“Thanks, old man. I was hoping you would offer. And I’d like to have you go to Garrison with me in case we get a chance.”
“I’ll do that, too. Now let’s go all over the ground, and see if we’ve left our flank unguarded anywhere. We’ve got to make this a sort of ambushed attack at first, until we see how strong the enemy really is. So we’ll do a little mental scouting in advance.”
“Good!” cried Tom. “Anybody would think, if they didn’t know you, that you knew a little about military matters.”
“Wouldn’t they!” laughed Sam.
Together they went over the matter point by point, and bit by bit. There was much dependent on chance, of course, but that could not be helped. The success of the whole plan lay in finding out when Captain Hawkesbury went to Garrison to keep the appointment with Aaron Doolittle. Then would come the matter of following him.
“It will be soon, I’m thinking,” Tom said. “He wouldn’t wait long on such an important matter as that. He may go over this afternoon.”
“It will be easy for us if he does,” Sam said. “We can get leave of absence more easily now than almost any other time.”
“Yes,” agreed Tom, who was thinking deeply.
It was not so difficult as it might seem at first glance, to find out when Captain Hawkesbury left the Academy. The goings and comings of the military men, as well as those of the cadets, was governed more or less by rules and regulations. Tom thought he could find out within a few minutes after the captain had left.
To do this he had to get the information from one of the servants employed in the building where the Captain had his quarters. But Tom was not going to stop at a little thing like that at this stage of the proceedings. Accordingly he made his plan.