“Or who wanted to be captain in place of Fred,” added Phil.
“No, I don’t believe any of those fellows would be mean enough to do this. They’ve all acted pretty nice since the election,” answered Jack. “It must have been someone else.”
“Going to report it?” came from the stout cadet.
“I don’t think so, Fatty,” said the young major slowly. “In the first place, we don’t know who is guilty. And in the second place, I have no desire to become a telltale.”
“We’ll fight this out ourselves! You just leave it to us!” broke in Andy. “The secret will come out sooner or later.”
“I think the best thing we can do first of all is to clean up this mess and then wash up,” said Fred. “Gee! I hardly know how to begin,” he added, gazing at the disordered center table ruefully.
“Here’s an old brush and an empty shoebox,” returned Jack. “We’ll brush the soot into the box as carefully as we can. We don’t want any more of it to be flying around. As it is, this room will have to be dusted and cleaned up thoroughly.”
“Well, if we can’t help you we might as well be on our way,” said Fatty Hendry. “I have some boning to do before I hit the hay.”
“And I’ve got some problems in algebra to solve,” came from Phil.
“I don’t see how you can help us unless you can find out who that masked cadet was,” answered Jack.