appeared around the corner of the tent, and the boys ran back to
the table, beside which they stood, with their caps off and their hands
to their foreheads, when the officer of the guard came in accompanied by
the colonel. The latter looked and acted as if the burden of his
responsibility was too heavy for him to carry; and the worst of it was,
it was growing heavier every day. He was out of patience, too, and as
cross as a bear.

"What sort of a cock-and-bull story is this I hear about Sergeant Gray
and Private Graham?" said he snappishly. "I am in no humor for wasting
words."

"Neither are we, sir," Marcy replied boldly. "My cousin is in trouble,
and I should like to have him helped out of it."

"If he hadn't run the guard and gone to town without permission, he
wouldn't be in trouble," answered the colonel. "Now let me hear the
story from beginning to end, and in as short a space of time as
possible."

Marcy Gray and Dixon could talk to the point when they made up their
minds to it, and the colonel was not kept in his chair a second longer
than was necessary to make him understand just how Rodney and Dick were
situated. That the recital made him nervous was plain from the way he
rubbed his hands together and tumbled his hair about his forehead.

"Well, what do you expect me to do about it?" he asked, when the story
was concluded.

"We should like to have you send an officer down there, under guidance
of this man Judson, and rescue those boys," said Marcy.

"That is the duty of the civil authorities, and I cannot interfere with
them," replied the colonel, in a tone which seemed to say that the
matter was settled so far as he was concerned. "Last night I tried to do
a friendly turn for the citizens of Barrington, but I will never do it
again. They can be burned up or whipped for all I care."

"But, sir, these boys are not citizens of Barrington," said Dixon. "They
are pupils of this school, and as such they are entitled to all the aid
and comfort it is in your power to give them."

"When I think I need to be instructed in my duty toward those who are
placed under my care, I will send for you, Private Dixon," replied the
colonel loftily; but the boys all saw, and so did the officer of the
guard, that he could not make up his mind how to act under the
circumstances. The colonel knew well enough that there was little
dependence to be placed upon the Barrington authorities, and that the
surest way to help Rodney