“There are a lot of apples here but no pillow-case,” said Cal. “Looks like someone had dumped the apples out and taken the case away, don’t it?”
“That’s what’s happened,” said Ned disgustedly. “I guess we might as well go back. We’ll look on the ground between here and the fence, though. Someone might have grabbed it up and dropped it later.”
But there was no sign of it and in the end they had to return to the house without it.
“Well, I dare say it won’t make much difference anyway,” observed Sandy pessimistically when they reached the Sun Parlor again and reported their ill-success. “We’re all in for a jolly ragging and something worse.”
“He can’t suspend us all,” said Spud hopefully.
“Why can’t he?” asked Hoop.
“Too many of us. It would depopulate the school, to say nothing of West House.”
“That wouldn’t bother Horace,” said The Fungus. “If he wants to send us home he will do it, Spud.”
“Oh, well, let him then.” Spud reached into his pillow-case and drew forth a big red apple, which he first polished on his knee and then dug his teeth into. “Eat, sleep and be merry, for tomorrow we die. I’m going to bed. Come on, Sandy.”