lips had been upstairs some time
between eight and eleven o'clock. The most of these cadets said they had
seen no one else upstairs in the building. But Bart White declared while
at one end of a long corridor he had seen some one slip around a corner
out of sight. He was not sure whether the person had been a cadet, one of
the hired help, or an outsider.

"It was either a man or a big boy," said Bart. "But he moved so quickly
and it was so dark I didn't recognize him, even if I happened to know
him."

"And what time was this?" questioned Colonel Colby.

"Some time between half-past nine and ten o'clock."

Bart was asked to show the colonel where the disappearance of the
stranger had taken place, and it was proved that this was at a point just
around a corner from the room where the footprints leading to the
fire-escape had been discovered.

"Perhaps you saw the person just at the time he was making his escape,"
was Colonel Colby's comment. "We will look for footprints below the
fire-escape."

This was done, but the cadets the night before had tramped around the
school building so much that the footprints were hopelessly mixed. Then
the boys were questioned as to whether or not they had seen any one
dropping from the fire-escape to the ground, and all answered in the
negative.

"We will question the hired help and see what they have to say,"
announced the master of the school.

CHAPTER XIV

THE PARADE

The inquiries made among the hired help of Colby Hall produced little
results. Some of the servants were rather scared and declared to Colonel
Colby that they were innocent of any wrong doing.

"I am not accusing any one here," declared the master of the Hall. "I
only want to find out, if possible, who was guilty of this outrageous
proceeding."

It was found that two men with wagon loads of supplies for the school had
visited the place during the evening, but neither of these men had gone
any further into the building than the storeroom, and both had departed
as soon as their errands were finished. Outside of that, so far as the
servants could remember, no outsiders had been on the premises.

"And yet those footmarks on the window sill and the fire-escape look as
if it had been done by an outsider," said Captain Dale to the head of the
school.

"It's just possible that it may have been an inside job and an outside
job combined," ventured Professor Grawson.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Someb