“Answer me, who took that cake?” he repeated, and looked at each boy in turn.
“I ate but one piece, Mr. Cuddle!” said Pepper.
“Only Stuffer—I mean Singleton—ate more than one piece,” said Bart Conners.
“Strange! strange! I thought the plate was full of cake,” murmured Pluxton Cuddle. He glared again at the cadets. “If I find out that any of you have deceived me I shall punish you severely. Now finish your suppers!” And he began to munch away vigorously on the dry toast he was eating. His theory was that a person should eat very little but masticate that little well, and he sometimes chewed a mouthful of food thirty or forty times.
When the meal was over, Pepper and Jack slipped the napkins full of cake under their jackets and left the mess hall. Then they took the cake upstairs and hid the dainty in a safe place. This done they strolled down the highway leading to Cedarville, looking for Andy.
“He ought to be coming soon,” remarked the young major, after a half hour had passed.
They walked a short distance from the Hall and then sat down on a rock to rest. Here presently Dale and Stuffer joined them.
“Where is Andy?” called out Stuffer. “I am hungry enough to eat that ice-cream right now.”
“I think something is wrong,” said Jack. “He ought to be back by this time.”
“What could be wrong, Jack?” asked Pepper.
“I don’t know, but——” The young major paused. “Somehow, I feel that something serious has happened to Andy!”
“Perhaps Andy had a tumble from his wheel,” suggested Dale. “It might have broken down, you know.”
“Let us walk toward town and find out,” answered Pepper.
To this the others readily consented, and all set off in the direction of Cedarville. They had to go around a long curve, and then came to a spot where the roadway was lined upon either side with thick brushwood and trees.
“Here he is!” called out Jack, and ran forward. “At least, here is his wheel.”
He was right about the bicycle. It rested by the roadside, close to the fallen limb of a tree.
“He certainly took a tumble!” cried Stuffer. “But where is he?”
This question was answered by a groan that made all of the cadets start. They turned, peered into the bushes, and there beheld poor Andy stretched out on some grass. The blood was flowing from a wound in his forehead and from a cut on his hand.