“It means that if the authorities at Hamilton need help in putting down that mob, we third company boys will have to give it,” said Egan, in reply to a question propounded to him by Captain Mack. “What do you mean by we?” inquired the captain. “You don’t belong to my company.”
“Yes, I do, and so do Hop and Curtis,” answered Egan. “We intend to report for duty in the morning; and as long as this strike lasts, we are to stand post and do duty like the rest of the boys. We asked permission of the superintendent to-day, and he granted it.”
Of course he granted it. Faithful students, like these three boys, were allowed to do pretty nearly as they pleased. It was the idle and unruly who were denied privileges.
[153]
“I am glad to welcome such fellows as you are into my family,” said Captain Mack. “But why didn’t you go into the first company where you belong?”
“We belong wherever it suits us to go,” said Egan, in reply. “And it suits us to be with you and Don Gordon. Look here, Mack: If worst comes to worst, and the superintendent calls for volunteers, you be the first to jump. Do you hear? Good night and pleasant dreams.”
The students hastened back to their rooms, and feeling secure from an attack by the mob, the most of them slept; but their dreams, like Captain Mack’s, were none of the pleasantest. More than one of them started up in alarm, believing that he heard the order to fall in. They all expected it, and it came the next day about eleven o’clock, but the majority of the boys did not know it until dinner time; and then Don Gordon, who had been acting as the superintendent’s orderly that morning, rushed frantically about the building looking for Egan and the rest.
“The time has come, fellows,” said he, when he found them. “Some of us will have to face the music now.”
[154]
“How do you know?” asked Egan and his friends, in a breath.
“The superintendent received a despatch from the city a short time ago.”
“Do you know what was in it?”
“I do, for I heard him read it to one of the teachers. It ran: ‘Hold a company, provided with ten rounds per man, ready to move at short notice.’ The answer that went back was: ‘The company is ready.’”
“Whew!” whistled Curtis, while the others looked at one another in blank amazement.
“But I don’t see how that company is to get to Hamilton,” said Hopkins, at length. “There are no trains running to-day. Everything is as quiet as it is on Sunday.”
“They will go by special train,” said Don. “There are a good many passengers and a big mail that were left at Munson last night when the engineer of the lightning express was taken by force from his cab, and the mob has agreed to let them come on to Hamilton. It was all talked over in my hearing.”
“And our boys are to go on that train, are they?”
[155]
“Yes; if they get marching orders in time.”
“Then there’ll be trouble. Remember what I tell you; there will be the biggest kind of a fuss down there,” said Curtis, earnestly. “The rioters didn’t agree to let soldiers into the city, and they won’t do it, either.”
“Did it ever occur to you, that very possibly the wishes of the rabble will not be consulted?” inquired Hopkins. “I hope that company will go in if it is needed there, and that the very first man who fires a stone into its ranks will get hurt.”
Just then the enlivening notes of the dinner-call sounded through the building, and the students made all haste to respond to it. The different companies formed in their respective halls, but when they had been aligned and brought to a right face by their quartermaster-sergeants, the captains took command, ordered the sergeants to their posts, and marched their men to the armory instead of to the dining-hall. They all wondered what was going to happen now, and they were not kept long in suspense.
“Young gentlemen,” said the superintendent, when all the companies had come into line, “our friends in Hamilton are in need of assistance, and[156] we, being law-loving and law-abiding men and boys, and utterly opposed to mob rule, can not refuse to give it to them. It may be—nay, I am sure, from what I have heard, that it is a mission of danger; and therefore I shall not ask any of you to go to the city against your will. Those of you who are in favor of the law, and who have the courage to enforce it if you are called upon to do so, will step three paces to the front.”
These words, which were spoken so rapidly that those who heard them did not have time to think twice, fairly stunned the boys. Egan, who stood next the first sergeant of the third company, was the first to recover himself. Reaching around behind the sergeant he gave Captain Mack a prod in the ribs with his fist that fairly knocked him out of his place in the ranks; but it brought him to his senses, and raising his hand to his cap the captain said:
“I speak for my company, sir.”
“Your services are accepted,” said the superintendent. “You are too late, young gentlemen,” he added, addressing himself to the boys in the first and second companies who moved forward in a body, together with the majority of the members[157] of Bert’s company. “You ought to have had an old first-sergeant in your ranks to wake you up.”
This was Greek to some of the students, but Mack understood it and so did Egan. So did the boys directly behind them, who had seen Egan strike the captain in the ribs to “wake him up.”
“If your conduct last night is any criterion, I shall have reason to be proud of you when you return,” continued the superintendent, turning to the third company boys. “I shall expect you to do your duty regardless of consequences; and in order that you may work to the best advantage, I shall make some changes in your personnel.”
Here the superintendent paused and looked at the adjutant, who stepped forward and drew his note-book from his pocket.
“Mack, you’re a brick,” said Egan, in an audible whisper.
“He’s a born fool,” said Jones to the boy who stood next him. “I didn’t give him authority to speak for me, and I’ll not stir one step. If he wants to go down there and be pounded to death by that mob, he can go and welcome; but he shall not drag me along with him.”
[158]
“It is not expected that boys who take refuge in the attic or hide in coal-bins, or who are seized with the pangs of sickness at the very first notes of a false alarm, would be of any use to you if you should get into trouble,” added the superintendent. “Consequently those boys will be permitted to remain at the academy. As fast as their names are called they will fall out of the ranks and form a squad by themselves under command of Sergeant Elmer, who will have charge of them until their company returns.”
Some of those who had behaved with so much timidity the night before, thought this the severest punishment that could be inflicted upon them. They were virtually branded as cowards in the presence of the whole school, and they felt it most keenly; but the others, those who had determined to be sent down since their parents would not allow them to leave the academy, as they wanted to do, did not seem to mind it at all. They were perfectly willing to be disgraced. They fell out of the ranks as their names were called, and after their places had been supplied by boys from the first and second companies whom the superintendent[159] knew he could trust, they were all marched down to the dining-hall.
There was little dinner eaten that day, for their excitement took away all their appetites. The hum of animated conversation arose above the clatter of knives and forks from all except the third company boys, who were already looked upon as heroes by some of their companions. They were going down to the city to face an infuriated mob, and who can tell what the result might be? These boys talked only in whispers, and the all-absorbing question with them was: What teacher would be sent in command of them? Everybody seemed to think it would be Professor Odenheimer, who, by his fiery lectures, had now the appellation of “Fighting Jacob,” which the students transformed into “Viting Yawcop.” Everybody seemed to think, too, that if he were sent in command, they would stand a fine chance of getting into a fight, whether the mob forced it upon them or not.
The study-call was not sounded that afternoon, because the teachers knew that there would be no studying done. The students gathered in little groups in the building and about the grounds, and there was an abundance of talk, argument and[160] speculation. They were all anxious for news, and it did not take long to raise a crowd. If a teacher, an officer or an orderly stopped for a moment to exchange a word or two with one of the students, they were very soon joined by a third, the number was rapidly augmented, and a large assembly was quickly gathered. The wildest rumors were freely circulated as facts, and if the third company boys had believed half they heard, it is hard to tell whether or not their courage would have stood the test. The excitement arose to fever-heat when a messenger-boy, who had been passed by the sentry at the gate, ran up the walk with a brown envelope in his hand.
“What is it? What is it?” cried the students, as he dashed through their ranks.
“It’s for the superintendent,” was the boy’s reply.
“But what does it say?”
“Don’t know; only there’s the very mischief to pay down at Hamilton. The special is due in fifteen minutes.”
“Then we’re off, boys,” said Egan; and so it proved. A few minutes after the messenger-boy vanished through the door, a sergeant appeared on[161] the steps and cried out: “Fall in, third company!” whereupon all the boys made a rush for the armory. Don and his comrades made all haste to put on their belts and epaulets and take their muskets from the racks, while the rest of the students drew themselves up in line behind the teachers so that they could see all that was going on.
“Fall in!” commanded the first sergeant. “Left face! Support arms! Listen to roll-call!”
Each boy in the ranks brought his piece to a “carry” and then to “order arms,” as his name was called, and when this ceremony was completed the company was again brought to a “carry,” and ordered to “count fours”; after which the sergeant proceeded to divide it into platoons. Then he faced about, saluted his commander and said, with a ring of triumph in his tones:
“All present, sir.”
There was no one hiding in the attic or coal-bins this time.
“Fix bayonets,” said the captain.
The sergeant gave the order and moved to his place on ............