“I am really afraid something has happened to them, Sam,” said Sergeant Gordon, as he and Corporal Arkwright paced up and down the walk in front of the guard-room in which sat the German professor, who was deeply interested in his paper. These two boys were on duty until midnight, and they wished they were going to stay on until morning, for they knew they could not sleep if they tried. “My brother promised to telegraph me just as soon as he reached the city,” continued Bert, “and he would surely have done so, if something had not occurred to——”
“Corporal of the guard, No. 1,” shouted the sentry at the gate.
“Zetz auber!” exclaimed the professor, throwing down his paper. “Go out dere, gorporal. Mebbe dot ish somedings from Meester Gellock.”
The corporal went, and Bert went with him. If there were a messenger-boy at the gate, his despatch might be from Don instead of Professor Kellogg; but there was no messenger-boy to be seen. On the opposite side of the tall, iron gate were a couple of men who peered through the bars occasionally, and then looked behind and on both sides of them as if to make sure that there was no one watching their movements.
“These fellows affirm that they are just from the city,” said the sentry, in a husky and trembling voice. “They have brought bad news. They say that our boys were cut all to pieces by the rioters.”
Bert’s heart seemed to stop beating. Without waiting to ask the sentry any questions, he passed on to the gate and waited for the men to speak to him. He could not have said a word to them to save his life.
“We thought we had better come up here and let you know about it,” said one of the visitors, at length. “The strikers are awful mad, and declare they are going to burn the academy.”
“Who are you?” demanded Bert, after he had taken time to recover his breath.
“We’re strikers, but we’re friends,” was the answer. “We live here in Bridgeport and had to strike with the rest to escape getting our heads broken. We saw the fight to-night, but we didn’t take any part in it.”
“The fight?” gasped Bert.