"I wish you'd go to the back of the room and tip over those two cots," grinned Will. "It's the hardest kind of work to get Tommy and Sandy to bed, but when you do get them in bed once, it's harder still to get them out of it. Just tip the cots over and roll 'em out on the floor."
George approached the two cots in a stealthy manner and made ready to give Tommy and Sandy the bump of their lives.
"Don't break their necks!" advised Will.
As soon as George reached Tommy's bunk he stretched forth a hand for the purpose of tangling the boy up in the bedclothing so that his fall to the hard floor might be in a measure broken.
As he swung his hand over the cot, however, his eyes widened and he called out to Will that the boys were not in their cots.
There was a look of alarm as well as of annoyance on each face as the lads thought over the situation.
"The little idiots!" exclaimed Will.
"That isn't strong enough!" George corrected.
"There's no knowing how long they've been gone," Will suggested. "The chances are that they went away as soon as we went to sleep."
"In that case, they're in trouble!" George declared.