t and
cartridge-box out of the armory."

"Now, that's an idea. Of course we'll help. Great Scott! What a crazy
crowd, and what do you reckon they're going to do?"

It was no wonder that Bob Cole asked this question. While he and his
companions were talking they walked through the archway into the hall,
which was filled with pale, determined-looking students, who were
quietly making their way up the wide stairs toward the armory.

"What's up?" repeated Cole.

"We're going after our muskets," replied one. "Fall in."

"Not the whole school?" Billings managed to gasp, while Marcy Gray stood
speechless, wondering at the magnitude of the rebellion which had been
brought about by the colonel's refusal to send a squad to Rodney's
assistance and Dick's, and by the stirring appeals to which they had
listened from Dixon, as well as from the lips of the boy who had
received those hasty instructions at the guard-tent.

"Talk about rebels! Why, this is a riot," said Cole.

"It looks very like it," replied Dixon, who stood at the foot of the
stairs urging every boy to fall in. "They're all going except the
company officers, who have taken themselves off out of sight, so that
they cannot be called upon to oppose us. Where's Caleb?"

"I made sure of him by saying that I would raise some money for him,"
replied Marcy.

"If we were only outside the gate we should be all right."

"We'll get out easy as falling off a log," said Dixon. "If you had
glanced toward the gate when you came in, you would have seen four good
fellows there talking with the sentry. It will be their business to
disarm him, if he shows fight when we attempt to march out, as it is his
duty to do; and if the officer of the guard tries to turn the key upon
us, those four fellows will quietly take the gate from its hinges and
tumble it over into the road. It's all cut and dried, and if the boys
keep as still as they are now, we'll be out before the colonel knows
what we are up to. Oh, I haven't been idle since the commandant ordered
me from the guard-tent."

There was no need that Dixon should say this, for the actions of the
students proved that he had done a good deal of talking since he was
ordered out of the tent. Although they were pushing and crowding one
another in their haste to get into the armory and out of it again before
some busybody (there are boys of that sort in every school) could run to
the colonel and apprise him of what was going on, there