After this intermission, the story proceeded, the boy growing more and more absorbed with every word. But when it came to the disclosure that Richmond Hill had stood just about where they were now sitting, he leaped to his feet with a whoop.
"Say! Wouldn't that jolt you! Gee! I didn't have any hunch that you girls had a thing like this up your sleeve!" Then, with snapping eyes, he settled down to hear the remainder of the tale. When Corinne had finished, he sat cross-legged before the fire for several minutes, chewing meditatively the cap he had riddled with air-holes.
So long was he silent, that Margaret exclaimed, finally: "Well?" Then he got up, stretched his legs, and inquired: "When you going to have the next meeting of this joint?"
"The day after to-morrow," answered Margaret, who was disappointed that after all he did not seem to have any interested comments to make. "Why?"
"Because," he answered in his remarkable jargon of slang, "you can ring me in on the fest, and—I may have a new piece of dope!"
When the meaning of this remark had dawned on them, they all demanded eagerly: "What? What? Can't you tell us, Alec?"
"Nothing doing—till the day after to-morrow!" he called back as he made a hasty exit down the hall.
And after his departure they all agreed that they had possibly done a rather good day's work in admitting the rowdy Alexander to the Antiquarian Club!