“Wow you’ve done it!” cried Frank.  “That’s noise enough to wake the dead.”

“Great Caesar, stop that row!” burst out Torn, opening the door.  “Do you want to bring the captain down on us at the last minute?”

“Clear up that muss, both of you,” said Dick to Sam and Fred. But the latter demurred.  It was Sam’s fault —­ he started the racket.

“I won’t touch it.”  And Fred proceeded to go to bed.

“I reckon we had best dust,” said one of the boys from another dormitory.

“So you had!” burst out Tom.  “I hear somebody coming already,” and in a twinkle the outsiders ran for their various quarters, leaving the occupants of Dormitory No. 6 to fix up matters as best they could.

It was no easy job to straighten out the washstand, clear up the general muss, and disrobe.  But the boys were on their mettle, and in less than two minutes the light was out and all were under the covers, although, to be sure, Sam had his shoes still on and Tom was entirely clothed.

“Boys, what is the row up here?” The call came from Captain Putnam himself.  He was ascending the front stairs, lamp in hand, and attired in a long dressing gown.

As no one answered, he paused in the upper hallway and asked the question again.  Then he looked into one dormitory after another.

“All asleep, eh?  Well, see that you don’t wake up again as soon as my back is turned,” he went on, and soon after walked below again, a faint smile on his features.  He knew that boys were bound to be more or less mischievous, no matter how strict his regulations.

“I’ll tell you what, the captain’s a brick!” whispered Tom, as he began to disrobe noiselessly.

“So he is,” answered Frank.  “You wouldn’t catch old Crabtree acting that way.  He’d have bad every cadet out of bed and sent half a dozen of us down to the guard-room.”

“I guess the captain remembers when he was a cadet himself,” remarked Dick.  “I’ve heard that they cut up some high pranks at West Point.”

“George Strong would be just as kind,” came from Tom.  “But say, I am growing awfully tired.”

“So am I,” came from several others,

Then the good-night word was passed, and soon all of the cadets were sound asleep, never dreaming of the surprise which awaited them in the morning.

CHAPTER VII

Who was guilty?

“Boys, I’ve had my trunk looted!”

“And I’ve had my trousers’ pockets picked!”

“And the half-dollar I left on the bureau is gone!”

Such were some of the excited exclamations which the Rover boys heard when they went downstairs the next morning.  The speakers were the youths who occupied Dormitories Numbers 3 and 4, at the rear of the main upper hall.  An inquiry among the lads elicited the information that everybody had suffered excepting one boy, who said he had not had any money on hand.