“But they will, of course,” said the other of the two. “They wouldn’t dare not to, would they?”
“I really can’t——” Then Hugh amended his answer. “Search me,” he said. They talked desultorily for a while. Hugh learned that the second and presumably older boy was named Struthers. Struthers boasted of the junior class’s success in pulling the meeting off and told how he had put lower middle off the track by writing a note to one of their members announcing the affair for Saturday night and purposely dropping it in the corridor of School Hall. Struthers chuckled a lot about that, but Twining appeared incapable of seeing humor in anything just now. He was all for putting his head out the window and calling for help, but Hugh vetoed that plan and threatened to punch the first one who tried it.
“A silly-looking lot we’d be,” he said disgustedly, “if the masters had to come up here and free us! We’d be laughed at all over school. If they don’t let us out pretty soon I’ll see if I can climb around to the next window. It’s only about four or five feet from this one, and if there’s anything to hold on to I can do it.”
“You might fall and hurt yourself,” sniffed Twining.
“I don’t think so. It isn’t far to the ground, for that matter. If we could find a rope or something I might be able to drop. Anyone got a vesta?”
“A vest on?” asked Struthers. “No, but we could tie our jackets together and——”
“I said a vesta, a match,” laughed Hugh. “Tying our jackets together isn’t a bad idea, though. If I can’t make it by the window——”
He stopped and listened. Ten o’clock was sounding.
“Now we’ll all be hung together,” he said cheerfully. “If I get caught coming in after ten I’ll get ballywhack too. I’m going to have a look at that window.”