"Thanks, you are very kind," said Dave, and the others said the same. They insisted, however, upon purchasing several pies, and also some chocolate éclairs. The goodies were put into several pasteboard boxes, and then the boys hurried off towards the Hall and Mr. Zumm resumed his journey to town.
The three boys had some little difficulty in getting into Oak Hall with their pasteboard boxes. They were going up a back stairs when Nat Poole caught sight of them.
"Hello, something doing, I'll be bound!" said Poole to himself. "Guess I'll watch and see what it means!"
He crouched out of sight in a dark angle of the hallway and allowed Dave, Roger, and Ben to pass him. Then, when the dormitory door was closed, Nat Poole tiptoed up to it.
"Put the cakes on the top shelf," he heard Dave say. "The pies can go over in that corner."
"A spread!" murmured Nat Poole to himself.
"I don't think we ought to start too early," came in Ben's voice. "Let us make it exactly midnight just for the fun of the thing."
"That suits me," answered the senator's son. "Who is to be invited?"
This was talked over, and it was decided to ask all the inmates of Dormitories No. 11 and 12 and also a few of the students in No. 8, including Henshaw and Babcock.
"But we want to be very quiet about it," cautioned Dave. "If Haskers should hear of it, he'd make all the trouble he could for us."