"Say, I didn't think the fire would spread to the woods," whispered Gus Coulter.

"Hush!" warned his crony. "Don't you admit that we did it. If it comes to the worst, say it was an accident, that we were trying to light a torch, to sneak the barrels away, when they took fire."

"All right."

More water was thrown on the barrels, and then a small army of cadets commenced to dig up dirt and stones, with which to cover the burning objects. This worked very well on the barrels. But to reach the trees was different. One thick cedar was blazing away like a torch--the flames far above their heads.

"Let us cut that tree down," ordered Captain Putnam.

Two axes had been brought along, and Dale used one while Peleg Snuggers wielded the other. Soon the cedar commenced to totter.

"Look out!" cried Captain Putnam, and then crash! the tree came down, directly on top of the tar-barrels. Up went a thick cloud of smoke and sparks. But the cadets were ready with dirt and stones, and the danger of a new blaze was quickly averted.

While the tree was being cut down, the cadets and teachers had been busy with pickaxes and shovels, and also with their rakes and wet swabs, and had put out much of the fire elsewhere. One more tree had to be leveled, and this work was done by Joe and Bart. Then, after five minutes more of hard work, the last of the fire was extinguished, and the crowd in the woods was left in darkness.

"h.e.l.lo, it's dark enough now," cried Pepper. "We'll need a lantern to get out with."

"Here's a torch," answered one cadet, and took up a cedar bough, and commenced to wave it into a flame.

"No more of that, Bates!" cried Captain Putnam. "We have had enough of fire. We'll go back in the dark. Snuggers, you stay here and see to it that the fire doesn't break out again."

"Yes, sir," answered the general utility 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 antic.i.p.ated 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 a.s.sembled 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-sh.o.r.e and pile them one on top of the other."

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

For the moment n.o.body 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 n.o.body 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 a.s.sistant teacher might have seen him and his crony light the tar-barrels.

"Well, if you--er--want to know the truth, Captain Putnam, we--er--started the fire," stammered Reff Ritter. "But it was an accident."

"An accident?"

"Yes, sir. We were--er--going to roll the barrels down to the lake--going to hide 'em so that Ditmore and his friends couldn't find 'em, you know. Well, we didn't want to get the tar on our hands, so we--er--started a little fire to see by--it was dark under the trees.

All of a sudden the barrels blazed up. We--er--didn't expect such a big blaze."

"That's it," cried Coulter, eagerly. "We just made the fire at first to see by."

"Then you didn't really want to fire the barrels under the trees?"

"No, sir," came from both of the guilty ones.

"It was a rash thing to do, to start such a blaze. In this wind you might have burnt down the whole woods and endangered the school buildings."

"I don't believe Ritter and Coulter," whispered Andy to Pepper.

"Neither do I," was the reply.

"Ditmore, you said the barrels belonged to you?" went on the owner of the school.

"Yes, sir. I bought them from the tar-roofer in Cedarville and he delivered them. We were going to have a great bonfire--and we did!" And The Imp said this so dryly that even Captain Putnam had to smile.