It's ridiculous." Next day, accordingly, three fellows stayed away; who, as they were the three premier louts in Railsford's, were never missed or inquired after.
But when the next day the number swelled to five, and included Simson, who at least knew one end of a bat from the other, and had once tipped a ball to leg for two, the matter was no longer to be overlooked.

The captain's attention was called to the fact that one fellow in the Fifth, three in the Shell, and one Baby, besides Felgate, were not down on the ground.
"Fetch them, then," said Ainger, "and tell them to look sharp, or they'll catch it." Wake was the envoy this time, and duly delivered his message to the deserters, whom, rather suspiciously, as it seemed to him, he found together.
"You'd better go, you youngsters," said.

Felgate, with a sneer; "you'll have to do it sooner or later--you'd better cave in at once." "I'm hanged if I go," said Munger.
"I fancy that's a safe fixture, whether you go or not," drily observed Wake.

"Look sharp, are you coming or not ?" "I'm not coming, I tell you," said Munger.
"No more am I," said Simson.
"No more am I," said each of the others.
"Are you coming, Felgate ?" demanded Wake.
This was an irreverent question for a Fifth-form boy to ask a prefect, and Felgate naturally rebuked it.
"It's no business of yours, and you'd better not be impudent, I can tell you.

As it happens, I've got some work to do, and can't come.