“Young sheltemans,” panted the professor, stopping in front of the squad which Captain Mack had halted and brought to a front preparatory to breaking ranks,“I use to could go double quick so good like de pest of you ven I vas in mine good Brussia fighting mit unser Fritz; but I peen not a good boy for running not now any more. Vere is Sergeant Gordon?”
“Here, sir,” replied Bert, stepping up and saluting.
“Vell, vere ish dat young rascals—vat you call him—Hukkins?”
“He has gone to Oxford, sir,” said Bert, who then went on to repeat the substance of his conversation with the detective. Now and then his eyes wandered toward the boys in the ranks, who came so near making him laugh in the professor’s face that he was obliged to turn his back toward them. They were indulging in all sorts of pranks calculated to show their utter disapproval of the whole proceeding. Don was humped up like old Jordan, the negro he had so often personated; Hopkins was mimicking the professor; Egan, who had assumed a very wise expression of countenance, was checking off Bert’s remarks on his fingers; Curtis was watching for a chance to snatch an apple from the stand behind him; while Captain Mack held himself in readiness to drop a piece of ice down his back the very moment he attempted it. These boys all liked the professor in spite of his pomposity and his constant allusions to his military record, but they would have been much better satisfied if he had remained at the academy. If they had taken time to consider the matter, they would have seen very clearly that the superintendent had acted for the best, and that he would not have showed any degree of prudence if he had left them to pursue and capture the deserter alone and unaided. There was no play about this, and besides Huggins was something worse than a deserter.
Just then the whistle of an approaching train was heard; whereupon Captain Mack was ordered to break ranks and procure tickets for himself and his party, Bert included. This done they boarded the cars, and in a few minutes more were speeding away toward Oxford.
“I don’t at all like this way of doing business,” observed Captain Mack, who occupied a seat with Bert. “I am not personally acquainted with Huggins, but if there is any faith to be put in his appearance, he is nobody’s fool. He’ll not go to Oxford after stealing that money. If he went this way, he will stop off at some little station, buy another suit of clothes and keep dark until he thinks the matter has had time to blow over.”
“Perhaps you had better say as much to the professor,” suggested Bert.
“Not I!” replied Captain Mack, with a laugh and a knowing shake of his head. “I have no desire to give him a chance to turn his battery of broken English loose on me. He has done it too many times already. While I am very anxious that Huggins should be caught and the money recovered, I can see as much fun in riding about the country as I can in drilling; and if the professor wants to spend a week or two on a wild-goose chase, it is nothing to me. I put in some good solid time with my books last vacation, and I am three months ahead of my class.”
The captain was right when he said that Huggins did not look like anybody’s fool, and he wasn’t, either. When he first made up his mind to desert the academy, he laid his plans just as he told them to Lester Brigham; but one morning an incident occurred that caused him to make a slight change in them. He saw Lester go to his trunk and take a five-dollar bill from a well-filled pocket-book which he kept hidden under his clothing. The sight of it suggested an idea to Huggins—one that frightened him at first, but after he had pondered upon it for a while and dreamed about it a few times, it became familiar to him, and he ceased to look upon it as a crime.