"It's sure enough gone," he went on, with a long breath.
"Somebody pinch me to see if I'm dreaming," begged Sid, and Phil gave him such a vigorous nip on the fleshy part of his leg that the tall youth howled.
"Turn over; you're on your back," advised Tom, as he got down on his hands and knees to peer under the beds.
"What are you looking for?" demanded Phil.
"Our old armchair, of course. I thought maybe some of the fellows had been in here trying to be funny, and had hidden it. But it isn't here--it's gone."
"As if it could be under a bed!" exploded Sid, rubbing his leg reflectively. "You must be getting batty!"
"Maybe he thought it could be reduced to fractions or acted on by chemicals, like some of the stuff in the laboratory test tubes," went on Phil.
"That's all right!" fired back the varsity pitcher, rather sharply, "it's gone, isn't it? Our old armchair, that stood by us, and----"
"And on which _we_ stood when we couldn't find the stepladder," interrupted Phil.
"Oh, quit your kidding!" expostulated Tom. "The old chair's gone; isn't it?"
"You never said a truer word in all your life, my boy," declared Sid, more gravely.
"Sort of queer, too," declared Phil. "It was here when we went out to football practice, and now----"
"Well, all I've got to say is that I'd like to find the fellow who took it!" broke out Tom, dramatically. "I'd make a complaint to the proctor about him."
"Oh, you wouldn't do that; would you, Tom?" and Phil Clinton stepped over to a creaking old sofa, and peered behind it, brushing up against it, and causing a cloud of dust to blow out about the room. "You wouldn't do that, Tom. Why, it isn't Randall spirit to go to the authorities with any of our troubles that can be settled otherwise."
"But this isn't an ordinary trouble!" cried the pitcher. "Our old chair has been taken, and I'm going to find out who's got it. When I do----"
He clenched his fists suggestively, and began to strip off his football togs, preparatory to donning ordinary clothes.
"It isn't back there," announced Phil, as he leaned upright again, after a prolonged inspection behind the big sofa. "But there's a lot of truck there. I think I see my trigonometry." Getting down on his hands and knees, and reaching under the antiquated piece of furniture, he pulled out not one but several books.