Word had been pa.s.sed around to about a dozen of the cadets, and as soon as the school had quieted down and the others had retired to their rooms, these cadets came forth into the halls on tiptoes and made their way noiselessly in the direction of the apartment occupied by Asa Lemm.

"He's arranging that clothing in his closet," announced Andy, after peering through the keyhole in the door. "He's partly undressed, so I guess he'll go to bed pretty soon."

There was a short silence, and then the boys heard the bed creak as Professor Lemm got into it. An instant later came a cry of rage.

"What's this? More ice, I declare! The bed is sopping wet! Oh, those young rascals!" for Asa Lemm had thrown himself down beneath the spread under which had been placed several sheets of thin ice. A large portion of the ice had melted, and the sheets were as wet as they were cold. As a consequence, his pajamas were pretty well soaked, and he shivered as he threw the covers back and bounced to his feet.

"He's enjoying it all right enough," whispered Andy.

"Hang those boys!" roared the irate teacher. "Oh, what I wouldn't do to them if I had them here!" He hopped around the room first on one foot and then on the other, shivering as he did so. As was usual, the steam throughout the building had been turned off some time before, so that the apartment was quite cold.

"We had better scatter," warned Jack. "He may open the door at any instant and find us here."

"Right you are!" answered Randy, and then, unable to resist the temptation, he bent down and shouted through the keyhole: "Pleasant dreams, Professor! I hope you enjoyed the ice-water!"

Then all of the cadets fled to their rooms, and in less than five minutes each of them was undressed and safe in bed.

If ever there was an angry man, it was Asa Lemm at that particular moment. He had to change all his night clothing, and then don a bathrobe and slippers and go down below once more and get some of the hired help to clean up his room and take away the wet mattress of his bed. A dry mattress was subst.i.tuted from a vacant bedroom, but it was all of half an hour before this work was accomplished; and in the meantime the professor stormed around, threatening about everything he could imagine.

"I'll have the law on them! I'll have every one of them locked up!" he said to Colonel Colby. "It's an outrage that I should be treated in this fashion."

"It is certainly a most unpleasant occurrence, Professor," agreed the master of the Hall. "But boys will be boys--you know that as well as I do. I can remember when I went to school, I loved to play practical jokes, and they were not always kindly jokes, either. But as for having these boys arrested, or anything of that sort, that, I think, would be going too far. We can punish them enough right here--that is, provided we can find out who they are."

"I don't believe in such jokes!"

"Neither do I--now that I have grown older. But I did believe in them when I was a boy."

"The trouble with this school is, the discipline is not strict enough,"

snapped Asa Lemm. "If we are not more strict, the cadets will degenerate into nothing but rowdies and hoodlums."

"I think I am the best judge of how discipline should be maintained in this inst.i.tution," responded Colonel Colby, with dignity. "I will take this matter up in the morning and do my best to sift it to the bottom.

Now I think we had better retire, as it is growing late," and thereupon he returned to his own rooms.

"I think that was the best joke we ever played," remarked Andy, when he and the other Rovers were dressing on the following morning.

"It sure did count one against old Lemon," chuckled Randy.

"Yes. And to think the way Slugger and Nappy were knocked over by the goats too!" broke in Fred.

"I'll bet they're mad over that," observed Jack. "More than likely, it will make them take a hand in a.s.sisting Lemm to find out who was guilty. We'll have to be on our guard against them."

"Did anybody see you making off with the goats?" queried Randy suddenly.

"I don't think so," answered Jack. But in this surmise he was mistaken; one cadet had seen Walt Baxter hurrying from the school with goats'

harness under his sweater, and this youth had, from a safe distance, watched Jack and Walt place some of the harness on the goats and drive them off in the direction of Mike O'Toole's farm.

This cadet was Codfish, who was always sneaking around, trying to pick up information that did not rightly belong to him.

"Ha, ha!" said the little sneak to himself, after Walt and Jack had disappeared. "Now I know who was responsible for bringing those goats into the school."

At first the sneak thought he would report the matter to either Asa Lemm or Colonel Colby, but as he was not in particularly good favor with the professor on whom the joke had been played, he thought it might be as well for him to wait and think the matter over.

"Maybe I had better tell Slugger and Nappy first and see what they've got to say about it," he reasoned. He went to the bully and his crony with everything.

He dressed early, and then went over to Nappy's room, where he found the cronies together, just as he had surmised. They were talking over the affair of the night before and wondering who could be guilty.

"I've got some news," announced Codfish.

"What news?" demanded Nappy.

"It's very important," went on the little cadet. "If I tell you will you promise not to give me away?"

"Is it about last night's affair, Cod?" demanded Slugger quickly.

"Now look here, Slugger! You promised not to call me Cod any more,"

pleaded the sneak.

"All right, Henry. That was merely a slip of the tongue," returned the bully good-naturedly. He knew exactly how to handle such a fellow as Stowell. "Now tell us what you've got on your mind."

"Will you promise not to give me away?"

"Sure!" came from both of the others promptly.

"Well then, I know who brought those two goats into the school last night," announced Codfish proudly; and thereupon, being urged to do so by the others, he told of what he had seen.

"I knew the Rovers were mixed up in that!" cried Slugger.

"And I've noticed that Walt Baxter has been training with them. More than likely it was the work of the whole Rover crowd," announced Nappy.

"Don't you think we ought to let Colonel Colby know about this?"

questioned Codfish anxiously. It was his delight to get other cadets into trouble and see them suffer, but he always wanted to keep his own actions dark for fear his schoolmates might turn on him and start in to "square up."

"Of course we ought to let Colonel Colby know about this--and Professor Lemm too," answered Nappy. "The question is, how can we do it without getting mixed up in it ourselves?"

"We might send a note to Colonel Colby," suggested the sneak.

The matter was talked over for several minutes, and then it was decided that two notes should be written and one delivered to Colonel Colby and the other to Asa Lemm.

"Who is going to write the notes?" questioned Codfish.

"You can do that, Henry," said the bully quickly. He had not forgotten how the anonymous letter he had once sent out had been traced back to him, in spite of the disguised handwriting.

"Oh, I couldn't do that!" answered Stowell in alarm. And he shook his head vigorously.

"Yes, you can!" broke in Nappy. And thereupon, somewhat against his will, Codfish penned the two notes in as much of a disguised hand as was possible for him.

"But I'm not going to deliver the notes," he warned feebly. "You two have got to do that much."