“Going to leave us here alone?” cried Sedley. “We are,” said Emerald. “Pleasant drames to ye!” “Just wait—we’ll square up!” growled Roy Bock. Then the Putnam Hall cadets took their departure. The phosphorus no longer showed on their hands and faces, and they put away the white sheets and hats for possible future use. “Can they really get out the back way?” asked Fred, as the party hurried for the night’s encampment. “Yes,” answered Bob. “But they’ll have to wade through water and mud up to their knees, and fight their way through a lot of wild blackberry bushes! They’ll be sights to see when they get back to Pornell!” The young quartermaster was right in his statement. The Bock crowd left the cave by the back way shortly after the departure of the Putnam Hall cadets. In the cut they had to walk in muddy water up to their knees, and once Sedley got stuck in the muck and his cronies had to pull him out. Bock fell down, and the mud entered his mouth and nose. Then all of the students got caught in the wild blackberry bushes and scratched themselves and tore their clothing. They did not get back to Pornell Academy until half-past seven o’clock in the morning, and were caught by a teacher just as they were trying to enter by a side door. “What in the world is the matter with you young gentlemen!” cried the teacher, as he beheld the mud and blood. “Have you been in a smash-up on the road?” “We—er—we were in the woods and got lost and—er—tumbled in a gully,” stammered Roy Bock. “That is too bad, Bock! Do you want a doctor?” “I—er—I guess not,” was the reply. Then the crowd hurried off to their rooms, while the teacher reported the matter to Doctor Pornell. Bock and his cronies thought they would escape punishment, but this was not to be. Later in the day Doctor Pornell received a stiff letter from Captain Putnam informing him of what had been done with the wagons, and stating he might possibly take the matter to court unless the guilty students were properly punished. This worried the head of the academy, and he had Bock and the others brought before him. Under sharp questioning they broke down, and Sedley and Carey confessed all. “I’ll look into this affair further,” said Doctor Pornell, and the next day he announced that those who were guilty were to have their holidays for that term cut off and were to do a number of extra lessons. He also made the crowd write a letter to Captain Putnam, apologizing for what they had done. Pepper and his friends returned to the encampment and got past the guards without trouble. The cadets were worn out by the day’s doings and once at rest slept “like tops,” as Fred expressed it. There was a little “horseplay” during the night, but none of the lads who had been out in the woods took part in it. In the morning it was whispered about how the Bock crowd had been treated, and many of the cadets said it served the Pornell students right.