"I must say you've thought of everything," Amy said in admiration.
"Everything," Pip echoed gloomily, "except what to do if we get caught. We even worked out something about that, but I don't know how good it is."
"We're supposed to call Randy at one in the morning to tell him that we're going off duty. If we don't call by then, he's supposed to call the police. Tomorrow night, he and Mal will call me at one."
"Sure. Sensible. But if they catch us, say, at ten o'clock, we could be in some pretty bad trouble by the time the police come around after one."
Feeling that this line of conversation was doing them no good at all, Peggy tried, with little success, to change the subject. By the time lunch was over and they had returned to the Academy, all four of them felt thoroughly depressed.
Somehow, Peggy got through the afternoon.
And somehow, she got through the night, but it was scarcely a restful one. She lay awake until one o'clock worrying about Pip and Tom, and finally, at one-fifteen, called Randy. He answered at the first ring, quite awake.
"At one o'clock sharp," he assured her. "They haven't seen anything at all, and they're perfectly all right. Now get some sleep. Good night."
Feeling relieved, Peggy went back to bed, but it was not easy to sleep. What had seemed such a good idea yesterday was beginning to seem foolish today. The boys were engaging in unknown risks, and nobody knew what dangers they might encounter. Perhaps they should have gone to the police in the first place, and tried to convince them that something was amiss. Perhaps they should still do so....
Finally, she slept, troubled by vague, unpleasant dreams.
The next day, her doubts grew stronger. Pip appeared at school late, looking like a molting owl. He had rings under his eyes and seemed not to have slept at all.
"We decided to stay on until daylight," he explained wanly, "just in case your idea that any action would take place between six and twelve was wrong. Nothing happened, and we left at five-thirty in the morning."
"But, Pip!" Peggy protested. "That's a twelve-hour watch! You shouldn't be in school today!"
"It's all right," he assured her with a weak smile. "I'm rested. Slept from six until nearly nine."