“Let go of me!” hissed Gabe Werner, as he turned swiftly to find himself in Jack’s embrace.
The flashlight had dropped to the ground and rolled under one of the cots. The young captain and the ex-lieutenant began to wrestle, and in doing this fell over on the cot occupied by Lieutenant Blake just as this lieutenant and Fred were awakening.
“Hi! what does this mean?” spluttered Tom Blake, as both Jack and Werner came down on top of him.
The combined weight of the three brought the cot down with a crash. In the meantime Fred had jumped up.
“Say, what’s all this row mean?” he demanded quickly.
“Here is a fellow who was going to play a dirty trick on us!” shouted Jack. “Grab him! Don’t let him get away!”
He said this because in the tumble his hold on Gabe had been somewhat lessened, and in the mix-up Werner was now endeavoring to slip out of his grasp. All had fallen to the ground, and the ex-lieutenant kicked out vigorously with his heavy shoes, landing one blow in Blake’s stomach, and the other on Jack’s knee.
It was so dark in the tent that but little could be seen, and as Fred made a leap forward he fell over somebody’s legs and went down. Then in the mix-up Blake got in the way, and both Jack and Fred grabbed him, each by an arm, thinking he was the intruder.
“Give in!” cried Jack sternly. “If you don’t, it will be the worse for you.”
“You’ve got the wrong man, Captain!” cried Blake. And then, as he was released, he added: “Wait until I make a light so that we can see what we are doing.”