“I agree it is more your affair than mine, Mr. Duke,” returned the other teacher. “But don’t you think it would be wise to let the matter rest until Colonel Colby comes back from the city?”
“Not at all! Not at all! These young rascals must be taken in hand, and at once. Otherwise our authority in this institution will go to pieces.”
At this moment there was a movement among the students who had collected in the corridor, and Gif and Spouter stepped forward.
“Excuse me, Professor Duke,” said Gif. “But I had as much to do with bringing those snowballs upstairs as anybody.”
“And so did I,” added Spouter.
“And I was in on the deal, too,” came from Phil Franklin, as he too stepped forward.
“What? All of you?” demanded Snopper Duke, eyeing them coldly.
“I can assure you we meant no great harm,” continued Spouter. “We were only going to have a little fun among ourselves and with our fellow-cadets—that is, mostly,” he added somewhat lamely, as he remembered what had been said about placing some of the snowballs in the teacher’s room.
“Were any others implicated in this despicable piece of business?” demanded Professor Duke, looking around at the assembled cadets. “Answer me at once!”
There was no reply to this, the cadets simply looking at each other questioningly.