“Fly, fly for your lives!”
“He’s got a knife. Help!”
“Hold him there. Grab that arm. Look out! He’s loose again!”
A moment later a scared white face appeared in the opening. It was one of the yearlings and he glanced about him in alarm. A moment later he swung himself out, dropped to the ground, and fled wildly into the woods.
He had scarcely emerged before another followed, equally as scared. The cries and shouts ceased as abruptly as they began and the astounded plebes stood by and watched one by one the almost hysterical cadets leap out of the black cavern. Without a single exception they stopped to speak to no one, to look at no one, but dashed away into the woods as if they had but one thought on earth—to get away from the spot. Their terror was so great that nobody stopped to help anybody else; as for the plebes standing nearby, nobody seemed even to see them.
It was all over in a very few seconds. Mark tried to stop one of them, but the frightened cadet wrenched free and dashed on.
They were battered and cut, their uniforms in tatters. Rogers was bleeding from a wound in the arm and almost blind with fright as he darted away.
After he was gone the place grew as silent as a grave. The amazed plebes huddled together and stared at the hole, racking their brains to think of what that most extraordinary occurrence could mean. They half expected something to emerge, a wild animal, perhaps; but nothing of the kind took place; the cave was black and still as ever. The woods grew silent, too, as soon as the frightened yearlings had disappeared. Nothing more occurred to explain the uncanny adventure.
Mark had been staring at his companions with a puzzled look upon his face. They might have sat thus and stared at each other for an hour, such was their consternation, had it not been for the fact that it was then late in the afternoon and very near the time for dress parade. Accordingly, they had to set out for camp, which ended the matter for that day.
“But I’ll tell you this much,” was Mark’s verdict, “there’s a good deal more mystery about that cave than you and I have the least idea of.”