“But do we have just to keep on enduring his visits night after night, sir?” Peg asked, appealingly. “Would there be any objection to Dan here getting up some sort of trap that would hold the gorilla a prisoner, so we could return him to the Zoological Gardens that mebbe he escaped from?”
Mr. Holwell smiled on hearing that.
“I’m sure there could be no objection to such a scheme, provided Dan is able to conjure up a plan that will turn out better than the last trap did,” he answered. At this Dan blushed, and then grinned as though he felt the remark was intended as a compliment.
“Oh! leave all that to me, sir,” he said, boldly. “Right now I’m figuring on a bully scheme that is bound to work. And this time I don’t mean to trust to just plain snares or traps.”
CHAPTER XXIV
DAN’S NEW IDEA
“Somehow I’m feeling unusually smart this morning,” said Peg Fosdick, as he came face to face with Dan Fenwick, after the excitement had somewhat abated, “and I’m going to challenge you to a spin in the rowing shells across to that little island away over there and back again. I dare you to accept, Dan!”
Dan was one of those who seem to be always carrying chips on their shoulders, and any one knocking that chip off would have his hands full immediately.
“Count me in the game!” he quickly exclaimed. “That is, if Mr. Rowland will give us the necessary permission. I’ve been wanting to make a test of your boast that you were a better oarsman than any of the rest of us, barring Eddie Grant and Ban Jansen.”
“Well, here’s your chance to make good!” jeered Peg.
The athletic instructor, coming along just then, was appealed to in such terms of entreaty that he laughingly consented to the trial of skill and strength, for rowing combines both these necessary qualifications.