"See it, don't you?" said Dick. "Well, now, look over that way, and tell me if there isn't another just breaking out." Dick pointed toward the woods, which were so thick that not the first glimmer of light could come through them, and although the corporal bent almost to the ground and twisted himself into all sorts of uncomfortable shapes, he was obliged to confess that he could not see anything that looked like a fire. "I'm sure I saw it not more than a minute ago," said Dick, who, of course, did not tell the corporal that he had been several yards from his post when he saw it. "Perhaps if you go across the road you can get a view of it." The corporal went, and one look was enough to satisfy him. When he returned he was highly excited. "The niggers are at it, sure as you live," said he. "That's right in range of Mr. Riley's house." "Too far to the right for that," replied the sentry. "Looks to be more like Elder Bowen's." "It can't be," exclaimed the corporal incredulously. "The negroes wouldn't hurt him." "No; but the secessionists might." "Well, I--eh?" "I tell you the boot's on the other foot," said Dick confidently. "It's Union property that's being destroyed this moment, and you'll find it out to-morrow. Why don't you go in and report?" The non-commissioned officer thought it best to act upon the suggestion. He ran into the building, and when he returned he was accompanied by the officer of the guard, who took a long look at the two fires before he went in to call the colonel. Then the latter hurried out and took a look, and the two talked in low, earnest tones; and although Dick and the corporal listened with all their ears, they could not catch a word that gave them a hint of the course they had decided to pursue. But they found out when the long roll echoed through the building, being followed almost immediately by a shuffling of feet which announced that the students were hastening to the armory. After five minutes or so of silence so deep that Dick could hear the beating of his own heart, two companies of boys, fully armed and equipped, marching four abreast and moving with a free, swinging stride that took them rapidly over the ground, emerged from the archway, passed through the gate and turned down the road leading to Barrington. At the same time a quartermaster-sergeant put ten rounds of ammunition into Dick's cartridge-box and ordered him to load his piece. "Ball cartridges?" inquired Dick. "Correct," replied the sergeant. "If you halt a fellow and he don't halt, these are the things that will make him halt." "Say," whispered Dick. "Hang around a minute; I want to ask you a question or two." The sergeant "hung around" until the officer of the guard started with the corporal to make his round of the posts, and then began without waiting for the sentry to question him.