e disused horse stalls."

"And you mean to say he used your uniform in stealing into the school?"
asked Spouter.

"That's it. I didn't know it at the time, because he went to another part
of the barn where I couldn't see him. But later on, when he brought the
uniform back, he told me all about it. He thought he had been wonderfully
slick."

"Why didn't you expose him at once?" demanded Jack.

"He told me that if I exposed him he would tell the authorities that I
had planned the whole scheme and that I had done most of the work myself.
He said some one had seen him in the uniform scooting from one room to
another, so that the report would circulate that some cadet was guilty.
He got me so worked up that at last I promised to keep quiet."

"And had he really robbed your room, too?" demanded Fred.

"Yes. I lost my stuff just as I reported. Oh, you can't imagine how I
felt!" went on Brassy Bangs in a hopeless tone of voice. "Many a time I
thought I'd go to Colonel Colby and confess everything. But then I
thought they would bring that old charge of barn-burning up against me,
as well as the charge of helping in the robbery, and I didn't have nerve
enough to say a word. Oh, I know I was a big fool! I should have faced it
out!"

"Wait a minute!" put in Jack suddenly. "Are you pretty sure Haddon, as
well as Dusenbury and Jillson, are guilty of making off with the horses
that are missing?"

"I am!"

"Well, then, isn't it possible that those three went to this John
Calder's barn and stole some of the horses and then set fire to the place
to cover the theft?"

"By golly, I'll bet that's just what they did!" burst out Brassy Bangs.
"I remember now that the reports in the newspapers said the fire had been
so fierce that the carcasses of the horses had been burnt up completely.
They only found some of the bones in the ruins. Oh, if they really did do
that!"

"Did Calder have any particularly good horses?"

"Yes, he had a splendid team of matched grays that were worth
considerable money. He thought more of the grays than he did of all his
other horses put together."

"I'll wager a toothpick against a lemon that gang stole the grays before
the fire," declared Andy emphatically.

"The police ought to arrest those three men and put 'em through what they
call the third degree," remarked Gif.

"I'd like to know one other thing," went on Andy, and now his face showed
a slight grin. "What do you know about your Uncle Jarl