“A holiday spoiled,” grumbled Mouser.
“And there’s only two more holidays this month,” observed Sparrow.
“Two!” exclaimed Bobby. “There’s only one more and that’s Washington’s Birthday.”
“How about St. Valentine’s Day?” objected Sparrow. “That’s only two days from now.”
“Oh, that’s only a fake holiday,” replied Fred. “Lessons will go on just the same.”
“I don’t care whether it’s a fake holiday or a real one,” answered Sparrow. “I’m going to get a lot of fun out of it just the same.”
CHAPTER XVII
ON THE TRAIL
The school chums sat up late in the dormitory that night, nursing their bruises, and by the time they had got through applying arnica and other lotions, the place smelled like a hospital.
How they could bring the trick home to those who had played it was a problem that was too much for them at the present. They felt sure that the bullies would deny it if taxed with it, and there was no way of actually proving it, no matter how sure they might feel in their own minds.
The matter could of course have been carried to the authorities of the school, and there is no doubt that they would have looked upon it very gravely because of the serious accident that might have resulted from it. But their code of schoolboy ethics was to keep the teachers out of such things and fight it out among themselves. They felt reasonably sure that sometime or other they would get even, and they bided their time.