“Ritter will catch it for this,” said Joe.
“Sure he will, an’ he’s afther deservin’ it,” answered Emerald. “I had me ear burnt, so I did, through his foolishness!”
What was said in Captain Putnam’s tent did not get out until some time later. The captain read Ritter and Sabine a stern lecture, and said he would send the bully’s father a bill for the burnt tents, and also said he would let Mr. Ritter know how the conflagration had come about. He made both boys promise not to smoke again.
“It was all your fault,” growled Ritter, as he and Sabine came away, followed by Mason. “If you had only kept your mouth shut we would have been all right. I’ve a good mind to give you a licking!” And he advanced so threateningly on Sabine that the latter took to his heels and ran out of sight.
When Mason came out he joined Pepper, Andy, and some of their friends.
“I didn’t want to expose Ritter, but he was the one to blame,” said the cadet who had occupied Post 4. “He let the cigarette light fly right in the carbide.”
“Well, I should have put the carbide away,” said Fred, who was present
“How did you come to have it?” asked Pepper.
“Oh, I went to the Hall on an errand for Captain Putnam, and I came back on my wheel, and carried it,” was the answer. “I thought it would be handy—to fill the acetylene lamp with.”
After the excitement attending the fire and the windstorm, matters moved along smoothly in the camp for several days. During that time some of the cadets got up a rowing race, between a crew of four from Company A and another crew from Company B. In this contest Company A won, which helped them to get over their defeat on the baseball field. Ritter did not row in the race, nor did Coulter.