On staggered Dick with his burden. Grit saw his master in the now dimming light from the fire, and barked joyfully. "Back! Get back everybody!" panted the young millionaire. "She's going up! There's a fire inside! Get back--quick!" CHAPTER XIV THE ELECTION Dick was seen to stagger, and it was no wonder, for Ray Dutton was no light weight. "Let me help you!" shouted Paul, as he ran toward his chum. He grasped the limp legs of the unconscious cadet, while Dick carried the shoulders, and together they hastened on. "Back! Get back!" cried Dick again, as his schoolmates crowded up around him and Paul. "The explosion will come any minute! There's fire in there!" "Back this instant, every one of you! You can't do anything more!" cried Colonel Masterly sternly, and the boys knew it was now time to obey. Those holding the hose lines dropped them, and the crowd of fire-fighters surged back. "Is Dutton dead?" gasped Paul. "Not dead--and not hurt much, I hope," answered Dick. "He was overcome by the powder fumes--there was a little explosion almost as soon as he got inside--some sparks must have blown in the window. But he saved Grit." "And you saved him." "Come on, we'd better get farther back!" cried the young millionaire as Paul hesitated, and was about to lay Dutton down. "The force of it will----" His voice was drowned in a detonating report, and the darkness of the night was lighted by an intense glare. The powder house had blown up, and the wind of the concussion knocked down Paul and Dick in a heap with the unconscious Dutton. Other cadets who had not run far enough back were also bowled over. Then came intense blackness, following the bright flash and this was succeeded by the patter of small missiles tossed into the air by the force of the powder. "Jove, I hope none of the chunks of concrete come this way!" cried Paul as he got up. "Are you hurt, Dick?" "Not a bit of it. Look at Dutton though." "He doesn't seem to be," answered Paul, as he looked at the unconscious cadet as well as he could in the dim light that came from a few scattered and burning embers blown here and there by the explosion. "Oh--I'm--I'm all right," gasped Dutton, as he slowly sat up. "What happened?" "My it sounds good to hear you speak again!" cried Dick, as he put his arms around his friend and assisted him to arise. "You were overcome in there when you went in to get Grit, and I took you out. Now the whole thing has gone up, but it doesn't seem to have done much damage." Scores of cadets now crowded around the three lads. The rain of missiles had ceased, and quick inquiries showed that beyond a few scratches or bruises no one was seriously hurt. The heavy concrete side of the walls of the powder house had merely toppled outward, almost in four solid pieces, and it was only the light wooden roof, purposely made so, that had been much shattered. It was the fragments of this that had rained down.