He was a man of discipline, and had trained the students to fire-duty. His sister had mentioned the explosion, but she could not tell any thing about it, except that it was a loud noise. The principal hastened from the house as soon as he could leave Mrs. Dornwood, and he expected to discover the light of the fire as soon as he reached the main avenue that extended through the grounds.
He saw nothing to throw any light on his path, or on the cause of the alarm. When he reached the shops, he found a crowd there, and realized that he was about the last one to reach the scene of the disturbance. There was no fire, and this fact stimulated his curiosity. The bell was to be rung at night, only in case of fire; and it had been pealing out its notes for some time before his arrival.
The students were, of course, in a blaze of excitement, and the instructors were hardly less disturbed. But the principal walked into their midst without any exclamations, with a step hardly more hurried than his usual pace, and there was nothing in the darkness that, could indicate the slightest disturbance in his manner. Though he was a cool man in a trying situation, as his early life on the seas had trained him to be, yet his stolidity was in some measure assumed. He believed, that, if a person in authority could not be calm, it was best for him to pretend to be so, for the benefit of others.
Matt had adopted the suggestion of Dory, and departed in the Marian; but this was all the movement that had been made to meet the circumstances of the case. Dory and the boat's crew were the only absentees when the principal arrived. He looked about him; but he could only see dark forms around, with nothing but the dull light of the lantern Dory had left on the doorstone, to assist his vision.
"There seems to be no fire, or even the smell of smoke here," said Captain Gildrock, as he came into the assemblage in front of the office.
"No, sir: there is no fire," replied Mr. Jepson, who happened to be nearest to him when he halted. "It is robbery, and not fire."
"Then, no one is in danger," added the principal, perhaps with a feeling of relief.
"No one, unless it be the students who are looking for the robbers."
"Of course, you heard the explosion, Captain Gildrock?" interposed Mr. Brookbine.
"I have heard nothing but the ringing of the bell, for I am a sound sleeper at this time in the morning. What was the explosion?" asked the principal, as unmoved as though he had been questioning a class in the schoolroom.