“No, that’s true,” agreed Mr. Allard. “Let’s see, now,” and he thought a minute or two.
“How would this do?” he exclaimed at length. “We’ve got all sorts of books here with jokes and riddles in them. Suppose we pick out a few good conundrums, and you can learn them and the answers between now and seven o’clock. Then, right at the beginning of the bedtime stuff, you give the riddles, and we’ll announce that the answers aren’t to be given until the very end of the performance. That will keep them guessing all through it, and keep them interested. Then at the end you can give the answers. How does that strike you?”
“I’m game,” replied Bob, grinning. “I guess if I bone down to it I can learn a few by then.”
“You won’t even have to memorize them, if you don’t want to,” said Mr. Allard. “You can read them right off if you’d rather. Your audience won’t be able to see what you’re doing, you know.”
“That would probably be better,” agreed Bob. “Then there won’t be any chance of my forgetting the answers. Think of how tough it would be on the kids if I gave them a riddle and then forgot the answer. That would be a terrible trick to play on them.”
“Well, you can suit yourself about that,” 202 returned Mr. Allard. “It’s almost six o’clock now, so perhaps you’d better go out and get a bite to eat right now. I’ll pick out a few good conundrums, and you’d better get back as soon as you can and study them up a bit.”
“All right,” said Bob. “We’ll make it snappy.”
He and Joe and Larry went out and had a quick meal at the nearest restaurant.
“You fellows have broken into the entertaining game with your usual speed,” remarked Larry. “Who would have imagined this morning that you would be on the broadcasting programme this evening?”
“We wouldn’t have been, one time out of a hundred,” answered Bob. “If one of the regulars hadn’t been sick, we never would have gotten a look in.”