"There," said Dixon soothingly. "I told you you shouldn't be hurt if you obey orders without making any fuss. Now come with us, and don't speak above a whisper." "What do you reckon the kurn'll do to me?" inquired Caleb, who could scarcely have been more frightened if the students had threatened him as Bud Goble had threatened Rodney and Dick. "He'll not do the first thing to you," Billings assured him. "Why should he when you come here as a friend to those two prisoners? We'll see you safe outside the gate as soon as the officers are through questioning you." "An' will you-uns give me the money?" asked Caleb. "If you don't, them boys is bound to get whopped." "Did Bud say so?" "He made that same remark. An' he said, furder, that if I wasn't back by sun-up with the hunderd dollars, he would know you-uns had held fast to me, an' then he would lick 'em, sure hope to die." "I promise you that you shall be back there before sunrise," said Dixon significantly. "We can't permit those fellows to be whipped on account of a joke, and we won't, either. You are quite sure you can go straight to him?" Yes, Caleb was sure he could do that; and then his conductors, who had all the while held fast to his arms, halted in front of Captain Wilson, the officer of the guard, who chanced to be pacing back and forth in front of the tent. The captain listened in amazement while the boys told their story, and the light from the tent showed that there was a shade of anxiety on his face when he inquired: "Where did you find this man?" "Outside the grounds, sir," Dixon promptly responded. "And what were you doing outside the grounds at this hour, when you know that such a thing is positively forbidden?" continued the officer severely. "I had started for Barrington, sir," answered Marcy. "The commandant wouldn't give me a chance to ask permission to go." "And so you went without it?" "Yes, sir, I did. I was resolved to learn something about Rodney and Dick before I slept." "I shall be obliged to shut you up," said the captain. "Very good, sir," replied Marcy. "But how about Rodney and Dick? Is that villain Goble to be permitted to abuse them as he pleases?" "I am surprised at your insolence, Private Gray," said the officer sternly. "Go inside the tent under arrest." Marcy went, and all the boys, as well as Caleb Judson, went in with him, and Captain Wilson hastened away to lay the matter before the colonel. "Now, I'll tell you what's a fact," said Marcy. "Captain Wilson would do something for those boys if he were in command, but the colonel will not do the first thing." "So be it," answered Billings. "Then we'll see whether or not the fellows will do something. They are not the lads I take them for if they do not rally on center the minute they find out how the land lies."