“What is it?” demanded Josiah Crabtree.
“The boys! They are leaping from the dormitory windows!”
“Impossible! Some of them will be killed. Ha! I see. They have ropes! Come, this is a trick—to get us from the school!” And the teacher ran back toward Putnam Hall.
By this time the guards were thoroughly bewildered and did not know what to do. Crabtree gave orders, and Cuddle told them to do something else, and, as a consequence, nothing was accomplished. The teachers were frantic.
“They have—have run away!” gasped Josiah Crabtree, as, having reached the school, he threw open the door of one dormitory after another.
“All of them?”
“No, but the majority. What shall we do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mr. Cuddle, you are responsible for this!”
“I, sir?” gasped the new teacher.