minutes. That tore a hole in my scalp,
sure!"

Rupert Chickering, who was beginning to look grave and anxious, next
jumped up into the air, forgetting his dignity; while Willis Paulding
sat down with a suddenness that jarred the ground, and began to declaim
in a quick, nervous way and without the slightest imitation of an
English accent.

Then Lew Veazie, who had been rubbing his injured leg and looking
surprisedly and dubiously about, leaped to his feet with another howl
and went dancing off from his friends.

"Felloth, it ith hornets!" he shrieked, beginning to fight and slap with
his cap and his hands. "Ow! wow! They're thtinging me to death! Help me,
thomebody!"

"Hornets!" shrieked Ollie Lord, leaping up and following his chum.
"Fellows, the air is full of them!"

Tilton Hull began to dig fiercely at his high collar.

"There is one down my neck!" he screeched.

He recklessly tore the collar away and began to dig with his nails in a
wild search for the thing that had stung him, and which he fancied he
felt boring its way still farther down his back. Julian Ives took his
hand from his hip and slapped it against his breast, where a red-hot
lance seemed to have been driven with torturing suddenness. Then he
began to tear away his beautiful necktie and to recklessly rumple his
gorgeous shirt front.

"This is awful!" he exclaimed. "Where are the things coming from? The
air is full of them! Wow! Another struck me in the arm!"

Lew Veazie was rolling over and over. Their outcries attracted the
attention of Merriwell and his friends, and also the attention of a
number of others who had come upon the grounds.

"What are those idiots up to?" grumbled Hodge, who had no patience with
the antics of the Chickering set. "They've been making fools of
themselves ever since they came out here. Awhile ago, they were
recklessly burning powder and hurling shot all round. Now they act as if
they were crazy."

"Must be playing some sort of game of circus!" guessed Browning.
"They're tumbling about like acrobats--or fools!"

"And howling like wild Indians!" said Danny. "I think they are playing a
Wild West."

"They ought to have Bill Higgins here, then, to make the show complete,"
Merriwell remarked, with a smile. "But seriously, I don't believe
they're playing anything. Those yells sound real."

"Help!" howled Willis Paulding, forgetting his drawl, "We're being stung
to death!"

Willis was down on the ground, soiling