“I saw them,” declared Bull. “I was hunting for them, too. They were dressed just as the paper said. And you’d better hurry.”
Without another word he turned and started ahead through the woods; the sheriff and his excited posse followed at his heels.
They hurried along rapidly, making for the cave. They went on for a mile, nobody saying a word, all watching eagerly. The mile stretched out to nearly two miles, and the sheriff began to get impatient. He stared at Bull doubtfully, gripping his shotgun. And then suddenly in the path ahead a wall of rock loomed up, just visible in the faint light. It was in that rock that the cavern lay.
And backed up against the wall, staring at the party in amazement and alarm were seven figures, the lunatics.
The sheriff swung his gun up to his shoulder.
“In the name of the law,” he shouted, “I command you to surrender! Hold up your hands!”
CHAPTER X.
THE JAIL AT HIGHLAND FALLS.
You may imagine the consternation of our friends, the plebes. The whole thing had come with such horrible suddenness that they were completely taken aback, and helpless. The sheriff’s gun looked so huge and menacing that it took all their nerve. Even Texas, hero of a hundred fights, did not dare to move an arm. Experience had taught Texas that a hold up was a hold up, a thing that could no more be resisted than a sudden stroke of lightning. And therefore, though he had a huge revolver in each hip pocket, he merely flung up his hands and stared.
It was an awful situation. It took the unfortunate lads some time to realize it in its full horror. Here they were, cadets, wandering about during the forbidden hours of night. And here was a sheriff with all the power of the law at his back, arresting them as lunatics! He would take them to jail. Keep them there all night! And in the morning would come reveille, and then——