“I’m not a blockhead and I want you to know it,” answered the man angrily. “You fellers brought us up here on a fool’s errand, I think. If you’ll pay me off I’ll go home.”
“Yes, pay me off and I’ll go home too,” added another of the guards.
“What, are you going to desert us!” exclaimed Josiah Crabtree, in sudden fear.
“I ain’t no blockhead. You pay me and I’ll go.”
“But see here, you promised to stay here as long as wanted,” pleaded Crabtree.
“You don’t want me any longer—now the boys have run away. And let me say one thing—I think the boys had a right to run away.”
“Bah!”
“You teachers ain’t treatin’ ’em right,” went on another guard. “Just you wait till Captain Putnam gits back—I reckon he’ll make it warm for you!”
At this plain talk Josiah Crabtree almost collapsed. He realized that he had gone too far. He wondered what the result would be when the captain did get back. He was getting a fine salary and he did not wish to lose his position.
“My dear fellows, you are making a mistake,” he said, in a milder voice. “Those cadets have broken the rules of this institution and must be punished. I was simply going to keep them in their rooms until to-morrow and then I was going to give them a lecture, nothing more.”