“Dave’s cold meal has given him a nightmare while he’s still awake,” roared Tom.
“I suppose I must admit having been squelched again,” sighed the fat boy. “Made a mistake in not yielding to that sleepy feeling the instant I took the last bite. And I am more than uncommonly drowsy, so——”
“We all know what that means,” laughed Bob.
The boys soon went up to their rooms, some to add a few lines to letters already partly written, others to read.
To their surprise, Willie Sloan was nowhere to be found.
As the afternoon wore on, and he did not appear, Cranny began to look annoyed, then anxious. He walked to the window and threw it open.
“Hello, Willie!” he shouted.
“Where in the world can the little chap be?” he remarked, after several of the others had called.
“Search me,” quoth Tim Lovell.
“A search all around might be better,” said Dick, dryly. “Perhaps he’s taking a Marathon out on the prairie.”