"And get the lasting ill-will of the boys?" said Atwater. "We can't afford that." The captain's tent was surrounded. Knives were drawn. Then, at a concerted signal, the ropes supporting the tent were cut. At the same time the captain's bed, which made a convenient protuberance in the side of the tent, was seized and tipped over, while tent-pole, canvas, and all, came down upon him in a mass. "Help! guard! help!" he shrieked, struggling under the heap. At the instant a large pile of straw, belonging to the quartermaster's department close by, burst forth in a sheet of flame which illumined the camp with its glare. The boys now ran to their tents, laughing at the plight of their captain, as he issued, furious, from the ruins. Frank began to run too; but thinking that this would be considered an indication of guilt, he stopped. Atwater was at his side. "We are caught," said Atwater, coolly. "There's the guard." And he folded his arms under his cape and waited. "What shall we do?" said Frank, in great distress, not that he feared the advancing bayonets, but he remembered John Winch's arrest, and dreaded a similar degradation. "There are two of them," said the half-dressed captain, pointing out Frank and his friend to the officer of the guard. In his excitement he would have had them hurried off at once to the guard-tent. But fortunately the colonel of the regiment, who had been writing late in his tent, heard the alarm, and was already on the spot. He regarded the prisoners by the light of the burning straw. Frank, recovering from the trepidation of finding himself for the first time surrounded by a guard, and subject to a serious accusation returned his look with a face beaming with courage and innocence. The colonel smiled. "Have you been meddling with Captain ----'s bed and cutting his tent down?" he asked. "No, sir," said Frank, with a mien which bore witness to the truth. "Do you know who set that fire?" "No, sir." "What are you out of your tent for?" "I came to see the fun, sir. If it was wrong I am very sorry." "What fun?" "The boys were going to have some fun; I didn't know what, and I came to see." "What boys?" "All the boys in our company." "Which of them did the things your captain complains of?" "I don't know, sir. They were all together; and who tipped the bed, or cut the ropes, or set the fire, I can't tell." "It seems they were all concerned, then." "No, sir, not all. Some did the mischief, and the rest looked on." "Did this person with you do any of the mischief?" "No, sir; he was with me all the time, and we kept out of it." "How happens it, then, that only you two are caught?" "All the rest ran." "And why didn't you run?" "We had not been doing anything to run for," said Frank, with convincing sincerity. Atwater was then questioned, and gave similar answers.