In the darkness they could not see his face, but his uniform and figure they knew. It was Lieutenant Allen! And in his hand he held a notebook, upon which he was calmly jotting down the names of the cadets he saw!
It was all over a moment or two later. The horrified lads realized their ruin, and one idea flashed over every one of them. Perhaps he hasn’t recognized me yet! And then as one man they leaped to their feet and made a dash for the darkness of the trees. Their feast they left half finished behind them.
And a minute later six chuckling plebes came forth and joined “Allen” in capturing the spoils.
CHAPTER XXIV.
A TERRIBLE REVENGE.
You could not imagine seven more altogether delighted lads if you tried for a month. Once they had made sure that the enemy was gone for certain they swiftly went wild. Their plot had worked so perfectly! And so suddenly and completely! They danced about and hugged each other and yelled for joy—all of them but the frugal Indian, who was busily stowing away his double share of the provisions.
“We’re perfectly safe,” laughed Mark. “For the yearlings won’t dare return.”
That proved to be a correct guess. Bull and his crowd were so horror-struck and subdued by that terrible ending of their fun that they stole back to camp like so many whipped curs.
And meanwhile just make believe those wicked plebes didn’t go for the victuals. There was enough left for twice as many, even if they had all been like Indian. Even the Parson, who usually didn’t believe in “irrational gourmandizing,” forgot his dignity so far as to take a pumpkin pie in one hand and a piece of fruit cake in the other and try to eat them both at once, which he found almost as difficult as the impossible feat of drinking two glasses of water together.
For the next five minutes everybody devoted himself strictly to the duty of eating, excepting when some one of them would find it necessary to sink back on the ground and explode in laughter. In that condition we must leave them and return to camp, where interesting things were happening, things which were destined to reproduce on that ill-fated picnic ground another exact reproduction of “Belshazzar’s Feast.”