“Somebody put up a job on us right enough,” observed Pepper, when he and his chums were in the dormitory and the door had been closed. “If old Crabtree hadn’t come along one of us would have gotten that dose.”
“I’ll wager that I know who is guilty,” came from Dale.
“Exactly. Didn’t you see how they hung back and how they grinned at us?”
“I saw it,” came from Andy. “That’s why I soaked Mumps with a snowball.”
“And I let Ritter have it in the ear,” said Pepper. “But I say, fellows, we want to be on our guard.”
“Do you think they played more jokes on us?” questioned Hogan. “Sure an’ it would be just like ’em to do it, so it would!” he added.
“It certainly won’t do any harm to look around,” suggested Jack. “It won’t take but a few minutes to do it.”
“Wait!” he whispered, and sliding to the door, threw it open suddenly. Outside he found Ritter, Baxter, and Coulter. The trio were amazed at being thus suddenly confronted.
“I thought so!” cried Pepper, triumphantly.
“Oh, go to grass!” muttered the bully of the school, and walked away.
“We’ll fix you another time,” muttered Ritter.
Pepper waited until he had seen the others enter their dormitory and then closed his own door again.
“I’ve found something!” cried Andy, and dove into his pillow-case. “Filled with snow!”
“That’s a cold pun,” observed Dale. “Just the same, here is snow in my pillow too. Say, we just got this in time. It would have melted before long and then our pillows would have been wringing wet.”
“Don’t say a word about snow,” said Emerald. “Just be after lookin’ at this now!” And he held up three icicles he had dislodged from his bed. “Ain’t they iligant foot-warmers though!”
Without delay the other boys looked into their beds, and soon all the icicles were disposed of, and the snow was likewise cleaned away. They then made another hunt around the dormitory, to make certain that nothing else was wrong.
“I guess we are safe now,” said Jack, at last. “But what a mess this would have made if we had not found it out in time!”
“I know what I am going to do,” said Pepper, decidedly.
“What, Imp?” came from several of the others.
“I’m going to pay the Baxter crowd back, and with interest.”
And the others instantly agreed to help him.