The students were, of course, in a blaze of excitement, and the instructors were hardly less disturbed. But the principal walked into their midst without any exclamations, with a step hardly more hurried than his usual pace, and there was nothing in the darkness that, could indicate the slightest disturbance in his manner. Though he was a cool man in a trying situation, as his early life on the seas had trained him to be, yet his stolidity was in some measure assumed. He believed, that, if a person in authority could not be calm, it was best for him to pretend to be so, for the benefit of others. Matt had adopted the suggestion of Dory, and departed in the Marian; but this was all the movement that had been made to meet the circumstances of the case. Dory and the boat's crew were the only absentees when the principal arrived. He looked about him; but he could only see dark forms around, with nothing but the dull light of the lantern Dory had left on the doorstone, to assist his vision. "There seems to be no fire, or even the smell of smoke here," said Captain Gildrock, as he came into the assemblage in front of the office. "No, sir: there is no fire," replied Mr. Jepson, who happened to be nearest to him when he halted. "It is robbery, and not fire." "Then, no one is in danger," added the principal, perhaps with a feeling of relief. "No one, unless it be the students who are looking for the robbers." "Of course, you heard the explosion, Captain Gildrock?" interposed Mr. Brookbine. "I have heard nothing but the ringing of the bell, for I am a sound sleeper at this time in the morning. What was the explosion?" asked the principal, as unmoved as though he had been questioning a class in the schoolroom. "The safe in the office has been blown up with a dynamite cartridge," replied Mr. Jepson. "I should have thought you would hear it, for it shook all the buildings in this part of the grounds." "Mrs. Dornwood heard it, but I did not," continued the principal, as he led the way into the office. He took the lantern in his hand as he advanced, and then asked the instructor in mechanics to light the lamps. While he was doing so, the captain examined the door of the office. It had been bored in several places around the lock, and then pried open. In the room, all was in a state of dire confusion. A large portion of the door of the safe had been blown off, and it was wide open. "These fellows understood their business," said Captain Gildrock, when he saw how effectual the explosion had been. "I think they rather overdid the business," added Mr. Jepson. "The cartridge must have been three times as big as was needed to blow off that lock, and that makes me think the burglars had not had much experience in the use of dynamite." "They evidently intended to use enough to tear off the door," replied the principal.