p this!" shouted Cole, recovering himself by an effort and darting
forward to assist in separating the angry and reckless boys. "Haven't
you any sense left? A misstep on the part of one would be the death of
both of you. Don't you know that the academy is four stories high, and
that the tower runs up one story higher? Let go, Rodney. Give me those
halliards, Marcy."

"Stand back, both of you!" cried the latter. "I'd rather go over than
give up the halliards. If I had two hands I would very soon end the
fracas, but I haven't a friend to hold the ropes while I defend
myself."

[Illustration: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE FLAG.]

Perhaps he hadn't when he began speaking, but a second or two later he
had plenty of them. Hasty steps sounded in the hall below and came up
the ladder, and in less time than it takes to write it the top of the
tower was covered with boys. The last one who came up turned about and
slammed down the trap-door through which he had gained access to the
roof. It was Dixon, the tall student who had compelled the orderly to
fold the flag properly, and who afterward told Dick Graham right where
to find it. Being a Kentuckian, he was just now "on the fence," and
ready to jump either way, according as his State decided to go out of
the Union or remain in it. He was opposed to secession, and that being
the case, it was strange that he should afterward find himself enrolled
among John Morgan's raiders, but that was right where he brought up.
Although he was a close student, a good soldier, and one of the best
fellows that ever lived withal, he was at any time ready for a fight or
a frolic, and it didn't make any great difference to him which it was.

"Now," said he cheerfully, as he closed the trap-door behind him, "we
can have a quiet squabble and no one can come up to interfere with us.
But look here, boys," he added, stepping to the parapet and looking
over. "It's a mighty far ways to the ground--five stories or so--and if
you go down, you will be sure to get hurt. On the whole, I think we had
better adjourn for a while."

Rodney knew just how to take these words. Like that notice in the
post-office, "there was reading between the lines." Seeing that he and
his friends were taken at disadvantage and greatly outnumbered, he
thought it best to handle his cousin with a little less rudeness; but he
would not cease his efforts to pull down that hated flag and hoist his
own Stars and Bars until he was compelled to d