"Baxter has broken out of the guardroom!" he exclaimed. "I cannot find him anywhere!"
"Did you look in the dormitory?"
"Yes, sir; and his valise is gone, and his trunk is empty of all of value."
"Humph!" Captain Putnam's brow contracted. "This looks very suspicious."
At that moment one of the smaller cadets came in with a note in his hand.
"I just met Baxter running down the road!" exclaimed the little fellow. "He gave me this for you, Captain Putnam."
At once the proprietor of the Hall tore open the communication and read it half aloud:
"Good-by to Putnam Hall forever. It is full of fellows who are no good and run by a man I never liked. No use of following me, for I am going to join my father, and I don't mean to come back. Dan Baxter.
"P. S.—Tell the Rover boys I shan't forget them, and some day I shall take pains to square accounts. D. B."
"The foolish boy," was the captain's comment. "But perhaps he has done what is best, for it might have been necessary to dismiss him."
For a long while those at the Hall wondered
