Colby and Professor Brice,
aided by a couple of the hired men, made a close examination of the spot
where the fire had taken place. It had been confined almost wholly to
three boxes, loosely filled with excelsior, and two barrels containing
straw and waste paper.

"It was a mistake to put such inflammable material up here," said
Colonel Colby to Mr. Crews, the gymnasium instructor.

"I realize that now, Colonel Colby," answered Silas Crews, and his
manner showed how much the fire had upset him. "But, you see, it was
this way. We got some of that new gymnasium material in only a couple of
weeks ago, and we weren't altogether satisfied with it--if you will
remember. I said something about sending it back. Well, it came in those
boxes and barrels, and so I just put them up here, thinking that maybe
we'd want to use them in sending the stuff back. If it hadn't been for
that, I'd have cleaned the boxes and barrels out and burnt the stuff
up."

"I see, Crews. Well, after this, I want you to be careful and not do
anything like that again."

"But I don't see how the boxes and barrels caught fire, sir," went on
the gymnasium instructor perplexedly. "We had no light up here, and I
don't see how they could catch from that little steam radiator over
there. Why, that radiator hardly gets warm!" It may be mentioned here
that the radiator had been placed on the upper floor of the gymnasium
because there had once been talk of partitioning this part of the floor
from the rest and making of it a meeting room for one of the cadet
clubs.

"I'll make an investigation later," answered Colonel Colby. "For the
present, as the steam heating plant seems to be in perfect order, you
had better start the fire up well, so that we can dry things out here.
Otherwise, all the pipes may freeze up, and that might give us more
trouble than this fire."

"Yes, sir. I'll see to it, sir," said Silas Crews hastily. "And I'll
have this whole place cleaned up the first thing in the morning. And
I'll also have the broken windows fixed."

As soon as he returned to the school, Colonel Colby sent for Randy and
Fred. He questioned them closely about the cigarette smoking indulged in
by Slugger, Nappy and Codfish.

"You two are quite sure that you were not smoking yourselves?" he
demanded sternly.

"We don't smoke, sir," answered Randy promptly.

"Did you light any matches while you were upstairs in the gymnasium?"

"No, sir. We had no need for a light,