“What’s the matter with making some lemonade to go with the cake?” ventured Andy. “I know there is a basket of lemons in the storeroom downstairs, and there is plenty of sugar there, too—and water costs nothing.”
This plan met with instant approval, and Andy and Dale were appointed a committee of two to provide the lemonade. By this time the monitor was coming around, and they had to put out lights. The Hall became very quiet, for all the cadets were supposed to be in bed.
The four boys slipped downstairs by a back way, and while Andy and Dale tiptoed to the store-room, Pepper and Henry slipped out of a side-door. Once outside, the latter put on their shoes, which they had carried in their hands, and hurried across the broad campus in the direction of the apple-tree where the baker was to leave the cakes.
“Perhaps he hasn’t arrived yet,” said Pepper. “If not, I suppose all we can do is to wait.”
When they got to the tree no boxes were there, and they sat down on a small grassy bank to wait. Beside the bank grew a clump of bushes, which screened them from the Hall. It was a fairly clear night, with bright stars shining in the heavens overhead.
“That baker is certainly late,” mused Henry, after a good ten minutes had passed.
“Getting hungry?” asked Pepper, good-naturedly. “He may have been delayed on account of the party.”
“I hope he doesn’t forget about the cakes. Perhaps—what’s that?”
The two cadets became silent, as they heard a door close rather sharply. Looking through the clump of bushes, they saw two figures stealing from the school building towards them.
“Some of the other fellows are coming,” cried Pepper.
“I don’t know, I’m sure. But I think—Well, I never! It is Gus Coulter and Reff Ritter! What can they be doing out here to-night?”
“Let us get out of sight and find out,” answered Henry, and dragged his chum to a clump of bushes still farther back from the campus. He had hardly done this when Gus Coulter and Reff Ritter came up.
“Good enough! I was afraid they’d get here before us. Where do you suppose the baker put the cakes?”
“Mumps heard Lee say under this apple-tree.”
After that the two cadets became silent as they moved around in the vicinity of the apple-tree. In the meantime Pepper pinched Henry’s arm.
