hew!" murmured
Jack.

On and on they rattled at a good pace until the lights of Point View
Lodge shone in the distance.

"Just drop us off at the gate!" cried Jack. "We don't want to ride up
to the piazza in such a rig as this."

"Why, hello, have you arrived at last?" cried a voice from out of the
darkness, and then Laura and Flossie appeared, standing by the gate. The
three cadets looked glumly at each other, and then Pepper commenced to
snicker and all burst into a hearty spell of laughter.

CHAPTER XIV

AT THE FORD MANSION

"Don't you admire our very fashionable turnout?" questioned Pepper, as
he came forward and shook hands with the girls.

"It's the latest in carriages," came from Andy.

"Oh!" murmured Laura. "Did you really come all the way from Putnam Hall
in that?"

"It must have been hard riding," was Flossie's comment.

"No, we didn't come all the way," answered Pepper. "We'll tell you about
it later," he added. Then Ezra Cole was paid. The old farmer lost no
time in driving away.

As the girls and boys walked slowly toward the mansion the cadets told
the particulars of the breakdown on the road.

"And you really think some of your rivals did it?" questioned Laura.
"How mean!"

"I'd never speak to them again," added Flossie, with a flash of her
eyes.

"Well, we'll talk a whole lot to 'em," answered Pepper, grimly.

"But you have got to prove them guilty first," said Laura.

Once at the mansion the situation was explained to Mr. and Mrs. Ford,
and the boys were conducted by a servant to a bathroom, where they might
wash and brush up and make themselves otherwise presentable. They did
not linger long, and when they came below, the folding-doors to the
dining-room were opened and the butler announced dinner.

It was a jolly meal, and the cadets were made to feel perfectly at home.
Mr. Ford asked them how they were getting along in school, and was
surprised when told that they hoped to graduate from the Hall the
following June.

"We shall miss your visits to the Lodge," said Mrs. Ford.

"You'll have to visit us anyway--if you get a chance," said Laura, and
all of the cadets said they would remember her kind words. Then they
talked about old times, and especially about the time when the boys had
visited the Lodge and killed the tiger that had escaped from the circus,
as related in "The Putnam Hall Cadets," and of how the girls had visited
the cadets in the woods, when the boys had