, "we are going to
have some great fun. Hurrah!"

Frank jumped up. The boys were leaving the tent. He had already suspected
that mischief was meditated, and, anxious to see what it was, he ran out
after them.

He found the company assembled in a dark, mysterious mass in the street
before the row of tents.

"Get a rope around his neck," said one.

"Burn the tent," said another.

"With him in it," said a third.

"What does it all mean?" Frank inquired of his friend Atwater, whom he
found quietly listening to the conspirators.

"A little fun with the Gosling, I believe," said Atwater, with a shrug.
"They'd better let him alone."

"The Gosling" was the nickname which the Blues had bestowed on their
captain.

After a hurried consultation among the ringleaders, the company marched
to the tent where the Gosling slept. Only Atwater, Frank, and a few
others lingered in the rear.

"I hope they won't hurt him," said Frank. "Ought we not to give the
alarm?"

"And get the lasting ill-will of the boys?" said Atwater. "We can't
afford that."

The captain's tent was surrounded. Knives were drawn. Then, at a
concerted signal, the ropes supporting the tent were cut. At the same
time the captain's bed, which made a convenient protuberance in the side
of the tent, was seized and tipped over, while tent-pole, canvas, and
all, came down upon him in a mass.

"Help! guard! help!" he shrieked, struggling under the heap.

At the instant a large pile of straw, belonging to the quartermaster's
department close by, burst forth in a sheet of flame which illumined the
camp with its glare.

The boys now ran to their tents, laughing at the plight of their captain,
as he issued, furious, from the ruins. Frank began to run too; but
thinking that this would be considered an indication of guilt, he
stopped. Atwater was at his side.

"We are caught," said Atwater, coolly. "There's the guard." And he folded
his arms under his cape and waited.

"What shall we do?" said Frank, in great distress, not that he feared the
advancing bayonets, but he remembered John Winch's arrest, and dreaded a
similar degradation.

"There are two of them," said the half-dressed captain, pointing out
Frank and his friend to the officer of the guard.

In his excitement he would have had them hurried off at once to the
guard-tent. But fortunately the colonel of the regiment, who had been
writing late in his tent, heard the alarm, and was already on the spot