"What is that?" cried Warren, turning. "What do you mean?" And the boys, with many "you sees" and "you knows," told their story, and exhibited their treasures.
"Here, you come with me!" said Warren. "You are a pair of little bricks. Come with me!"
"Where to, Warren?" they asked, as he hurried on—not in the direction of their room, but towards the Head's house. "Where are we going?"
"To the Head himself. He must deal with this. Don't you be frightened. I don't think he will punish you for being late, after he knows what kept you. Come on and speak up like men!"
"Why, Warren!" exclaimed Dr. Beverly, in mild surprise, when the monitor of the Fourth entered his presence, accompanied by the two little draggled objects. "What is this? Have these boys been in the river? Take them to the housekeeper at once. They are soaking wet!"
"They won't hurt for a minute or two more. They have something to tell you, sir—something I thought that you ought to hear before any one else."
"Indeed!" said the Head. "And what is it? Speak quickly, and let them go; they will catch bad colds."
So Warren told the story for them, and placed their catch before the Head. And Dr. Beverly, great man as he was, shook these two happy juniors by the hand, and called them clever boys, and dismissed them to revel in special tea in the matron's room after he had strictly enjoined both them and the monitor not to say a word of this, even to Charlton or Ralph Rexworth.
But Ralph had not come home, and it was getting late now. He had been long enough to get to Crab Tree Hill and back twice over. What could have happened to Ralph Rexworth?