That is, all of them but one; Sleepy was that one. The lanky farmer was a member of the guard that day, getting his first lessons in the terrible dangers of sentry duty at Camp McPherson. Now it was necessary for some one to go up and fix that cave for the night’s work, and since Sleepy succeeded in getting excused during his four hours off duty that afternoon, he was unanimously elected to be the one to attend to the task.
It was to clear away the effects of that treasure hunt that Sleepy went. He removed all traces of the Parson’s energetic digging. Also he fixed quite a number of other things, according to Mark’s well-planned directions.
“It’s evident to me,” said Mark, “from the fact that Bull didn’t bother me this morning, hating me most, as he does, that he’s putting up a plan for to-night.”
“He’s afraid to tackle you in the day,” growled Texas.
“I should say so,” chirruped Indian’s fat, round voice. “Didn’t you lick him once, and the whole crowd besides. Bless my soul!”
“I think,” continued Mark, “that we may take it for granted that Bull will try to kidnap me to-night. You know they did that once, took me off into the woods and beat me. They’ll beat harder this time. If a big crowd of them tries it you fellows’ll just have to make a noise and wake everybody so that they’ll have to drop me and run for their tents. But if there’s only a few you can follow and overpower them. It all depends.”
Texas rubbed his hands gleefully at this attractive programme.
“What are we a-goin’ to do when we ketch ’em?” he demanded.
“You leave that to me,” laughed Mark, rising from his seat to end the “conference.” “I’ve got a scheme fixed up to frighten them to death. Just wait.”
“Just wait” seemed to represent about all there was to do, though the Seven did not like it a bit. They watched dress parade that evening with far less interest than usual, and sighed with relief when the sunset gun finally sounded. It may be interesting to note that there were some other cadets in just exactly the same impatient state of mind.