"Well, I—eh?"
"I tell you the boot's on the other foot," said Dick confidently. "It's Union property that's being destroyed this moment, and you'll find it out to-morrow. Why don't you go in and report?"
The non-commissioned officer thought it best to act upon the suggestion. He ran into the building, and when he returned he was accompanied by the officer of the guard, who took a long look at the two fires before he went in to call the colonel. Then the latter hurried out and took a look, and the two talked in low, earnest tones; and although Dick and the corporal listened with all their ears, they could not catch a word that gave them a hint of the course they had decided to pursue. But they found out when the long roll echoed through the building, being followed almost immediately by a shuffling of feet which announced that the students were hastening to the armory. After five minutes or so of silence so deep that Dick could hear the beating of his own heart, two companies of boys, fully armed and equipped, marching four abreast and moving with a free, swinging stride that took them rapidly over the ground, emerged from the archway, passed through the gate and turned down the road leading to Barrington. At the same time a quartermaster-sergeant put ten rounds of ammunition into Dick's cartridge-box and ordered him to load his piece.
"Ball cartridges?" inquired Dick.
"Correct," replied the sergeant. "If you halt a fellow and he don't halt, these are the things that will make him halt."
"Say," whispered Dick. "Hang around a minute; I want to ask you a question or two."
The sergeant "hung around" until the officer of the guard started with the corporal to make his round of the posts, and then began without waiting for the sentry to question him.
"There isn't any thing to tell," said he. "The colonel made a little speech to the boys in which he said that some fanatics, who ought to be hanged without judge or jury, were destroying property in town, and it was our business to put a stop to it if we could. He sent two companies, and the others have been furnished with ball cartridges which they are to use on anybody who comes fooling around here."
"Did the colonel say who those fanatics were?" asked Dick.
"Eh? Course he didn't. We all know who they are."