Then came “B’gee” Dewey, light-hearted, with a laugh that put everybody in a good humor. Not so Bull; Dewey had once had the nerve to refuse to climb a tree because Bull said to, and had given Bull two black eyes during the scrimmage that followed. Besides these there were “Chauncey, the dude,” and “Sleepy, the farmer,” who had once attacked Bull and five other yearlings, and who, besides this, had dared to join Mallory’s gang, an unpardonable offense anyhow. Bull Harris had much to revenge, but he thought he was about to make up for all of it in a very brief time.
The day passed without incident to interest us. It was the usual routine of duty for the plebes, with much drilling and very little rest. Grace Fuller kept some one watching Chandler all day with no result; and that is all there is to be said.
The plot began to unfold itself that night, however. Chandler strolled in to see Bull after supper, a fact which the Seven noticed with no small amount of glee.
“He’s fixing up something for to-night,” they whispered.
That seemed to be the state of affairs for a fact, and the Seven made a compact then and there to stay awake and prevent it if it was the last thing they ever did in their lives.
That is, all of them but one. The one was the Parson. The Parson, it appeared, had been “geologizing” during the morning; he had secured some extraordinary specimens of rocks. There were pyrites and fluorites, belemnites and ammonites, hematites, andalusies and goniatites, to say nothing of Hittites and Jebusites, added by the facetious Dewey, with outasites and gottabites. However that may be, Parson Stanard had found a piece of “horn-blend, with traces of potassium nitrate manifested.” So extraordinary a phenomenon as that could not be allowed to pass unnoticed, especially for any quantity of ordinary twenty-two carat gold, with no interest to the chemist whatsoever. The Parson vowed he was going to analyze that specimen that evening as soon as camp was quiet.
Dewey suggested that evening ought to be pretty good time to test for “nitrates,” whereupon the Parson turned away with a solemn look of pain and fell to examining his chemicals. The Parson had discovered a loose board in the flooring of his tent, and with true Bostonian originality he had hidden all his specimens and apparatus under that; the Texan’s revolvers were there, too, making a most interesting collection of articles altogether.
We must go on to the adventures of the evening. The Parson’s chemistry was destined to play a most important part in the affair, but not just at present.
Tattoo sounded, calling the cadets to roll call and bed; taps comes half an hour later, “lights out and all quiet.” Then the “tac” inspected and went to bed also, after which the Parson got up, let down his tent walls, lighted his candle, and set out his array of test-tubes and reagents. Then also Texas got up and stole out of the tent, past the sentry, and over to the hotel.
It had been agreed that the place was to be watched from the distance every moment that night. Texas had put in a claim to be first, and he was on his way to spend an hour hiding in the bushes. Chandler and Bull Harris weren’t going to remove that treasure without a “scrap.”