ir hands in
their pockets, as if in search of something they were in no particular
hurry to find; and while some seemed scarcely able to refrain from
laughing outright and dancing hornpipes, the faces of others wore a
resolute look that had a volume of meaning in it. Rodney Gray, with the
flag of the Confederacy tucked safely under the breast of his coat, took
a stroll about the building and grounds, looking sharply at every one he
met, and finally drew off on one side to compare notes with some of his
friends.

"I don't at all like the way the land lies," said he. "If Marcy and his
gang haven't something on their minds, they certainly act like it.
Graham, you know where the old flag is, do you not?"

"I do, for a fact. It is safe under lock and key, and in the keeping of
one who knows how to take care of it," answered Dick.

"I wish I had insisted on seeing it destroyed the minute you got hold of
it," continued Rodney. "Then I should know that there is no danger of
its being hoisted again."

"I pledge you my word that you will never again set eyes on that flag as
long as you remain at this academy," said Dick earnestly. "That
assurance ought to satisfy you."

"Perhaps it ought, but it doesn't," Rodney took occasion to say to
Billings and Cole a few seconds later, when Dick had gone off on some
business of his own. "I wish now that some true Southern boy had had
pluck enough to steal the flag, for then we should know where it is at
this moment. Marcy and his friends certainly suspect something; and if
they know that the colors are gone, they take it in an easy way I don't
like."

"Dick has given his word that we shall never see the flag again, and I
believe him," said Cole. "He is a good fellow and ought to be one of
us."

"Oh, he will come out all right, and so will Marcy," said Billings
confidently. "Wait till this excitement culminates in a fight, and then
you will see a big change of opinion among these weak-kneed chaps. They
expect a skirmish this morning and are prepared for it. We'll see fun
before that new flag of ours goes up on the tower, and I'll bet on it."

"Boom!" said the gun, whereupon the drums began their racket, and the
fifes piped forth the first strains of the morning call. The boys all
started on the run for the court (a large glass-covered room in the
center of the building which was used for morning inspection, and for
drills and parades when stormy weather prevailed), and when the roll