“Let us hope so,” answered Josiah Crabtree, and then he and Cuddle talked the matter over from beginning to end, and fixed up the story they should tell Captain Putnam when he returned. According to their idea the cadets were to blame for everything and had assaulted them most outrageously. Crabtree had already interviewed one of the men hired by him at Cedarville and this fellow was ready to corroborate any tale the instructors might put forth.
The teachers had just about finished their talk when they heard a hurried knock on the door of the office and one of the waiters appeared.
“The cook and the head waiter would like you to come to the kitchen at once, please!” cried the colored man.
“What for?” demanded Josiah Crabtree.
“A lot of the eating has been stolen, sah!”
“Stolen!” screamed Pluxton Cuddle.
“Yes, sah. They jess found it out, sah, and they sent me to tell you, sah.”
“This is—er—extraordinary!”
“It’s those confounded boys!” roared Josiah Crabtree. “They must have gotten to the kitchen somehow and taken the things.”
“But the guards—you forget the guards,” returned Pluxton Cuddle.