There was some one in the hall, beyond a doubt. It might be one of the students, roused, like himself, by the explosion; or it might be an evil-doer from outside of the fold. Dory opened the door again, and thrust the lamp out into the hall, so as to light every part of it. The person in the hall proved to be Matt Randolph. CHAPTER IV. THE SCENE OF OPERATIONS. "Did you hear it, Dory?" called Matt Randolph, as soon as he saw the light at the door of the other. "Did I hear it?" replied Dory, who was cool enough to smile at the absurdity of the question, though it was nothing more than the introduction to the subject in the minds of both. "I could not very well help hearing it, though I sleep as soundly as a bullfrog in winter." "What was it?" demanded Matt, apparently more excited than Dory. "That's the conundrum before the house at the present moment. I have not the least idea what it was," replied Dory. "It shook my windows, and at first I thought my bed was lifted up under me. It might have been an earthquake, though such convulsions are not the fashion in the State of Vermont." "I thought it must be an earthquake at first," added Matt. "Did you alter your mind?" asked Dory, as he stepped back into his room, and put on his shoes. "Not exactly; but on second thought I concluded that it could not be an earthquake, and I was wondering what it could be, when I heard a door open," added Matt, who was fully dressed, for he had taken the time to put on his clothes before he came out of his room. "I move you, Captain Randolph, that we don't try to imagine what it was, but that we go and look into the matter, and find out what it was," replied Dory, as he put on his coat, and led the way to the hall. "That is the sensible thing to do; but a fellow can't expect to be very bright when he is shaken out of his slumbers by something like an earthquake," said Matt, as he followed Dory. By this time several of the students had recovered, in a measure, from their consternation, and had opened their doors, some of them shaking with terror, as though they expected to be swallowed up immediately in some awful catastrophe. "What is the matter, Dory?" Tucker Prince asked, as the two coxswains passed his door. "Give it up, Tuck: ask me something easier," replied Dory, laughing. "I may be able to tell you something about it at a later hour in the morning." "What was it, Dory?" asked Tom Topover. "It was a tremendous noise; and that is all that is known about it at the present moment, on this floor of the dormitory." "I knew as much as that before," added Tom. "Then, you are as wise as any of us, Tom."