There was no telling how the tussle would have terminated, though Hicksley was getting his face well washed with snow that the boys were cramming into his mouth and eyes, when a shout arose:
“Cheese it, fellows, there’s a teacher coming!”
The combatants scrambled to their feet and scurried in all directions, and when Mr. Leith, the head teacher, arrived on the spot, there was no one to be seen.
Bobby and his friends found themselves, red, panting and uproariously happy, in their dormitory, where they flung their books upon their beds and fairly danced about with glee.
“I jammed so much snow in Tom Hicksley’s mouth that I bet he’ll taste it for a month,” chortled Fred.
“They tackled the wrong bunch that time,” gurgled Mouser.
“They thought we’d run,” chuckled Bobby.
“Wasn’t that a dandy valentine?” demanded Skeets.
“What a fool he was to show it,” grinned Pee Wee. “Now it’ll go all over the school.”
“Who do you suppose sent it?” wondered Shiner.