"He's playing a deep game," said Parfitt. "I believe he means turning over Garside for Bede's, like Mellor did."
"I believe so, too; but he can't do it before next term, and we must get our blow in before then. It all depends on getting hold of that flag. Now, then, Plunger, buck up!"
Plunger increased his pace, and it was not long before he reached the shed in which he and Moncrief minor had been initiated into the "Noble Order of Beetles." They reached it, as arranged, fully half an hour before the time appointed for Plunger to meet "the mystic brethren." So, as they hoped and expected, they found it empty.
"Now, Plunger, where do you say the flag is? Quick! We've got no time to lose!" said Newall.
Plunger did not answer. He stood dumfounded. There was the place where he had been initiated into the "mystic brotherhood." There was the place where he had stood and looked up at the "mystic emblem," and had discovered to his amazement that it was the missing school flag. He rubbed his eyes then; he rubbed them now. The flag had gone! Gone! Had it ever been there? Was that scene, after all, as it had more than once seemed, only a dream?
"Wake up, sleepy!" cried Newall, kicking him on the shins to rouse him. "Where's the flag?"
"It was there, just over my head," answered Plunger, pointing to the roof above him; "but it isn't there now."
They searched the shed, but could find no trace of the missing flag. There was a large box in which it might be hidden, but that was locked, and there was no time to force it.
"You're not making fun of us, Plunger, are you?" demanded Newall, clutching him fiercely by the arm.
"Really, I'm not."