It was the cadets' turn to look surprised.
"Here?" echoed Corporal Jasper. "Here! Why, we haven't seen him."
"Hain't seen him!" roared Texas, wild with vexation. "What in thunder!"
"Wasn't he in your room?" inquired somebody.
"No. He was gone! I thought, of course, he'd come out yere."
And Texas fell to pacing up and down inside the fort, chewing at his finger nails and muttering angrily to himself, while the yearlings gathered into a group and speculated what the strange turn in the affair could mean.
"It's ten to one he's flunked," put in Bull Harris, grinning joyfully.
Some such idea was lurking in Texas' mind, too, but it made him mad that any of his enemies should say it.
"If he has," he bellowed, wheeling about angrily and facing the cadet. "If he has it's because you've tricked him again, you ole white-legged scoundrel you!"
Texas doubled up his fists and looked ready to fight right then; Bull Harris opened his mouth to answer, but Jasper interposed: