“I’ll take care of him,” promised the colonel. “The first thing in the morning I am going to report everything to the chief of police here, who is a personal friend of mine, and I’ll have a man sent up to bring him to the jail, to be kept there until we have arrested the others. He’ll be all right until morning. Now, you boys had better be getting back to school. Whatever you do, don’t let the major catch you!”
Colonel Morrell then shook hands cordially with the boys, expressing once more his satisfaction and gratitude, and the boys left him. Vench left the car at a public garage, with orders not to allow anyone to touch it without his consent. Then the four boys walked back to school.
“No use talking,” said Rhodes, enthusiastically. “Mr. Vench will be nothing less than a general!”
“I’ll be lucky if I’m ever a good bellboy!” grinned Vench. “Fate was good to me. I was looking for Don, and eventually I found him, through the colonel.”
“I guess we’ll always stand well with our headmaster!” chuckled Terry.
When they got back to the school the boys used the utmost caution and got back to their rooms in safety. The night was nearly gone, and when the bugle blew early next morning Messrs. Rhodes, Mercer, Mackson and Vench groaned aloud as they reluctantly left their beds.
22. The Man on the Ice
That day was cold and clear, with a still, penetrating cold that sent a tingle through the veins of the cadets. For hours the ice had been forming on Lake Blair. One or two cadets had been hardy enough to test it and found that it was about ready to bear weight, and by nightfall it had frozen to a depth of several inches. It was the first real ice of the season and the students hailed it with shouts of delight. Closets and trunks were hastily ransacked, and some of the new cadets went to town and bought skates. Others went to the cellars under the barn and brought out stored barrels, breaking them up and distributing the wood at various points along the lake for their fires.
In the afternoon Rhodes went to the major and asked for permission to go to town. He found the headmaster in a suspicious and angry mood, caused probably by the things which were weighing on his mind. When the senior cadet asked for leave the major swung around.
“What for?” he snapped.