"Not well—bad. I was caught."
"By whom?"
"Porter."
"Porter. Hum! Was he in earnest about it?"
"He seemed so," and Dick recounted the conversation.
"Well, there's something in what he says," agreed Paul. "Sentry-go is no fun, but as long as we're at a military school we have to do it once in a while. Still if enough of us enforced the rules, as I suppose we ought to do, there'd be one of two things happen. They'd either abolish it, or running the guard would stop, and there wouldn't be anything for the sentries to do."
"That's so. Well, I'm the goat to-night. Might as well have a bad job over with. I'm going to report."
"Then you didn't see Hatfield?"
"No, we'll have to wait until morning to hear."
Dick went off in no very happy frame of mind, and he was a little uneasy as to what form of punishment the major would mete out. But he was fortunate in finding that old soldier entertaining a war comrade in his room, and swapping campaign stories. The major was, therefore, in a very amiable mood, and after listening to Dick's frank report said: