“I want the Portville Hotel, operator,” called Rhodes. “This is an emergency call, so please rush it.”
Captain Chalmers refrained from saying anything while Rhodes waited. When the hotel answered, Rhodes gave the number of the colonel’s room, and a moment later the headmaster answered.
“Hello, Colonel Morrell?” called Rhodes. Chalmers jumped to his feet with a sharp exclamation, but Rhodes went on: “This is Rhodes, colonel. Major Tireson left the school a few minutes ago to go to the station. I think he is running away. We have just captured Dennings and released Don. See if you can capture him, colonel.”
The colonel hung up with a sharp click and Rhodes turned to Chalmers. “I know you are astonished, Captain Chalmers, but we have found the colonel. I’ll tell you about it later. Here is a more pressing matter.”
The other boys had entered with the prisoner and they brought him to the office. In a few words matters were explained to Chalmers, and the man was securely locked in a strong room from which there was no escape. Then they waited for the colonel, sitting in the office and talking things over with the man who was destined to succeed Major Tireson as assistant headmaster.
To the astonishment of the cadet body there was no call of taps that night. They returned from skating and to study, but the lights did not go out. No Officer of the Day patrolled the halls, and finally sheer curiosity drove them from their rooms to see what the trouble was. It was then that word spread like wildfire that the colonel had returned.
It was some hours after the telephone call that Colonel Morrell, with springy step and wide smile, burst into the office and shook hands all around. To their anxious questions he replied that Major Tireson had been arrested with the old man of Clanhammer Hall just as he was about to step on a train for New York City. The major had decided that the game was getting much too warm, and he planned to go to Spotville Point, see to it that the colonel was carried off on a long sea voyage, and then disappear. A sense of uneasiness had come over him, and he had decided to clear out, to communicate with Dennings later and decide on the fate of Don.
When the cadets learned that their beloved colonel had returned there was an end, for that night at least, of discipline. The older cadets who knew him well thronged around him, shaking hands and greeting him, and the colonel fairly beamed his pleasure. The story was soon out, and the cadet body heaped warm praise on the boys who had solved the mystery of Clanhammer Hall.
Very much later the bugler made a poor attempt to sound taps, and the cadets went to bed, to lie awake for the most part and talk across beds of the unexpected developments in their school life. There was a general feeling that not much work would be done on the following day, and in this they were not mistaken. The colonel granted them a full holiday, which they spent on the lake, enjoying the splendid ice and healthy weather. To the colonel it was an enjoyable holiday also, and he appeared on the ice to skate for a brief time with his boys. The fourth class men, just making the acquaintance of their real headmaster, were more than pleased with him.
Captain Chalmers was made assistant headmaster in Tireson’s place. In due time the major and Dennings, with three hangers-on, were all given prison terms on various charges. School life settled down to a regular run of routine that was now thoroughly enjoyable, and the boys began to find the days slipping by rapidly and pleasurably.