sleeping ducks; and sometimes the
men who manage it, secure as many as sixty or seventy birds at one
discharge. The law expressly prohibits it, and denounces penalties against
those who are caught at it.”
“Then why wasn’t Enoch punished?”
“Because everybody is afraid to complain of him or of any one else who
violates the law. It isn’t safe to say anything against these duck-shooters, and
those who do it are sure to suffer. Their yachts will be bored full of holes, their
oyster-beds dragged at night or filled with sharp things for the dredges to
catch on, their lobster-pots pulled up and destroyed or carried off, their
retrievers shot or stolen—oh, it wouldn’t take long to raise an excitement
down there that would be fully equal to that which was occasioned in
Rochdale by that mail robbery.”
If the reader will bear these words in mind, he will see that subsequent
events proved the truthfulness of them. The professional duck-shooters who
played such havoc with the wild fowl in Chesapeake bay, were determined
and vindictive men, and it was very easy to get into trouble with them,
especially when there were such fellows as Enoch Williams and Lester
Brigham to help it along.
The four friends spent half an hour in walking about the grounds, talking
over the various exciting and amusing incidents that had happened while they
were living in Don Gordon’s Shooting-Box, and then Don went to his
dormitory to put on his uniform, preparatory to reporting his arrival to the
superintendent. Every train that steamed into the station brought a crowd of
students with it, and the evening of the 14th of January found them all snug
in their quarters, and ready for the serious business of the term, which was to
begin with the booming of the morning gun. All play was over now. There had
been guard-mount that morning, sentries were posted on the grounds and in
the buildings, and the new students began to see how it seemed to feel the
tight reins of military discipline drawn about them. Of course there were a
good many who did not like it at all. Events proved that there was a greater
number of malcontents in the school this term than there had ever been
before. Bold fellows some of them were, too—boys who had always been
allowed to do as they pleased at home, and who proceeded to get up a
rebellion before they had donned their uniforms. One of them, it is hardly
necessary to say, was Lester Brigham. On the morning when the ceremony of
guard-mounting was gone through with for the first time, he stood off by
himself, muffled up head and ears, and watching the proceeding. Presently his
attention was attracted by the actions of a boy who came rapidly along the
path, shaking his gloved fists in the air and talking to himself. He did not see
Lester until he was close upon him, and then he stopped and looked
ashamed.
“What’s the trouble?” asked Lester, who was in no very good humor himself.
“Matter enough,” replied the boy. “I wish I had never seen or heard of this
school.”
“Here too,” said Lester. “Are you a new scholar? Then we belong to the
same class and company.”
“I wouldn’t belong to any class or company if I could help it,” snapped the
boy. “My father didn’t want me to come here, but I insisted, like the dunce I
was, and now I’ve got to stay.”
“So have I; but I didn’t come of my own free will. My father made me.”
“Get into any row at home?” asked the boy.
“Well—yes,” replied Lester, hesitatingly.
“I don’t see that it is anything to be ashamed of. You look like a city boy;
did the cops get after you?”
“No; I had no trouble with the police, but I thought for a while that I was
going to have. I live in the canebrakes of Mississippi, and my name is Lester
Brigham. I used to live in the city, and I wish I had never left it.”
“My name is Enoch Williams, and I am from Maryland,” said the other. “I
don’t live in a cane-brake, but I live on the sea-shore, and right in the midst
of a lot of Yahoos who don’t know enough to keep them over night. Egan is
one of them and Hopkins is another.”
“Why, those are two of the boys that Don Gordon brought home with him
last fall,” exclaimed Lester. “Do you know them?”
“I know Egan very well. His father’s plantation is next to ours. If he had
been anything of a gentleman, I might have been personally acquainted with
Hopkins by this time; but, although we traveled in company all the way from
Maryland, he never introduced me. Do you know them?”
“I used to see them occasionally last fall, but I have never spoken to either
of them,” answered Lester. “By the way, the first sergeant of our company is a
near neighbor of mine.”
“Do you mean Bert Gordon? Well, he’s a little snipe. He throws on more airs
than a country dancing-master. I have been insulted ever since I have been
here,” said Enoch, hotly. “The boys from my own State, who ought to have
brought me to the notice of the teachers and of some good fellows among the
students, have turned their backs upon me, and told me in so many words,
that they don’t want my company.”
“Don and Bert Gordon have treated me in nearly the same way,” observed
Lester.
“But, for all that, I have made some acquaintances among the boys in the
third class, who gave me a few hints that I intend to act upon,” continued
Enoch. “They say the rules are very strict, and that it is of no earthly use for
me to try to keep out of trouble. There are a favored few who are allowed to
do as they please; but the rest of us must walk turkey, or spend our Saturday
afternoons in doing extra duty. Now I say that isn’t fair—is it, Jones?” added
Enoch, appealing to a third-class boy who just then came up.
Jones had been at the academy just a year, and of course he was a
member of Don Gordon’s class and company. He was one of those who, by
the aid of Don’s “Yankee Invention,” had succeeded in making their way into
the fire-escape, and out of the building. They failed to get by the guard, as
we know, and Jones was court-martialed as well as the rest. His back and
arms ached whenever he thought of the long hours he had spent in walking
extras to pay for that one night’s fun; and he had made the mental resolution
that before he left the academy he would do something that would make
those who remained bear him in remembrance. He was lazy, vicious and idle,
and quite willing to back up Enoch’s statement.
“Of course it isn’t fair,” said he, after Enoch had introduced him to Lester
Brigham. “You needn’t expect to be treated fairly as long as you remain here,
unless you are willing to curry favor with the teachers, and so win a warrant
or a commission; but that is something no decent boy will do. I can prove it to
you. Take the case of Don Gordon: he’s a good fellow, in some respects——”
“There’s where I differ with you,” interrupted Lester. “I have known him for
a long time, and I have yet to see anything good about him.”
 “I don’t care if you have. I say he’s a good fellow,” said Jones, earnestly.
“There isn’t a better boy in school to run with than Don Gordon would be, if
he would only get rid of the notion that it is manly to tell the truth at all times
and under all circumstances, no matter who suffers by it. He’s as full of plans
as an egg is of meat; he is afraid of nothing, and there wasn’t a boy in our set
who dared join him in carrying out some schemes he proposed. Why, he
wanted to capture the butcher’s big bull-dog, take him up to the top of the
building, and then kick him down stairs after tying a tin-can to his tail! He
would have done it, too, if any of the set had offered to help him; but I tell
you, I wouldn’t have taken a hand in it for all the money there is in America.”
“He must be a good one,” said Enoch, admiringly.
“Oh, he is. We had many a pleasant evening at Cony Ryan’s last winter that
we would not have had if Don had not come to our aid; but when the critical
moment arrived, he failed us.”
“You might have expected it,” sneered Lester, who could not bear to hear
these words of praise bestowed upon the boy he so cordially hated.
“Well, I didn’t expect it. Don was one of the floor-guards that night, and he
allowed a lot of us to pass him and go out of the building. When the
superintendent hauled him up for it the next day, he acknowledged his guilt,
but he would not give our names, although he knew he stood a good chance
of being sent down for his refusal. I shall always honor him for that.”
“I wish he had been expelled,” said Lester, bitterly. “Then I should not have
been sent to this school.”
“Well, when the examination came off,” continued Jones, “Don was so far
ahead of his class that none of them could touch him with a ten-foot pole;
and yet he is a private to-day, while that brother of his, who won the good-
will of the teachers by toadying to them, wears a first sergeant’s chevrons. Of
course such partiality as that is not fair for the rest of us.”
“There isn’t a single redeeming feature about this school, is there?” said
Enoch, after a pause. “A fellow can’t enjoy himself in any way.”
“Oh yes, he can—if he is smart and a trifle reckless. He can go to Cony
Ryan’s and eat pancakes. I suppose Egan told you of the high old times we
had here last winter running the guard, didn’t he?”
“He never mentioned it,” replied Enoch.
“Well, didn’t he describe the fight we had with the Indians last camp?”
 “Indians!” repeated Enoch, incredulously, while Lester’s eyes opened with
amazement.
“Yes; sure-enough Indians they were too, and not make-believes. We
thought, by the way they yelled at us, that they meant business. Why, they
raised such a rumpus about the camp that some of our lady guests came very
near fainting, they were so frightened. Didn’t Egan tell you how he and Don
deserted, swam the creek, went to the show disguised as country boys, and
finally fell into the hands of those same Indians who had surrounded the
camp and were getting ready to attack us?”
No, Egan hadn’t said a word about any of these things to Enoch, and
neither had Don or Bert spoken of them to Lester; although they might have
done so if the latter had showed them a little more courtesy when they called
upon him at his house. Some of the matters referred to were pleasant
episodes in the lives of the Bridgeport students, and the reason why Egan had
not spoken of them was because he did not want Enoch to think there was
anything agreeable about the institution. He didn’t want him there, because
he did not believe that Enoch would be any credit to the school; and so he did
with him just as Don and Bert did with Lester: he enlarged upon the rigor of
the discipline, the stern impartiality of the instructors, the promptness with
which they called a delinquent to account, and spoke feelingly of their long
and difficult lessons; but he never said “recreation” once, nor did he so much
as hint that there were certain hours in the day that the students could call
their own.
“Tell us about that fight,” said Enoch.
“Yes, do,” chimed in Lester. “If there is any way to see fun here, let us know
what it is.”
Jones was just the boy to go to with an appeal of this sort. He was
thoroughly posted, and if there were any one in the academy who was always
ready to set the rules and regulations at defiance, especially if he saw the
shadow of a chance for escaping punishment, Jones was the fellow. He gave
a glowing description of the battle at the camp; told how the boys ran the
guard, and where they went and what they did after they got out; related
some thrilling stories of adventure of which the law-breakers were the heroes;
and by the time the dinner-call was sounded, he had worked his two auditors
up to such a pitch of excitement that they were ready to attempt almost
anything.
“You have given me some ideas,” said Enoch, as they hurried toward their
dormitories in obedience to the call, “and who knows but they may grow to
something? I’ve got to stay here—I had a plain understanding with my father
on that point—and I am going to think up something that will yield us some
sport.”
“That’s the way I like to hear a fellow talk,” said Jones, approvingly; “and I
will tell you this for your encouragement: we care nothing for the risk we shall
run in carrying out your scheme, whatever it may be, but before we
undertake it, you must be able to satisfy us that we can carry it out
successfully. Do that, and I will bring twenty boys to back you up, if you need
so many. We are always glad to have fellows like you come among us, for our
tricks grow stale after a while, and we learn new ones of you. Don Gordon
can think up something in less time than anybody I ever saw; but it would be
useless to look to him for help. Egan and the other good little boys have taken
him in hand, and they’ll make an officer of him this year; you wait and see if
they don’t.”
“Jones gave me some ideas, too,” thought Lester, as he marched into the
dining-hall with his company, and took his seat at the table; “but I must say I
despise the way he lauded that Don Gordon. Don seems to make friends
wherever he goes, and they are among the best, too; while I have to be
satisfied with such companions as I can get. I am going to set my wits at
work and see if I can’t study up something that will throw that bull-dog
business far into the shade.”
Unfortunately for Lester this was easy of accomplishment. He was not
obliged to do any very hard thinking on the subject, for a plan was suggested
to him that very afternoon. There was but one objection to it: he would have
to wait four or five months before it could be carried out.
Lester’s room-mate was a boy who spelled his name Huggins, but
pronounced it as though it were written Hewguns. He had showed but little
disposition to talk about himself and his affairs, and all Lester could learn
concerning him was that he was from Massachusetts, and that he lived
somewhere on the sea-coast. He and Lester met in their dormitory after
dinner, and while the latter proceeded to put on his hat and overcoat, Huggins
threw himself into a chair, buried his hands in his pockets and gazed steadily
at the floor.
“What’s the matter?” inquired Lester. “You act as if something had gone
wrong with you.”
“Things never go right with me,” was the surly response. “There isn’t a boy
in the world who has so much trouble as I do.”
 “I have often thought that of myself,” Lester remarked. “Come out and take
a walk. Perhaps the fresh air will do you good.”
“I don’t want any fresh air,” growled Huggins. “I want to think. I have been
trying all the morning to hit upon something that would enable me to get to
windward of my father, and I guess I have got it at last.”
“What do you mean by getting to windward of him?” asked Lester.
“Why, getting the advantage of him. If two vessels were racing, the one
that was to windward would have the odds of the other, especially if the
breeze was not steady, because she would always catch it first. I guess you
don’t know much about the water, do you?”
“I don’t know much about boats,” replied Lester; “but when it comes to
hunting, fishing or riding, I am there. I have yet to see the fellow who can
beat me.”
“I am fond of fishing,” said Huggins. “I was out on the banks last season.
We made a very fine catch, and had a tidy row with the Newfoundland
fishermen before we could get our bait.”
“What sort of fish did you take?”
“Codfish, of course.”
“Do you angle for them from the banks?”
“I said on the banks—that is, in shoal water.”
“Oh,” said Lester. “I don’t know anything about that kind of fishing. Did you
ever play a fifteen pound brook-trout on an eight-ounce fly-rod?”
“No; nor nobody else.”
“I have done it many a time,” said Lester. “I tell you it takes a man who
understands his business to land a fish like that with light tackle. A greenhorn
would have broken his pole or snapped his line the very first jerk he made.”
“You may tell that to the marines, but you needn’t expect me to believe it,”
said Huggins, quietly. “In the first place, a fly-fisher doesn’t fasten his hook by
giving a jerk. He does it by a simple turn of the wrist. In the second place, the
Salmo fontinalis doesn’t grow to the weight of fifteen pounds.”
Lester was fairly staggered. He had set out with the intention of giving his
room-mate a graphic account of some of his imaginary exploits and
adventures (those of our readers who are well acquainted with him will
remember that he kept a large supply of them on hand), but he saw that it
was time to stop. There was no use in trying to deceive a boy who could fire
Latin at him in that way.
“The largest brook-trout that was ever caught was taken in the Rangeley
lakes, and weighed a trifle over ten pounds,” continued Huggins. “And lastly,
the members of the order Salmonidæ don’t live in the muddy, stagnant
bayous you have down South. They want clear cold water.”
“Why do you want to get to windward of your father?” inquired Lester, who
thought it best to change the subject.
“To pay him for sending me to this school,” replied Huggins.
“And you think you know how to do it?”
“I do.”
Lester became interested. He took off his hat and overcoat and sat down on
the edge of his bed.