"Got to be a little quiet from now on," he said, in a hoarse whisper and with a broad grin on his face. "I'm awfully deaf to-night, but the doctor will wake up if there's too much racket."
"Did you get the pie?" questioned Dave.
"Not yet, and I'll take it now, if you don't mind."
"Jim, do you mean to say you didn't get that pie?" demanded Dave.
"Oh, he's fooling," interrupted Phil. "He wants a second piece."
"That's it," came from Shadow. "Puts me in mind of a story about a boy who——"
"Never mind the story now, Shadow," interrupted Dave. "Tell me honestly, Jim, whether you got the pie or not? Of course you can have another piece, or some chicken salad——"
"I didn't get any pie,—or anything else," answered the monitor.
"I put it on the bottom of the stand in the upper hallway."
"Nothing there when I went to look."