Danny Rugg did not know who or what it was that had made the noise. He did not stop to inquire, but darted to the side door of the church, and, making sure by looking up and down the street that no one saw him, he slipped out and ran on to school.
Nan Bobbsey, with the smaller Bobbsey twins, had gone in some time before. Leaving Flossie and Freddie in their classroom, Nan went to hers to do a little early studying. She expected Bert to come in soon, and when it got to be a quarter of nine and her brother had not yet entered, though several other pupils had, Nan was not worried. She thought Bert, after going back after his arithmetic, had met some of his chums and was having fun with them on the way to school.
Bert was seldom late, but often he and some of his chums entered the classroom just as the last bell was ringing its last strokes.
But when the hands of the clock pointed to five minutes of nine, when Miss Skell was at her desk, and most of the other boys and girls were in their seats, Nan began to get uneasy. Each time footsteps sounded in the hall outside the room she hoped it would be Bert who was coming. But he did not enter.
The last bell began to ring. Nan moved uneasily in her seat. She did not want her brother to be late.
The last bell stopped ringing.
“Oh, dear!” thought Nan, with a sinking heart. For now Bert could not enter without being marked tardy. And to Nan, as well as to many other pupils, this was a sad thing to have happen.
Miss Skell took out her roll book and began to call the names of the pupils. They were arranged in alphabetical order, beginning with those whose last name started with the letter A. And of course Bobbsey, beginning with B, was soon reached.
“Bert Bobbsey!” called Miss Skell.
There was no answer. The teacher raised her eyes from the book and looked around the room.