To this room Hicksley went straight from the gymnasium and rapped on the door.
CHAPTER XV
SPOILING THE FUN
There was a scurrying within the room and Hicksley heard the sound of a window being hastily thrown up. Then after a long pause the door was slowly opened.
“Oh, it’s you, is it?” said Bronson in a tone of relief.
“Sure it is,” replied Hicksley tersely. “Who did you think it was? What’s the matter with you fellows anyway. Any one might think I was a cop, from the time you took to open the door.”
“Worse than that,” grinned Bronson. “I thought you might be Dr. Raymond or one of the teachers. We were smoking. Now you’ve made us throw away two perfectly good cigarettes and freeze ourselves by opening the window to get the smoke out of the room. Shut the window again, Jack. It’s only Tom.”
“Well, I’m not going to tell on you,” replied Hicksley. “That is,” he added with a grin, “if you’ve got another cigarette left for me.”
It was strictly against the rules to smoke, but in the opinion of these worthless fellows rules were made only to be broken, and all three were soon puffing away, after making sure that the door was securely locked.
Bronson was a tall, thin boy, with straw-colored hair. Jinks was shorter, but very stocky. A squint that made his small eyes look smaller still gave him a most unprepossessing appearance.
“Well, what’s up?” asked Bronson, seeing from Hicksley’s manner that he had something to propose.