“I didn’t notice that,” said Cal doubtfully.
“Well, you didn’t see it the way we did, I guess,” said Hoop in a tone of pride. “You were up in the tree.”
“I cal’late I saw it better than anyone,” responded Cal indignantly. “Didn’t it come and stand there right under me almost for two or three minutes?”
“Gee! Did it, honest?” asked Ned. “I didn’t get more than a glimpse of it. That was all I wanted, though.”
“Well, let’s get upstairs,” said Sandy, “before anyone comes and finds us here.” They climbed in the window, each casting an anxious glance toward the orchard as he did so, and then stole noiselessly upstairs. Strange to say, each boy had brought his bag of apples safely away save Cal.
“I was too scared to even drop mine,” explained Spud, “and I didn’t know I had it until I got to the fence.”
“Same here,” said The Fungus. “It’s a good thing we didn’t leave the pillow-cases over there, though, for they’ve all got ‘West House’ marked on them as plain as daylight.”
“Who has got mine?” asked Cal at this juncture. They had all congregated in Sandy’s room and were sitting around wherever they could find space. Spud had lighted the gas and turned it half down. At Cal’s question each fellow looked at the other while dismay settled rapidly on every face. “I gave it to you, Ned, you know,” Cal went on anxiously. Ned shook his head dismally.
“I know,” he answered. “I was going to fill it, but I couldn’t fill both at once and so I leaned yours against the tree. I—I guess it’s right there now!”
A deep silence held the group, broken at length by a sigh from Claire.