CHAPTER XV.
WARNED.
At the head of the stairs swarmed the plebes, who were convulsed with laughter.
"Oh! oh! oh!" gasped Sammy Smiles, clinging to his sides.

"Somebody please do something to stop me from laughing! Ha! ha! ha! If I don't stop soon, I'll die! Oh, dear! oh, dear! I am sore all over!" "Help!" cried Professor Gunn.
The boys on the floor below the Cockloft were out by this time, and they were enjoying the spectacle quite as much as the plebes above.
Frank had rushed into his room, and he came forth with a bag that contained something that moved and snarled.

Reaching the head of the stairs, he quickly opened the mouth of the bag and extracted two cats.
He had slipped on a pair of heavy gloves, and he succeeded in holding the cats securely, while he said to Ned Gray: "Quick--take the string that held the mouth of the bag--tie their tails together! Lively!" Ned caught up the string, and worked swiftly, tying the cats' tails tightly together.
When this was accomplished, Frank gave the felines a fling toward the group at the foot of the stairs.
The cats struck one on either side of Professor Gunn's neck, and, as their tails were tied together, they hung there, but not quietly.
With wild howls of agony, they began clawing each other, incidentally, by way of diversion, socking their claws into the professor's face now and then, and ripping up a few furrows in that gentleman's countenance.
Professor Gunn howled louder than the cats, and tried to fling them off; but they clung to him as if they loved him, and continued to shower marks of affection upon him.
"Great Scott!" gasped Ned Gray.

"If it is ever found out that you were at the bottom of this, Merriwell, you will be expelled sure!" "Then I shall perish in a good cause," laughed Frank.

"Fun is better than medicine, and we were beginning to stagnate." "Help!" cried Professor Gunn, in tones of deep anguish.