cats and
separate the fighting professors, he bounded up the stairs and hurried
to the room occupied by Barney and Hans, where he removed every
crawfish he could find in the beds or upon the floor. He worked with
great swiftness, and accomplished all this in a very few seconds.

In the meantime, some of the boys who had been in the joke from the
start, took hold and aided Frank to clear out all signs of the
crawfish, while others hastened to Professor Gunn's assistance, and
pulled off the cats, removing the string from their tails.

Barney and Hans were beginning to call for the doctor again, declaring
they had been bitten by "centibedes," or "cintipades," and Professor
Gunn was glaring over a handkerchief held to his bleeding face, while
High Jinks and Hot Scotch stood apart and glowered at each other, ready
to resume hostilities at the slightest provocation.

Lieutenant Gordan was on hand, looking very stern, and asking a few
very pointed questions. He fully understood a practical joke had been
perpetrated, and woe to the perpetrator if the lieutenant found proof
against him. Gordan was stern and as unwavering as the hills in the
discharge of his duty.

But the lieutenant found five very excited and incoherent persons in
the group that had assembled at the foot of the stairs. Professors
Jenks and Scotch would not say much of anything, only mutter and glare
daggers at each other, while Professor Gunn was too furious and too
confused to tell anything straight. Barney and Hans declared over and
over that they had been bitten by "centipedes," and showed the wounds.
The jumbled story told by them puzzled the lieutenant more than
anything else.

Having been released, the cats had taken flight.

Lieutenant Gordan did not say much, but the expression on his face told
that he meant to investigate the affair thoroughly. The time, however,
was not suitable for an investigation, and so he ordered everybody to
their rooms. Barney called for a drink of milk and vinegar, but the
lieutenant assured him that he was not in danger of dying immediately
if he did not obtain what he desired, so both the Irish lad and the
Dutch boy were sent to their rooms, like the others.

In a brief time silence settled over the academy, and no one could have
fancied there had been such an uproar there a short while before.

In the morning, Bartley said to Frank.

"What in the world has got into you, old man? You are full of the Old
Ha