"We ought to, for we've been at it nearly half an hour."
"And you others—Brady, Ethel, Lucy, et cetera—you've all got your books ready?"
"Ay, ay, sir," laughed Simmons.
"What was your job, Armie?" asked Jack. He had been engrossed in inking new slates.
Armitage smothered a laugh.
"Muddling, Jack, my boy, muddling! And a truly artistic muddle have we made. It's been a game of 'General Post' with the books. The dictionaries have taken the atlases' place, the Greek grammars have deposed the Latins, and—"
"Hist!" interrupted Jack. "I smell Pepper! We must whistle to Ethel." And without waiting for permission he did so.
"Ethel" was posted down the long passage by the school entrance, with instructions to turn the key back when he heard the signal. The sound of unlocking was drowned in the hubbub without, and, turning, he fled noiselessly up the passage and into the school-room, at the identical moment in which two others made their appearance there—namely Mr. Peace, through the opposite door, and Norman Hallett outside the window!
"Now, then, where is everybody?" cried the fussy little master, seeing less than a dozen boys assembled for work. Then his eye fell on Hallett's pale, angry face peering through the glass. "Why, Hallett outside? What's the meaning of this? What's the meaning of this?"
"Do you think perhaps they didn't hear the bell, sir?" suggested Simmons. "They've been making rather a noise outside."