asserted to his crony. "They can't walk all over me and get away with
it!"

"Well, Gabe, you know I'll be on deck to help you in anything you try
to put over on 'em," responded the wholesale butcher's son.

"Of course we'll have to be careful what we do," went on Werner. "We
don't want to run afoul of Captain Dale or any of the professors. If
we did they might set us some awful mean tasks to do while we were in
camp."

"Yes, we'll have to be on our guard and work on the sly."

Neither Werner nor Glutts were particularly brilliant in evolving
their scheme, but finally the ex-lieutenant hit upon something which
he thought would answer. Then he told his crony of what had occurred
to him.

"That's the talk!" cried Bill Glutts, his eyes gleaming wickedly.
"Let's go and do it this very night, just as soon as they are sound
asleep. My, won't there be some rumpus in the morning when they wake
up and find out what has happened!"

CHAPTER XVIII

ONE SURPRISE AND ANOTHER

Fred Rover was so tired that he closed his eyes in slumber almost as
soon as he touched his cot.

But not so the young captain. Jack was fatigued, but he was also
worried over some of the problems connected with his company, and
these he tried to solve as he lay there in the darkness.

As the cadets were to remain in this camp for but one night only,
nothing had been done toward putting any flooring in the tents. The
cots of the captain and the two lieutenants rested on the short grass
of the pasture. More than this, as the night was rather warm, one of
the tent flaps was left open for ventilation, and for the same purpose
a corner of the canvas in the rear was turned up.

As all of the cadets had tramped the distance from Colby Hall, no one
was called on that night to remain on guard. In place of this a
professor who had ridden over in an automobile agreed to sit up to
see that nothing was stolen by any outsiders who might have an idea of
doing such a thing.

But no outsiders appeared in view, all of the curiosity seekers having
left the pasture lot before it came time for the cadets to turn in. As
a consequence, the professor had nothing to watch, and soon grew
exceedingly sleepy. Sitting in the tonneau of an open automobile, he
presently began to nod, and then his head fell forward on his breast.

Jack had thought that he would soon drop to sleep, but the problems in
his mind worried him so that presently he found himself wide-awake in