"Yes, sir," answered Snuggers. He did not much relish remaining in the woods all night, but he felt that he had to obey orders.
One by one the cadets and the teachers returned to Putnam Hall. The conflagration in the woods had rather broken up the anticipated celebration in honor of the football victory.
"Now, I want to know who placed those tar-barrels in the woods," said Captain Putnam, when he had assembled the cadets in the school building.
"It was Jerry Cole, the roofer from Cedarville," answered John Fenwick, a small youth usually called Mumps. He was known as a toady and a sneak, and was very chummy with Dan Baxter.
"I saw him with the barrels on his wagon."
"I will tell you," answered Pepper, stepping forward. "I bought them to celebrate with to-night. I thought they'd make a dandy bonfire."
"Indeed! Then you set them ablaze, Ditmore?"
"No, sir. My idea was to roll them to the lake-shore and pile them one on top of the other."
"Then who did set them on fire in the woods?"
For the moment nobody spoke, but Pepper, Jack and Andy, as well as Joe, looked at Reff Ritter and Gus Coulter.
"I want an answer!" cried Captain Putnam, sternly. "Who started that fire?"
He looked around from one cadet to another. But nobody spoke.
It was a rule of honor among the cadets of Putnam Hall that no student should tell on another. To do that would have been to put one's self down as a sneak, and none of our friends wanted such a reputation.
"I ask again, who started that fire?" went on Captain Putnam, with increased sternness.
"I rather think I know the guilty parties," said George Strong, who had walked away on an errand and had just returned, "Ritter and Coulter, what have you to say?"
The two culprits started, and Coulter turned pale.
"Why, I--er----" stammered Gus. "I--that is----" He did not know how to proceed. He did not dare deny his guilt, not knowing but what the assistant teacher might have seen him and his crony light the tar-barrels.
"Well, if you--er--want to know the truth, Captain Putnam, we--er--started the fire," stammered Reff Ritter. "But it was an accident."
"Yes, sir. We were--er--going to roll the barrels down to the lake--going to hide 'em so that Ditmore and his friends couldn't find 'em, you know. Well, we didn't want to get the tar on our hands, so we--er--started a little fire to see by--it was dark under the trees. All of a sudden the barrels blazed up. We--er--didn't expect such a big blaze."