"We'll hope for the best," said Bart, cheerfully, "Now let's go all over the details and arrange our campaign. This is the first time I ever helped in a raid on a sanitarium."
"I hope it will be the last," spoke Frank. "It's a sad-enough thing, and I only wish it was over."
"Cheer up," counseled Fenn. "You've had it pretty hard, carrying that secret all alone. Now we're going to help you; aren't we, fellows?"
"That's what we are!" chorused Bart and Ned, and at that Frank smiled. He seemed to have lost much of the gloom that had enveloped him for the past few weeks.
"Well, let's get to work," suggested Ned. "The sooner this thing is done the better. The weather has been fine for the past week, and it's liable now to rain soon. In fact, I think a storm is brewing," and he looked up through the trees to the sky.
It was becoming overcast, and the direction of the wind had changed. Ned's chums agreed with him it would be best to lose no time.
"Fenn and I will go over to Mr. Armstrong's house this afternoon," said Bart. "We'll find out about the ladder and the donkey."
"There's another thing to be thought of," said Ned. "What are you going to do with your father when you get him, Frank?"
"I did have an idea I would take him to the hotel in Lockport."
"I wouldn't do that," said Ned. "That will be the first place they will look for him. Why not bring him here?"