“The camp! The camp! The burglars are hiding in the camp! Don’t let them get out!”
Fortunately the sentry of the post had been at the other end of the path. There was no danger of his recognizing them, but he saw them cross his beat and vanish among the white tents. He heard the cry of “Burglars!” and as he came dashing down the path toward the spot his shouts ran out above the others:
“Corporal of the guard! Post number three!”
Camp McPherson was in an uproar ten seconds after that. The shouting awoke every cadet in the place and brought them all to their tent doors at a bound. The young corporal dashed out of the guard tent and around to the sentry’s aid, the tactical officer in command right at his heels with a clank of sword. At the same moment up rushed the crowd of excited half-clad men from the hotel.
“Burglars! Burglars! They’re hiding in the camp!”
The lieutenant (the tac) took in the situation in an instant. He dashed down the path, warning the sentries as he ran. The officer at the guard tent turned out the members of the guard a moment later and hurried them away to double the watch about the camp. At the same time the “long roll” was being sounded by a drum orderly up by the color line, summoning the cadets to form at once on the company street.
Truly those burglars were to have a hard time getting out of that trap, into which they had gotten so easily.
Meanwhile, what as to the Banded Seven? The time between when they entered camp and rushed into their two tents and when the company battalion formed was perhaps one minute. In that brief space the plebes had flung off their clothes and hid them feverishly under their blankets, then leaped into their uniforms and fallen into line. And that was the end of their danger.
The battalion once formed there was a hasty roll call, showing all present. And then began a search of the place. The officers, and some of the men from the hotel searched every tent, every spot within the camp. And when they found no burglars they gathered together and stared at each other and wondered how that could be. The tacs interviewed the sentries, and each swore that no burglars or any one else had run across their beats. After which came another search, and another failure, and more mystery.
That those burglars had been cadets on a lark no one dreamed. For they had been desperate-looking burglars, masked and armed. But where were they now?