Everything being in readiness, the company moved out of the armory, and, led by the band, took up its line of march for the depot, the four dignified professors, who were to represent the faculty at the coming banquet, riding sedately at a respectful distance in a close carriage. When the ponderous iron gates closed behind the company, Don Gordon, for the first time, found himself in command of the academy battalion. Before twenty-four hours more had passed over his head, he declared, with much gesticulation and many expletives, that if he had possessed the full powers of a military commander he would have court-martialed and hanged a score or more of fellows, who that night performed an exploit that astonished everybody. It did more; it struck everybody motionless and speechless with amazement, and, what was rather singular, the particulars of it had the same effect upon all who heard them. The listener first looked and acted as if he could not believe the evidence of his senses, and then threw back his head and gave expression to his feelings in a hearty peal of merriment. Even Don Gordon, angry as he was, rolled on his bed and laughed until his sides ached and his eyes were filled with tears.
The students enjoyed their ride to Hamilton, and made noise enough for so many veteran soldiers. When the train approached the city limits they quieted down, drew on their white gloves, picked up their valises, and held themselves in readiness to disembark as soon as they received the word of command.
“Dayton,” said Captain Walker to his first lieutenant, “you get the boys out of the cars, and I will go with Mack and the president to hunt up Blake and see where the music is. As soon as I find it, I will come back to you.”
“It seems to me that it would have been the right thing for that band to pipe up as soon as our train came within sight of the depot,” observed Dayton. “We pay them for blowing for us, and we want to get all the music we can out of them. They ought to give us our money’s worth; doesn’t it strike you that way?”
Captain Walker said it did, adding that he thought there was something strange about it. Colonel Mack and the anxious president thought and said the same. Looking out at the car windows as the train moved slowly into the depot, they could see that there were many people moving about, but there was not a cadet gray or a union blue overcoat in sight; and the big building, which ought to have been resounding to the enlivening strains of martial music, echoed only to the murmur of voices and the tread of hurrying feet.
“I don’t understand this matter at all,” exclaimed the president, as he and his two companions sprang from the car and looked around for the faithful and energetic chairman of the committee of arrangements.
“There’s something wrong,” observed Mack, who had a way of looking disagreeable things in the face.
“For goodness sake, don’t say that,” replied Captain Walker, whose countenance had assumed a very serious expression during the last few minutes.
“Well, then, where is Blake?” demanded Mack. “You never knew him to slip up like this before, did you? It is true that committees and bands of music have been behind time before to-day, but somehow——”
Mack did not finish the sentence, but what he didn’t say was much more expressive than what he did say. With one accord the three boys hurried toward the waiting-room. The first familiar face they saw as they entered it was that of one of the “nobby” staff officers of the Sixty-first—one of the hundred and fifty who had returned a favorable reply to their invitation. The boys thought it high time he was in uniform if he intended to help them eat their dinner, but here he was in citizen’s clothes! And the papers and blank-books he carried in his hand seemed to indicate that he was attending to business. When he saw Mack and his companions approaching, he stopped and looked at them in the greatest astonishment.