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 institution," 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 assisting 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