“Oh, well, we didn’t put in much of a charge,” answered Andy. “It will make more of a sky-rocket effect than anything else. We’ll elevate it high into the air and have a barrel of fun when it goes off.”
The field piece to which the lads referred was one Colonel Colby had obtained from the Government after the close of the World War. It had been captured on the battlefront in France and the owner of Colby Hall was proud to have the piece planted at the corner of the school campus overlooking the lake. At first the cadets had been curious concerning this piece of artillery, but soon their interest flagged and few paid any attention to it. Then the idea entered Andy’s head to place a charge in the old piece and in case of a victory over Longley to discharge the same during the evening’s celebration. Fred and Jack had been called in consultation, but both had said that it would not be altogether safe to do this. Nevertheless, the twins had gone ahead and placed the charge in the piece when they thought nobody was looking.
“We’ve got to be careful, Andy, when we fire it,” cautioned his twin. “We can’t take too many chances on such a gun as that. It may have needed cleaning out when it was brought over here.”
“Oh, it will be all right,” was the ready reply. “There isn’t any ball or shot in it, or anything like that—it’s only a blank charge, one of those left over down in the powder house. Besides that, I’ve got a pretty long fuse, so we’ll not have to stand anywhere near the thing when it goes off.”
Making their way out of the crowd, the three Rover boys stole in the direction of the cannon. No one was near the piece, although they noticed that one of the other cadets was following them.
“Confound it, it’s Codfish! He’s always sneaking around to try to get something on us,” murmured Randy.
“Hi, Codfish! where are you going?” called out Fred sharply.
“None of your business,” retorted the sneak of the school, and then slunk back behind some bushes.
With only the fitful glare from the bonfires to light the way the three Rover boys advanced to the cannon and gave it a hasty inspection.