man.

"Here is a pistol. If it does break out, fire two shots for an alarm."

"Yes, sir."

"I'll send Alexander Pop here with more water and with some lunch, for
you'll have to stay all night," went on the owner of the school.
Alexander Pop was a colored man who had come to the school to wait on
the table.

"Yes, sir," answered Snuggers. He did not much relish remaining in the
woods all night, but he felt that he had to obey orders.

One by one the cadets and the teachers returned to Putnam Hall. The
conflagration in the woods had rather broken up the anticipated
celebration in honor of the football victory.

"Now, I want to know who placed those tar-barrels in the woods," said
Captain Putnam, when he had assembled the cadets in the school building.

"It was Jerry Cole, the roofer from Cedarville," answered John Fenwick,
a small youth usually called Mumps. He was known as a toady and a sneak,
and was very chummy with Dan Baxter.

"How do you know, Fenwick?"

"I saw him with the barrels on his wagon."

"Why should he put the barrels there?"

"I will tell you," answered Pepper, stepping forward. "I bought them to
celebrate with to-night. I thought they'd make a dandy bonfire."

"Indeed! Then you set them ablaze, Ditmore?"

"No, sir. My idea was to roll them to the lake-shore and pile them one
on top of the other."

"Then who did set them on fire in the woods?"

For the moment nobody spoke, but Pepper, Jack and Andy, as well as Joe,
looked at Reff Ritter and Gus Coulter.

"I want an answer!" cried Captain Putnam, sternly. "Who started that
fire?"

He looked around from one cadet to another. But nobody spoke.

CHAPTER XI

A MYSTERIOUS HAPPENING

It was a rule of honor among the cadets of Putnam Hall that no student
should tell on another. To do that would have been to put one's self
down as a sneak, and none of our friends wanted such a reputation.

"I ask again, who started that fire?" went on Captain Putnam, with
increased sternness.

"I rather think I know the guilty parties," said George Strong, who had
walked away on an errand and had just returned, "Ritter and Coulter,
what have you to say?"

The two culprits started, and Coulter turned pale.

"Why, I--er----" stammered Gus. "I--that is----" He did not know how to
proceed. He did not dare deny his guilt, not knowing but what the
assistant teacher might have seen him and his crony light the
tar-barrels.

"Well, if you--er--want