CHAPTERIX
Bert Bobbsey was not a long while falling through the trapdoor. In fact, it took hardly a second. But in that short time the boy had time to hear Danny Rugg come clattering down the stairs that led to the balcony of the church. And from the speed with which Danny ran, Bert guessed that the other boy was frightened.
“I guess the noise I made when I stumbled and yelled scared Danny,” thought Bert. Later he learned that this was so.
But poor Bert did not have time to think of much. He felt himself falling, he heard Danny’s frightened rush out of the church, and then Bert landed on what seemed to be a pile of old bags in the basement of the church.
Then Bert felt a sharp pain in his head, which struck something hard, and a momentlater stars seemed to be dancing in front of his eyes—stars in the darkness. Then Bert knew nothing more. He was unconscious, just as if he had fainted.
And there the poor lad was, alone in the dark basement.
Danny Rugg did not know who or what it was that had made the noise. He did not stop to inquire, but darted to the side door of the church, and, making sure by looking up and down the street that no one saw him, he slipped out and ran on to school.
Nan Bobbsey, with the smaller Bobbsey twins, had gone in some time before. Leaving Flossie and Freddie in their classroom, Nan went to hers to do a little early studying. She expected Bert to come in soon, and when it got to be a quarter of nine and her brother had not yet entered, though several other pupils had, Nan was not worried. She thought Bert, after going back after his arithmetic, had met some of his chums and was having fun with them on the way to school.
Bert was seldom late, but often he andsome of his chums entered the classroom just as the last bell was ringing its last strokes.
But when the hands of the clock pointed to five minutes of nine, when Miss Skell was at her desk, and most of the other boys and girls were in their seats, Nan began to get uneasy. Each time footsteps sounded in the hall outside the room she hoped it would be Bert who was coming. But he did not enter.
The last bell began to ring. Nan moved uneasily in her seat. She did not want her brother to be late.
The last bell stopped ringing.
“Oh, dear!” thought Nan, with a sinking heart. For now Bert could not enter without being marked tardy. And to Nan, as well as to many other pupils, this was a sad thing to have happen.
Miss Skell took out her roll book and began to call the names of the pupils. They were arranged in alphabetical order, beginning with those whose last name started with the letter A. And of course Bobbsey, beginning with B, was soon reached.
“Bert Bobbsey!” called Miss Skell.
There was no answer. The teacher raised her eyes from the book and looked around the room.
“Bert Bobbsey!” she called again, for Bert was seldom absent and Nan could not remember when he had been late.
There was no answer, of course. For at that moment, though none in the room knew it, poor Bert was lying unconscious in the church basement.
Then Miss Skell looked at Nan, whose name was next on the list. She marked Nan as being present, and then asked:
“Is Bert sick to-day, Nan?”
“Oh, no, Miss Skell,” said Nan, very seriously. “He started for school the same time I did. Then he didn’t have his arithmetic and went back after it. I don’t know what happened to him. I don’t know why he isn’t here.”
Nan’s voice began to tremble a little. A thought entered her mind that perhaps, when Bert went back to get his book, something had happened at home—either to Dinah orMrs. Pry—and Bert had had to stay to look after things.
“Or,” thought Nan to herself, “maybe a telegram came with bad news about Uncle Rossiter—or mother or daddy—and Bert had to go out there.”
But on second thoughts she hardly believed this possible. Bert would not start alone on a long journey without telling her.
Miss Skell saw that Nan was troubled, so the teacher said:
“Probably Bert had an errand to do that detained him. Or, after coming to school, Mr. Tarton may have met him downstairs and asked him to do something. I think that is it—Bert has gone on an errand for the principal. In that case I will not mark him tardy. I will wait until after the morning exercises.”
Nan Bobbsey breathed a sigh of relief. After all, Bert might have been sent somewhere by the principal. The Bobbsey boy had often gone on errands for the head of the school, and this, of course, always excused one from being marked tardy.
Miss Skell went on calling the roll, and soon the boys and girls marched to the big assembly hall where the morning exercises were held. Mr. Tarton was in charge, as usual, and as Nan looked at the principal, up on the platform, she wished she could ask him whether or not he had sent Bert on an errand.
Miss Skell, however, seemed to know what was going on in Nan’s mind, for when the class was back in its room the teacher said:
“Nan, you may go to Mr. Tarton’s office to ask whether he sent Bert on an errand. Then come back and tell me.”
The Bobbsey girl hurried down the stairs and into the office where Mr. Tarton sat at his desk. Many books were in cases about the room. The principal’s office was rather a solemn place, and especially so for any of the boys or girls who were sent there when they had done something against the rules. However, Nan was easy in her mind on this point, though she was worried about her brother.
“Well, Nan, what is it?” asked Mr. Tarton. Though he had a large school, he knew nearly every pupil in it by his or her first name.“Did Miss Skell send you with a note to me?” he went on.
“No, sir,” answered Nan. “But she said I might come to ask about my brother Bert.”
“What about Bert?” asked the principal, with a smile. “Has he been throwing any more snowballs? I won’t ask if he has broken any more windows, for, even though Sam Todd says Bert did it, I have doubts in my mind on that point. But what about Bert?”
“Did you send him on an errand?”
“Why, no, Nan. What do you mean?”
“Bert isn’t in his class. He didn’t come to school. He started with me and ran back to get his arithmetic, and I—I don’t know what has happened to him.”
Nan’s voice faltered and she was about to cry. Mr. Tarton noticed this and said kindly:
“Don’t worry. We’ll find Bert for you. Very likely when he got back home your mother sent him to the store. He may come a little late, but if he does, and has a good excuse, he will not be marked tardy.”
“Oh, my mother couldn’t send Bert to the store, because she and my father have gone away!” exclaimed Nan.
“Well, then some one at your house may have sent Bert to the store.”
“Yes, Mrs. Pry or Dinah might,” admitted Nan.
“We can soon find out,” went on the principal. “You have a telephone, haven’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I will call up and ask if Bert went anywhere. Wait a moment.”
The principal was about to call up the Bobbsey house when he happened to think of something.
“Perhaps I had better not do this,” he said to Nan. “It might be that Bert went off by himself. I don’t mean that he played truant, Nan,” he said, as he heard the girl gasp. “I mean he might have met some one from your father’s office, or something like that. Those at your house—the servant or this old lady that you told me was helping you keep house—would know nothing about it, and it might worry them if we asked about Bert.”
“I’ll tell you what to do. I’ll ask Miss Skell to excuse you, and you may go home to see if Bert is there. If he isn’t, come back and let me know. Then I will do something else. You need not alarm Dinah or Mrs. Pry. I will ask you to go home to get me a certain book. Let me see, I remember Bert once brought to school a book of your father’s containing a number of fine poems for recitation. I’ll send you home to get that book. Then you won’t worry the old lady. How will that do, Nan?”
“It will be a good plan, I think,” Nan answered. “And I hope I’ll find Bert there.”
“Yes. Or at least learn whether or not he has been sent on an errand,” added the principal. “Give this note to Miss Skell.”
He hastily wrote one, and when Miss Skell read it she said to Nan:
“Get on your hat and coat and go.”
The boys and girls in the room, noting that Bert was not present and seeing Nan go out, did not know what to think. It was very mysterious.
But it was more than mysterious to NanBobbsey when she reached home and saw nothing of Bert. Mrs. Pry saw the girl coming up the steps and opened the door for her.
“Why, my dear, school isn’t out already, is it?” asked the old lady.
“No, I came back to get a book for Mr. Tarton,” Nan answered. “Did Bert get his arithmetic?” she inquired.
“Yes, he found it,” said Mrs. Pry, “and he hurried right out with it. I told him to hurry so he wouldn’t be late for school.”
So Nan learned, without really asking, that Bert had not been sent on an errand by either Mrs. Pry or Dinah.
“Oh, where can he be?” thought poor Nan, as she hurried back to school with the book of poems. “What has happened to him? How can Mr. Tarton ever find him?”