“Corporal of the guard!” he yelled, as he dodged past one of the cadets on guard. “Thieves! Robbers! Help!” he went on, and then he dodged into his tent and threw himself on his cot, pretending to be asleep as before.
The loud alarm woke the entire camp, just as the bully had desired, and Captain Putnam came rushing from his tent, followed by George Strong. Then Major Jack appeared and so did Captain Bart Conners and Captain Henry Lee.
“What is the trouble?” demanded Captain Putnam.
“I don’t know, sir,” answered Major Jack, but he suspected that some of the cadets were out for a lark.
“I’ll go the rounds of the guards and find out,” went on the master of the school shortly. He was determined to break up the horseplay if it could possibly be accomplished.
In the meantime Andy, Pepper and the others had not yet gotten into camp. They had to put the swing rope away and distribute the belts, and the sudden alarm given by Ritter had taken them all unawares.
“Say, fellows, we are going to have a tight squeeze of it getting in,” said Pepper, as the alarm increased.
“I didn’t think Ritter would be mean enough to raise such a hullabaloo,” said Dale. “He can’t take a joke.”
“He is sour on our crowd and will do all in his power to get us into trouble,” said Joe.
“We can’t get past Fred again, for there is Captain Putnam making straight for that post!” said another.