was not the
least noise or confusion, not a word spoken above a whisper, and if
there had been any studious scholars in the dormitories, they would not
have been in the least disturbed. In five minutes more the armory was
thronged with students, who having taken their muskets from the racks,
were buckling on their cartridge-boxes. The weight of the boxes
dispelled the fear that the colonel might have had the ball cartridges
that were put in them the night before removed. Why he hadn't done it,
seeing that he had promised to remain neutral in future, was a mystery.

"This is a high-handed proceeding, boys," observed one, "and if a
shoulder-strap should come in and order us to put these guns back, then
what?"

"Then would be the time for you, to prove that you were in earnest when
you promised that you would stand by Rodney and Dick if the colonel
refused to help them," said another. "Who cares? We're rebels anyhow,
and we certainly would not go back on our principles at the command of
anybody up North."

"Don't stop to discuss politics," said Dixon, who, by common consent,
was the commander of the expedition, there being no commissioned
officers present. "Some of you take muskets number twenty-two,
thirty-four, forty-four, and fifty-six from the racks in addition to
your own for those four fellows at the gate. Now fall in, in your places
as near as you can. We'll not stop to count fours or to divide the
companies into platoons. So long as we get there, we don't care whether
we go in military form or not. Fours right: Forward, column left,
march!"

"Charge bayonets!" shouted some half-wild fellow in the ranks, when the
colonel and officer of the guard, both with drawn swords in their hands,
suddenly appeared in the doorway. "Run over everything that gets in the
road."

"Young gentlemen! Boys! Private Dixon, what are you about?" cried the
colonel, who was so amazed that he hardly knew what he said. "I'll put
the last one of you in the guard-house. Just one moment, boys. Listen to
reason. I'll do everything I can to get Rodney and Dick out of that
scrape. I will, I assure you."

"Forward, double quick!" somebody shouted; and although the command came
from one who had no business to give it, Dixon being the acknowledged
leader, the most of the students would have obeyed it with the greatest
promptness, had not the Kentucky boy jumped in front of the first four
and barred their way with his musket, which he held at th