“Yesterday afternoon, Captain Putnam.”

“Were those holes in there then?”

“I don’t think so.”

“How about your uniform, Thomas?”

“I cleaned up yesterday morning.  I don’t remember any holes.”

“And you, Samuel?”

“I had a hole in my left sleeve, but the jewelry was found in the right sleeve.”

“Let me examine the coats.”

This was done, and all concluded that the holes had been cut with the blade of a sharp knife, or with a small pair of scissors.

“I believe the job was done in the dark,” said Dick.  “Somebody must have visited our tent last night after we went to sleep.”

“When did you go to sleep, Richard?”

“Well, I don’t think we were real sound asleep until about midnight.  There was some sort of a noise in the camp that kept us awake.”

“Somebody said Tubbs was up playing negro minstrel,” added Tom, soberly.

“Yes, he was up.  So you went to sleep about midnight?  And when did you get up?”

“At the first call,” answered Sam.

“And your coats were as you had left them?”

“Mine was,” came from Sam and Dick.

“I don’t remember exactly how I did leave mine,” said Tom.  “But I didn’t notice anything unusual.”

“Then, if the real thief visited our camp he must have come in between midnight and six o’clock,” went on the master of the school.  “I must question those who were on guard duty about this.”

“That’s the idea!” cried Dick.  “If the thief sneaked in somebody must have seen him.”

“Unless a guard was asleep on his post,” came from Tom.  “As it was the last night out they may have been pretty lax in that direction.”

Dinner had been ordered, and the three Rovers dined with the captain in his private dining room.  Then the boys went up to their dormitory to pack their trunks.

“I must say this is a fine ending for the term,” was Tom’s comment, as he began to get his belongings out of the closet.  “And after everything looked so bright, too!”

“It’s a jolly shame!” cried Sam.  “If Lew Flapp did this, or Dan Baxter, I’d like to—­to wring his neck for it!”

“It will certainly put a cloud on our name,” said Dick.  “In spite of what we can say, some folks will be mean enough to think we are guilty.”

“We must catch the thief and make him confess,” went on Tom.

The three boys packed their trunks and other belongings and then went below again and down to the gymnasium and then to the boathouse.  But they could not interest themselves in anything and their manner showed it.

“What is the matter that you came back so soon?” questioned Mrs. Green, the matron of the academy, who knew them well.

“Oh, we had business with Captain Putnam,” answered Tom, and that was all he’ would say.  He dearly loved to play jokes on the matron, but now he felt too downcast to give such things a thought.