"Oh, Captain Dale, won't you please come quick?" cried the little sneak,
all out of breath with excitement. "Somebody put about a million mice in
my room, and I've got the fellow locked up in my clothes-closet."

"A million mice in your room, Stowell!" exclaimed the captain, leaping
to his feet. "Surely you must be mistaken. You don't mean quite that
many," and a faint smile crossed his features.

"Well, there are a whole lot of them, anyway," returned Codfish. "When I
opened my bed they leaped right out at me and they ran all over the
floor, and then one of them went up the leg of my pajamas and bit me.
See how I had to tear my pajamas to get him out?" and he showed the
spot.

"And you say you have the culprit locked up in your closet?" demanded
Captain Dale.

"Yes, sir. Won't you please come up and see who it is before he has a
chance to break out? Of course he'll try to get away if he can. He won't
want to be caught."

"Yes, I'll go up immediately. Are the mice up there still?"

"Yes, sir. I shut the door on them so they couldn't get away."

"Then I had better call the janitor and his assistant first, so that we
can round up the million mice, more or less."

Fortunately Pud Hicks was not around the building, so could not be
summoned. But Job Plunger, the school janitor, was at hand, and so was
Bob Nixon, the school chauffeur.

"I guess I know where those mice came from," said Nixon, with a grin.
"Hicks caught a lot of them down at the barn. He was going to drown 'em
down at the river to-morrow. Somebody must have got hold of 'em and put
'em in Stowell's room."

Nixon and Plunger followed Captain Dale and Stowell to the cadet's room.
In the meanwhile Randy had rejoined the other Rovers and their chums,
and likewise rapped on half a dozen doors as he passed, and as a
consequence fully a score of cadets were made aware that something
unusual was happening.

"What's the row?"

"Is it a fire?"

"Are they going to celebrate the victory over Columbus Academy?"

"If anything good to eat is being passed around count me in."

"Codfish is holding a celebration!" cried Andy from around a corner and
in a disguised voice. "Everybody watch for something good from Codfish's
room."

The appearance of Captain Dale with Stowell only whetted the curiosity
of the assembled students, and from half-closed doors they watched the
head of the school and the little sneak approach the room. The door was
left open, and a m