“Don’t be afraid of it, Mumpsy, old boy,” said Baxter to his toady. “Drink it, it will make a man of you.”
The boys continued to smoke and drink for the best part of half an hour. Then they heard a peculiar noise outside.
“Hi, somebody is coming!” cried Paxton, in alarm. “Put out the light!”
The lantern that hung on a nail was extinguished and the boys listened. They heard somebody moving around in the dark. Then all became silent.
“I—I don’t like this,” said Mumps, in a trembling voice. “I think somebody was spying on us!”
“We had better get back to the school,” said Baxter, and this advice was followed without delay. They saw somebody running across the campus, but could not make out who the person was.
During the time the Baxter crowd had been smoking and drinking they had talked over many matters, and particularly their troubles with Pepper, Jack, and Andy Snow. The bully of the Hall wanted to get even with Pepper for the trouble on the ice, and Reff Ritter was willing to do almost anything to “put a spoke in Andy Snow’s wheel,” as he expressed it.
The upshot of the talk was that the crowd determined to play some tricks on our friends, and do it that very night.
“I know something brand-new,” said Coulter, and told his cronies of it.
“That’s the talk—if we can work it,” said Baxter. “And we’ll do something else, too,” he added.