Chairs had to be collected from all parts of the school, oil-lamps had to be filled and lighted (for at moorland Foxenby there was no such luxury as electric light or gas), and the big palms had to be carried from the conservatory to give the stage a classical appearance. Then, to complicate matters, Tom Jaye, known as the "Tinker", misplaced the music which had been entrusted to him as accompanist on the school piano.
"Think, you chump; where did you have the stuff last?" Will Scarlet demanded impatiently.
"If I knew that, idiot, couldn't I go straight to it without asking anybody?"
"I suppose you've been making a fire with it to warm your nose," commented David of Doncaster.
The Tinker had a little nose like a scarlet button, and this personal remark did not serve to sweeten him.
"Play your own silly old music," he remarked. "I shan't!"
"You mean you can't, having torn it up for a paper-chase or something."
"Stop barging, you chaps," said Robin, "and hustle round to find the missing sheets. It'll be time to start shortly."
He split them up into search-parties, and with frantic haste they explored every nook and cranny of the building. Useless! At the time fixed for the opening of the door nothing of the missing music had been seen by anybody.
"Tinker, they knew something about you when they called you Jaye," Robin panted, half-ironically, half-despairingly. "You're not only a Jaye but a cuckoo as well. There's no help for it. You and Miller will have to do duty on the mouth-organ and the whistle."