but with the old man thus armed none of them wanted to take any
chances. But then came a lucky interruption. From back on the farm came
a wild bellowing as if a cow was in trouble. This was followed by the
squealing of a number of pigs.

"Hello! Those town boys must have come over after your cattle after
all!" cried Jack, struck by a sudden idea.

"My cattle! What do you know about my cattle?" questioned Elias Lacy,
quickly.

"That's it! The town boys are after the cows and pigs!" broke in Fred,
quick to catch Jack's idea.

"You'll lose them all if you don't look out, Mr. Lacy!" put in Randy.

"They sha'n't tech my cows, nor my pigs neither!" snarled the old
farmer; and, taking up his lantern, he left the cadets and ran off
towards the rear of the premises. Fortunately, nothing serious had
happened to his stock.

"Now's the time to skip out!" cried Jack, and led the way, and the
others lost no time in following. The cadets had to hold their skirts
high to keep from tripping as they sped along. They reached Colby Hall
in safety, and lost no time in rejoining their friends. A little later
the Hallowe'en celebration came to an end.

"Old Lacy will remember us," was Andy's comment, in speaking of the
affair the next day. "He'll have it in for us."

"I'm afraid so," replied Jack, seriously.

The main topic of conversation at the school now was the football game
which was to take place with the eleven of the Clearwater Country Club
on the following Saturday. This was another gala occasion for the
school, and once more the boys had the pleasure of escorting the girls
to and from the conflict.

"I hope we can do them up as we did Hixley High," remarked Jack. But
this was not to be. The Clearwater Country Club eleven were much older
than the cadets and much heavier, and all the Colby Hall team could do
was to hold them down to a score of 16 to 10.

"Well, that's not so bad but what it might be worse," remarked Gif,
when the defeated eleven had returned to Colby Hall. "I did hope,
however, that we might hold them to at least a tie."

"They carried too much weight for us," replied Jack. "Even Slugger
Brown couldn't do anything against them." For Slugger had been used as
a substitute in the third and fourth quarters. But the big cadet had
failed to show either form or efficiency. He had been warned by the
umpire, because of an unfair tackle, and this had put him in anything
but a good humor.

"I won't play again so