“A tie!  A tie!” was the cry.  “Neither side wins!”

“Let the two captains shake hands and call it off!” said one cadet.

“I’m willing!” cried Bart, readily.

“So am I,” added Henry, and then the pair shook hands, while a great cheer rolled up from both sides.  But the cheer came to an abrupt end when Fred Century cried out: 

“Pepper Ditmore is hurt!”

“And so is Major Ruddy!” came from Emerald Hogan.

A crowd quickly gathered around each wounded cadet.  Pepper had a nasty cut over the left eye and Jack had a lump behind his right ear.

“They must have been hit with soakers,” was Dale’s comment, as he bent over Pepper.

“Looks as if Pepper was hit with a stone,” came from Andy.

“A stone!” cried Bart Field.

“Yes, a stone!  That cut was never made by a snowball, or a piece of ice, either!”

“Shall I get a doctor?” asked Stuffer, anxiously.

“Oh, are they as bad as that?” asked Bob Grenwood.

“I don’t know,” answered Bert, soberly.  “Wait a minute and we’ll see if they come around.”

“Oh, what a crack!” murmured Jack, and then he sat up and stared around him.  Pepper was also stirring and he slowly put one hand to the cut on his temple.

“Let us carry ’em to the Hall,” suggested Bert.  “It’s getting too cold out here and besides, they are all in a sweat from the snowballing.”

When Pepper was picked up, Andy saw something lying beneath him in the snow.  He picked it up.

“Hello! look here!” he called out, and held the object up.

“A stone!”

“Where did it come from, Andy?”

“It was under Pepper’s body.  I believe it was in the snowball that hit him!”

“Who would be so mean?”

“I rather guess I know,” answered Pepper, and looked around for Ritter and Coulter, but the bully and his crony had disappeared.

Pepper and Jack were carried tenderly into the Hall and placed in easy chairs in the reception room.  Presently both had recovered consciousness fully, and each had his head bound up in bandages.

“Phew, but that was a crack I got!” sighed The Imp.  “I thought a rock had hit me!”

“It was Coulter who threw that snowball,” said the young major.  “I saw him do it, and I was running to help you up when I got struck myself, and went down.”

“And I am pretty sure Ritter hit you, Jack,” came from Andy.  “Anyway, I saw him aiming for you just before you staggered and fell.”

“Andy, those fellows must have hit us with stones!” muttered The Imp.

“I feel sure they did.  Ritter struck me with a snowball, on the hand, and it left a deep scratch.  Now, no ordinary snowball would do that.  Besides that, I picked up a sharp stone from where Pepper was lying.”

“It was against the rules of the contest to use stones,” put in Dale, who was near.