"What danger can there be?" The question came again, when Dobson did not reply. "Why, you have risked more than that when we have left the house at night! You have thought that a lark. And now we have only to go to the Head's desk, and then sit in the class-room for an hour or so."
"It will be awfully cold there," shivered Dobson. "And just think—stopping for two hours, and the chance all the time that some one will come!"
"Rubbish! If it is cold, put on your overcoat. You don't call it cold when you stand for longer than that keeping goal, with an east wind blowing. It is no use trying to make objections. I am determined to try it, and you have just got to help me."
"I don't see how we can do it," grumbled Dobson. "I think we had better leave him alone. After all, it don't matter to us if he gets the medal."
"Everything matters that advances him. Now, look here. After the exam. is over, all the papers are taken to the Head, and he puts them in his desk, and sends them to the examiners in the morning. We know that much."
"Yes," assented Dobson.
"Very well. Now, the catch of the Head's roller desk is broken. I heard him say yesterday that he had forgotten to send for a man to repair it. There the papers will be, with nothing to prevent us from getting hold of Rexworth's. That is easy enough. We wait till the place is quiet, and then go to the Head's class-room and take what we want. Then we go to our own class-room, and have our bicycle lamps to give us light. You know that I can write like Rexworth; and even if I did not, no one will know. The Head does not examine the papers himself, and the chap he sends them to would not know the difference, even if you scrawled the answers."
"But what do you want me for?" objected Dobson. "We can't both write."
"You sneak! You want me to do it all. Why, to keep me company, and to be in it as well as me. Besides, I shall want you to read me some answers from Grimwade. I have a copy; and I don't mean only to write wrong answers to some questions, but to put in extracts, so that it will look as if he had been using a crib——"