CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIGHT AS REPORTED.
“It means that if the authorities at Hamilton need help in putting down that mob, we third company boys will have to give it,” said Egan, in reply to a question propounded to him by Captain Mack.
“What do you mean by we?” inquired the captain. “You don’t belong to my company.”
“Yes, I do, and so do Hop and Curtis,” answered Egan. “We intend to report for duty in the morning; and as long as this strike lasts, we are to stand post and do duty like the rest of the boys. We asked permission of the superintendent to-day, and he granted it.”
Of course he granted it. Faithful students, like these three boys, were allowed to do pretty nearly as they pleased. It was the idle and unruly who were denied privileges.
“I am glad to welcome such fellows as you are into my family,” said Captain Mack. “But why didn’t you go into the first company where you belong?”
“We belong wherever it suits us to go,” said Egan, in reply. “And it suits us to be with you and Don Gordon. Look here, Mack: If worst comes to worst, and the superintendent calls for volunteers, you be the first to jump. Do you hear? Good night and pleasant dreams.”
The students hastened back to their rooms, and feeling secure from an attack by the mob, the most of them slept; but their dreams, like Captain Mack’s, were none of the pleasantest. More than one of them started up in alarm, believing that he heard the order to fall in. They all expected it, and it came the next day about eleven o’clock, but the majority of the boys did not know it until dinner time; and then Don Gordon, who had been acting as the superintendent’s orderly that morning, rushed frantically about the building looking for Egan and the rest.
“The time has come, fellows,” said he, when he found them. “Some of us will have to face the music now.”