“He was here a minute ago, but now he’s gone!” cried Helen Allen, in a plaintive voice; and Ralph felt doubly sorry that he was compelled to forego a pleasant evening in the company of Frank’s sister.
Scurrying through the end of the barn, he reached the open air.
CHAPTER XXI
RALPH HEARS SOMETHING
Ralph had become cautious by this time.
“Two narrow squeaks, and the third time may see me held tight,” he said to himself, as he crouched there, looking around.
He knew positively that the anxious sophomores were hiding everywhere about, their eyes on the barn where the freshmen had vanished, bearing their dinner with them. How to creep away undetected was a question for the lad to solve. He found where the darkness lay most heavily, and laid out his line of retreat accordingly.
He was just about to rise when he thought he had crept far enough away, when he heard a fluttering of the bushes near by.
“Are the birds all in the coop?” asked an unseen crouching figure.
Ralph knew that he had been taken for one of the second-year boys. His ready wit came to the front, so that he instantly replied:
“Yes. And the captain wants you all to creep in closer. I’m rounding the gang up. Move along!”