"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.