They only gazed at him, after this statement, in uncomprehending bewilderment.
"You don't get me yet?" he went on. "Well, that means they're going to do a good deal of altering."
Still they appeared unenlightened.
"Gee! but you four are thick!" he cried at last. "The only way they can widen it is by tearing down all the houses on one side. And that's just what they're going to do on this side! McCorkle's stable has got to go. Now are you on?"
"Then—then—" stuttered Corinne.
"Then we can get at the secret beam!" announced Alexander in triumph.
CHAPTER XI
ALEXANDER SPRINGS A SURPRISE
It was with impatience indescribable that the members of the Antiquarian Club awaited the demolition of McCorkle's stable. Now that Alexander had enlightened them as to the approaching changes in Varick Street, the girls watched with absorbing interest the slow, gradual approach of the house-wrecking throng which had sometime before invaded the upper portion of the street. For weeks they had been passing unheeded the frenzied scene of tearing down, digging up, and general destruction that had suddenly changed peaceful Varick Street into an unsightly heap of ruin and scaffolding. It had meant nothing to them, so absorbed were they in their own affairs. And now they found, quite to their amazement, that it was going to have a very direct bearing on these same affairs!