“The plebes!”
“Up there, do you mean?”
“Yes, I think so. Come on, hurry up.”
The cadets leaped up as one man and hastily slipped into their uniforms. A few minutes later they, too, stole out of camp. But it was in the opposite direction! They were going to Highland Falls!
It is needless to say that the cadets were Rogers and his crowd; it is likewise needless to say that their action meant trouble of some kind for our friends, the plebes.
The latter, of course, were altogether unaware of that. Having safely reached Fort Clinton, they stole across the inclosure and made their way swiftly around past Trophy Point and the old graveyard, and so out into the woods beyond. Once there they stopped just long enough to light two or three lanterns they had and then hurried on their journey.
It was quite a silent party. The plebes felt rather solemn on the whole, for there was no one of them who failed to realize that a very serious adventure might result from their trip. How many of them wished they hadn’t come may not be said, but it is certain that Indian whispered “Bless my soul!” at least “a thirty-four to the minute stroke,” as Dewey phrased it; also that Dewey himself got off no more than two jokes all the way. In fact, the only person who seemed at all inclined to talk was our old friend, the Parson.
The Parson was a man who felt with real earnestness that he had a serious duty to perform during “this life temporal,” that duty was the dissemination of knowledge, and the Parson never lost a chance to work in a few instructive remarks—philosophical, moral or scientific—upon every possible occasion. So when other people were quiet the Parson saw a chance that he never failed to utilize.
The subjects for that night’s discourse chanced to be geological. The Parson talked on the question of alluvial deposits, the forces of denudation and sedimentation, etc. He gave very accurately the various authoritative hypotheses as to the thickness of strata in the Hudson River Valley. In fact, there is no telling what knowledge he would not have imparted by the end of the trip if it had not been for an unforeseen occurrence which deprived the Seven of the Parson’s company for the rest of that night.
It appeared that when they had come to about halfway to their destination the Parson, who could not lose his habits of observation even in the night time (like the wise old owl he was), suddenly stopped and with a startled exclamation pointed to the ground at one side.