some mysterious source not clearly defined. The Wacker brothers belonged
to a crowd Bart did not train with usually, but as Dale espied him and
seized his arm energetically, Bart did not draw away, respecting the
occasion and its courtesies.

"You're the very fellow!" declared Dale.

"You bet he is!" cried two others, crowding up and slapping Bart on the
back. "He won't crawfish. Give him the punk, Dale."

The person addressed extended a lighted piece of punk.

"Yes, take it, Stirling," he said. "Show him, boys."

"Yes, you'll have to show me," suggested Bart significantly. "What's the
mystery, anyhow?"

"No mystery at all," answered Dale, "only a surprise. See it--well, it's
loaded."

"Clean to the muzzle!" bubbled over an excited urchin.

They were all pointing to the top of the hill. Bart understood, for
clearly outlined against the light of the rising moon stood the grim old
sentinel that had done duty as a patriotic reminder of the Civil War for
many a year.

"Old Hurricane" the relic cannon had been dubbed when what was left of
Company C, Second Infantry, came marching back home in the sixties.