ne boy. "We'll stand
by you. Put it on good and strong. Stand back, Captain Wilson. We don't
want to go against you, but these men must have a lesson they will not
forget."

Thus encouraged Rodney raised the switch, and in a second more it would
have fallen with full force upon Bud's head and shoulders, had not Marcy
Gray, dashing aside three or four friends who stood in his way, jumped
forward and seized his cousin's arm.

"Rodney," said he, "is this your manhood?"

The angry boy glared at his cousin for an instant, and then, to the
surprise of all, he lowered his arm and gave up the switch.

"You here, Marcy?" he exclaimed. "There isn't as much manhood in my
whole body as there is in your little finger. Don't look at me in that
way. Don't speak to me; I am beneath contempt. Goble, you're free to go,
but don't come near me again."

"Yes, Goble, clear yourself," shouted Dixon, who, although he did not
understand the matter at all, thought Bud had better get out of danger
while the students were in the mood to let him go. "I'm about to stick
the butt of my gun through the air right where you are standing, and if
you're there, you'll get hurt. One--two--"

Goble turned and ran for his life, the boys dividing right and left, and
jeering him loudly as he passed through their ranks.

"He's a minute-man," said one.

"Yes; and he'll get there in a good deal less than a minute," cried
another. "Go faster than that, for he's close after you. Ah, He came
pretty near hitting you that time! Next time you'll be a goner."

Dixon had not moved an inch from his tracks, but he had accomplished his
object and sent Bud off without injury. Silas Walker must have gone
about the same time, for when the boys looked around for him they could
not find him.

CHAPTER XIII.

HAULING DOWN THE COLORS.

Having accomplished the work he was sent out to do, Captain Wilson shook
hands with the rescued boys, who did not seem any the worse for their
short experience among the members of Bud Goble's company of minute-men,
and commanded the students to "fall in." Some of the boys were in favor
of smashing the rifles which the two vagabonds had left behind in their
hurried flight; but better counsels prevailed, and the weapons were
leaned against a tree where Bud could easily find them, in case he
should muster courage enough to come after them. The return march
through the woods was rend