"Goodness knows," answered Dick snappishly, "Gone."
"But how did you get out of them?" asked Hal further.
"Took 'em off," said Dick in a surly voice.
"Queer place to choose," put in Will.
"But what have you done with them?" asked Hal, utterly at a loss.
"Nothing!" exclaimed Dick indignantly. "They're gone."
"Gone?"
"Can't you understand!" broke out Dick, with injured dignity most ludicrous to behold. "Some one's taken 'em."
The others roared with laughter anew; but the whole thing suddenly flashed upon Hal. Dick, afraid to go home, had conceived the idea of drying his clothes in the sun; and Bill, finding him there asleep, had played him this waggish but shameful trick.
Hal didn't laugh.