"What did you say?" asked the master.
"I—thought—you—could—hear," said the shameless Bathgate. "Shall I proceed?"
"Proceed—yes! No, one moment. You've done pretty well. Go on, next boy."
There was a dead, stunned silence. The next boy was no boy at all, but the effigy of Bill Faraday, and the effigy simply sat still and stared at the master with the most guileless stare in the world.
"Faraday—you heard me?"
"Yes—sir," squeaked Patch, diving down under his desk, and attempting to throw his voice in the direction of the quiescent Billy. But the attempt met with poor success. The squeak did not come to the ears of the master at all, and he repeated his reminder, with a trace of irritation at the delay.
"Faraday—I believe you've gone to sleep."
The ingenious Patch was now brought up against a poser, but his resourcefulness met the obstacle. He got down on the floor and attempted to cross over to a position behind Billy's seat, which would enable him to deputize for the thick-headed effigy.
Unfortunately he was observed, and Mr. Salmon demanded at once to know what he was doing.
"Dropped my pen, sir," he explained loudly, and then frantically whispered to Jack, "Get behind Bill's chair and speak up."