"The Avengers."
"I reckon that will hold him for a while," said Randy, and before going to bed he slipped out into the corridor and placed the card under Stowell's door.
Early in the morning Andy saw the assistant janitor and easily arranged for Pud Hicks to say nothing about the mice.
"Why, over a dozen of the cadets saw those mice," said Hicks; "so they can't blame any of this on you." And it may be mentioned here that the investigation which followed came to nought.
Two days later Andy burst in on the others like a whirlwind, his face glowing with excitement.
"Come on downstairs, everybody!" he called out. "Colonel Colby has just arrived! Come on, and ask him what he can tell us about our fathers."
At this announcement there was a general stampede. All of the others dropped the textbooks they had been studying and made a simultaneous rush for the corridor and the stairs. Down, pell-mell, went the whole crowd, to join a group of cadets in the lower hall, everyone of whom was doing his best to shake Colonel Colby's hand first.
The owner of the school was dressed in his uniform as a United States officer, and looked taller and more bronzed than ever. His face wore a broad smile and he gave each of his pupils a hearty handshake.
"Oh, Colonel, we are so glad to see you back!" cried Jack, with genuine pleasure as he wrung the officer's hand. "And I hope you have good news of my father and my uncles?"
"I am as glad to see you as you are to see me, Captain Rover," returned Colonel Colby. "And it is a genuine pleasure to get back to this school after having endured such arduous days in France."