longer.

The sneak of the school whirled around suddenly, and there beheld in
the doorway of the next room the Rover boys and their chums in a
group, all grinning at him.

"How'd you like the fish, Codfish?" questioned Fred.

"Thought you said you didn't have any boxes in your room," came from
Jack.

"I didn't know you were raising frogs for a living," remarked Randy.

"Why don't you take those boxes down and put them on the bonfire?"
questioned Gif.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself--littering up your room with all
that straw and excelsior," was Walt's comment. "If you aren't careful,
you'll get some mighty bad marks for doing that."

"What did you do with the man who wanted to see you?" questioned
Spouter. "Did you tell him that you were too busy to talk?"

"You're a fine bunch of fellows!" howled Codfish, not knowing what to
say. "You had no business to play a trick like this on me!"

"Play a trick on you?" questioned Andy innocently. "Who has been
playing a trick? Why, we don't know what it is to do anything like
that!"

"I think somebody said you wanted to see us, but I don't know what
for," added Randy.

"If anybody should ask me, I would say you had a queer way of cleaning
house, Codfish," remarked Fred calmly.

"And to think he stole one of the codfish from the pantry!" said Jack.
"By the way it smells, he must have taken it the day he enrolled
here."

"Maybe he likes codfish good and strong," suggested Gif.

"I'll 'codfish' you fellows if you don't leave me alone!" howled the
sneak. He was so vexed he almost felt like crying. "You just wait till
Colonel Colby or Captain Dale hears about this!"

"Yes, I wonder what the colonel will say when he finds out you stole
one of the codfish belonging to the school," said Andy. "You oughtn't
to have done it, Henry, my boy. If you wanted anything to eat, why
didn't you ask one of the teachers for it?"

"Maybe he chews on codfish in the middle of the night when he can't
sleep, or when he is trying to solve a problem in algebra," suggested
Randy.

"I don't do any such thing, and I didn't take that codfish from the
pantry, and you know it!" howled Codfish, in anger. "It's a put-up
job, and you are the fellows who did it! All of you ought to be sent
away from this school."

"If he took a codfish, maybe he took some other things, too," said
Jack. "I think this ought to be investigated."

"And how did you happen to get all these boxes?" demanded Fr