"What's the matter?" roared poor Tubbs. "Everything is the matter,
don't you know. It's an ah--outrage!"

"Somebody told me you had blacked up as a negro minstrel and were going
to serenade your best girl."

"It's not so, Parkham. Some beastly cadets played a joke on me! Oh,
wait till I find out who did it!" And then William Philander began to
moan once more over the burrs. It was a good quarter of an hour before
he had his cot cleaned off and fit to use once more, and even then he
was so excited and nervous he could not sleep another wink.

"William Philander won't forget his last night with the boys in a
hurry," remarked Tom, as he slipped off to bed once more.

"You had better keep quiet over this," came from Dick. "We don't want
to spoil our records for the term, remember."

"Right you are, Dick. I'll be as mum as a clam climbing a huckleberry
bush."

The boys were tired out over the march of the afternoon and over
playing the joke on Tubbs, and it was not long before all of the Rovers
were sound asleep. The three brothers had begged for permission to tent
together and this had been allowed by Captain Putnam, for the term was
virtually over, ending with the dismissal of the cadets at the last
encampment parade.

On guard duty at one end of the field was a cadet named Link Smith, a