CHAPTER VII.

THE EFFECTS OF THE EXPLOSION.

Captain Gildrock seemed to sleep the sleep of the just while he was still in the flesh, for he did not immediately appear at the office, as Dory expected. The mansion was some distance from the scene of operations. He heard the earliest peals of the bell on the dormitory; but, unfortunately, Mrs. Dornwood had also heard it, and had been terribly excited by it. The explosion had roused her from her slumbers, though the distance made it less effective at the mansion than at the dormitory.

The good lady was almost in hysterics; and it had taken the captain some time to quiet her, though at last he was able to leave her in the care of Marian. She was sure that the students would all be burned to death, her son among them; for the idea of any other calamity than fire, had not occurred to them.

Captain Gildrock had not heard the explosion; and the ringing of the bell had assured him that no one would be burned to death, though he found it very difficult to make his sister comprehend the absurdity of her fears. He looked out of the window as soon as he left his bed; and, as he could see no light, he was satisfied that the fire had not yet made much progress.

He was a man of discipline, and had trained the students to fire-duty. His sister had mentioned the explosion, but she could not tell any thing about it, except that it was a loud noise. The principal hastened from the house as soon as he could leave Mrs. Dornwood, and he expected to discover the light of the fire as soon as he reached the main avenue that extended through the grounds.

He saw nothing to throw any light on his path, or on the cause of the alarm. When he reached the shops, he found a crowd there, and realized that he was about the last one to reach the scene of the disturbance. There was no fire, and this fact stimulated his curiosity. The bell was to be rung at night, only in case of fire; and it had been pealing out its notes for some time before his arrival.

The students were, of course, in a blaze of excitement, and the instructors were hardly less disturbed. But the principal walked into their midst without any exclamations, with a step hardly more hurried than his usual pace, and there was nothing in the darkness that, could indicate the slightest disturbance in his manner. Though he was a cool man in a trying situation, as his early life on the seas had trained him to be, yet his stolidity was in some measure assumed. He believed, that, if a person in authority could not be calm, it was best for him to pretend to be so, for the benefit of others.

Matt had adopted the suggestion of Dory, and departed in the Marian; but this was all the movement that had been made to meet the circumstances of the case. Dory and the boat's crew were the only absentees when the principal arrived. He looked about him; but he could only see dark forms around, with nothing but the dull light of the lantern Dory had left on the doorstone, to assist his vision.

"There seems to be no fire, or even the smell of smoke here," said Captain Gildrock, as he came into the assemblage in front of the office.

"No, sir: there is no fire," replied Mr. Jepson, who happened to be nearest to him when he halted. "It is robbery, and not fire."

"Then, no one is in danger," added the principal, perhaps with a feeling of relief.

"No one, unless it be the students who are looking for the robbers."

"Of course, you heard the explosion, Captain Gildrock?" interposed Mr. Brookbine.

"I have heard nothing but the ringing of the bell, for I am a sound sleeper at this time in the morning. What was the explosion?" asked the principal, as unmoved as though he had been questioning a class in the schoolroom.

"The safe in the office has been blown up with a dynamite cartridge," replied Mr. Jepson. "I should have thought you would hear it, for it shook all the buildings in this part of the grounds."

"Mrs. Dornwood heard it, but I did not," continued the principal, as he led the way into the office.

He took the lantern in his hand as he advanced, and then asked the instructor in mechanics to light the lamps. While he was doing so, the captain examined the door of the office. It had been bored in several places around the lock, and then pried open. In the room, all was in a state of dire confusion. A large portion of the door of the safe had been blown off, and it was wide open.

"These fellows understood their business," said Captain Gildrock, when he saw how effectual the explosion had been.

"I think they rather overdid the business," added Mr. Jepson. "The cartridge must have been three times as big as was needed to blow off that lock, and that makes me think the burglars had not had much experience in the use of dynamite."

"They evidently intended to use enough to tear off the door," replied the principal.

"But they made a noise like an earthquake, when there was no need of it. It is a wonder to me that they didn't blow the safe all to pieces, and destroy whatever there was in it."

"As I did not hear it, I am not a competent judge of the power of the explosion," added the principal, as he proceeded to examine the interior of the safe.

"I hope the safe did not contain much money," said Mr. Brookbine.

"Over two thousand dollars," replied the captain, with a smile. "I sold a house here, day before yesterday; and, as I have not been to the bank since, the entire payment was in the safe, as well as about one hundred and fifty dollars that was there before."

"Whew!" exclaimed the master-carpenter. "Then, it amounts to a big loss."

"Big enough, though I shall not be ruined by it," answered the principal. "I have ten times that amount in bonds in this safe; and here they are," he continued, as he took a large package of papers from one of the small drawers, one of which had contained the money. "Either the robbers did not want the bonds, or they had not time to find them."

"I don't think they had much time to spare after the racket of the explosion," said Mr. Jepson. "When I got here, the students said Dory was after the robbers back of the shops; and Randolph was leading a boat's crew to the lake."

"It looks as though the robbers had seized the money as soon as they got at it, and did not wait for any thing more. Now, what has been done here?" asked the principal, when he had got possession of the main facts.

"Dory and Matt Randolph were the first to come out of the dormitory, and I think I was the next one," said Oscar Chester.

"Tell me what you know about the matter, Chester," continued the principal.

"Dory and Matt went to the office, and found it had been broken into, and that the explosion had come from there. I thought it was an earthquake. Matt came back after the lanterns just as I came down-stairs, and I helped him light them. He went out then, and I followed him. Then he came back, and rang the bell. I took the rope when he asked me to do so, and he called away a crew for the boat. He told me that Dory was following the burglars back of the shop, and that he was to see that they did not get away in a boat. That is all I know about it, sir."

It was a rather confused statement, though it was correct in the main. Dory was pursuing the marauders alone on foot, and Matt was patrolling the lake to prevent their escape by water.

"I am sorry the students did any thing," said Captain Gildrock. "I should not like to have any of them encounter these villains. Without a doubt, they are armed, and they will fire if they are in danger."

"Don't you think some of us had better see if we can find Dory, sir? He may need some help," suggested Oscar Chester, who had been making up a party to follow Dory when the principal arrived.

"I think Dory will be prudent, and will take care of himself, though he may get into trouble. I shall send no students to assist him," replied the principal decidedly. "The boys will not be called upon to chase such desperadoes as professional burglars must be. But you may take a crew, and go in one of the four-oar boats in search of Randolph. Tell him to come ashore."

Oscar departed on his mission, disappointed that he had not been detailed to re-enforce Dory, and assist in the search.

"I am ready to do any thing that I can," added Mr. Jepson; and Mr. Brookbine said the same.

"The burglars have simplified the matter to some extent for us," said the principal, as he seated himself in his arm-chair, as though he did not intend to fret himself at all about the robbery. "The wind is blowing a fierce gale on the lake; and I should not send out a boat on such a night as this manned by the students, or by any one, unless it was to save life. The rascals cannot escape by water. The stormy lake shuts them in on that side."

"I don't think I ever knew it to blow so hard as it does to-night," added Mr. Jepson.

"If Dory and Randolph come back all right, I shall be perfectly satisfied, even if the robbers escape with their plunder. All we have to do is to hem in the land-side of the region about the school, and the constables then may hunt the burglars at their leisure," continued the principal. "Now, if you are willing to do so, I should like to have you go in search of Dory.

"He must have followed the cart-path through the quarries, and crossed the bridge. I don't ask you to quarrel with the burglars, if you find them, but simply to send Dory back," said the principal, after a short period of silence. "Collins!"

"Here, sir," replied the gardener.

"Have Dick harnessed to the buggy, and Kate to the buckboard."

The machinist and the carpenter prepared for the duty assigned to them. The former put his revolver in his pocket, while the latter took his rifle. Mr. Brookbine was given to deer-hunting, and knew all about the Adirondack region, on the other side of the lake. But it was daylight when they started; and they were too late to find Dory in the road, where he had remained so long.

They were not even near enough to the scene of Dory's disaster to hear the whistle the chief of the burglars had sounded, or to see the light carried by Mack in the road. The light was the engine of Angy's strategy; and the open part of the dark-lantern was turned in the other direction, for the benefit of Dory. But Mack had heard them in the distance; for the two men had been shouting, to inform Dory of their approach.

Professor Bentnick and Mr. Darlingby were sent to one part of Genverres to procure the aid of a couple of constables, while the principal notified two other men who were deputy-sheriffs. He visited the telegraph-office, and left several messages, to be sent to Burlington, and to all the towns around that were in connection with Genverres by wires.

The students were all sent to bed again, but probably not many of them slept after the excitement of the early morning. Matt and his party were discovered by Oscar Chester while they were patrolling the shore, without having obtained a sight or a sound to encourage them. They obeyed the order of the principal; though they were satisfied that the robbers had not been on Beechwater, or the creek above it.

At five o'clock all the students except Dory were in their beds.