break into a wild sort of jig, as he cried aloud—"I've found it, boys; I've found it!"
"Where? What? How?" asked the others, clinging to him as if they were shipwrecked mariners, and he a rope thrown out to them.
The idea was evidently a good one, for it was received with great applause, and everybody was interested at once in helping Alf elaborate his plan.
"Won't it be heaping coals of fire on their heads after the shabby way they have treated us?" said Tom, chuckling at the thought of the girls' remorse when the touching surprise in store for them should be revealed.
"But how the dickens shall we get enough m———?" began Frank, rather inclined to throw cold water on the affair because he was not the originator of it.
"Hush!" shouted Alf; then added in a melodramatic whisper, "If the girls hear that word we are lost. I've planned how to manage that, but it will take time, and we'd better begin at once, or there won't be enough you-know-whats to go round. Come upstairs; we can talk safely there without a pack of girls listening at the keyhole, as I know they are this identical minute."
