Without a word Captain Putnam held out his hand.  “Thomas, you have considerable spirit, but I think your heart is in the right place, and I am willing to try you.  Supposing you enroll as a pupil now, and we let bygones be bygones?”

“With all my heart, sir!” cried Tom, glad to have the whole affair settled so easily.

“Why, are you going to let the —­ the young rascal go?” demanded Josiah Crabtree, in amazement.

“I’m not a rascal, Mr. Crabtree.”

“Yes, you are!”

“Mr. Crabtree, I have decided to drop the matter,” put in Captain Putnam, in a tone which admitted of no dispute, and the head assistant fell back abashed.  “Rover says he wishes to make a record for himself, and I am inclined to help him.  He starts his term free and clear of all charges against him —­ and his brother whom you have locked up shall do likewise.  Kindly call Mr. Strong.”

“It is a —­ a most unusual proceeding,” growled the head assistant.

“Perhaps, but we will talk that matter over at another time.”

Josiah Crabtree went out; and in a minute George Strong appeared, and Tom was turned, over to him, to sign the roll of the academy and to join Sam, Fred, and the others in the class room over which Mr. Strong presided.

“Hullo, you’re back,” whispered Sam, but no more could be said until recess, when Tom told his story in detail.  In the meantime Dick was released.

“So you met the fellow who stole my watch!” cried the elder brother.  “I wish you had got the timepiece.”

“So do I, Dick.”

Dick had been captured by Josiah Crabtree just as he was vaulting the iron fence around the guardroom window.  The head assistant had locked him up in the apartment Toni had occupied, and there Dick had remained all night.

“Oh, Crabtree is a terror!” said Dick later on.  “I hope Dora Stanhope’s mother never marries him.”

“I’ll wager neither of you have heard the last of Crabtree, even if we are not in his classes,” remarked Sam.  “He will watch for a chance to get even, mark my words.”

“I don’t doubt it, Sam,” answered Tom/ ’But let him come on.  I intend to do my duty as a cadet, and I am not afraid of him.”

CHAPTER XI

A ROW IN THE GYMNASIUM

For several days matters moved along smoothly with the Rover boys.  In that time their chums, Frank Harrington and Larry Colby, arrived, and these, with Fred, made up the “Metropolitan Sextet,” as they called themselves —­ the sole occupants of dormitory No. 6.

Next to this dormitory was apartment five, occupied by Dan Baxter, Mumps, and six others of the bully’s cronies.  The two apartments were connected by a door, but this was nailed up.

So far there had been no open rupture between Baxter and Dick, but there was trouble “in the air,” and it was bound reach a climax sooner or later.