It was ten minutes before he came back with the announcement that Hanlon was not to be found. They had told him in the kitchen that the fellow usually went home at six o’clock.
“Well, it doesn’t matter much,” Dick said. “I’ll probably see him to-morrow.”
Very soon afterward they went in to dinner. Niles and two other men joined them, and they made a jolly party around a big table in the middle of the room, which was not so empty after all, quite a number of people having driven out to the club especially to take dinner there. Stovebridge and Marston sat at the same table they had occupied at lunch, and Dick noticed that both seemed to be hitting it up pretty freely.
The evening being a little chilly, they did not return to the veranda after dinner, but made themselves comfortable in the reception hall, where a fire had been lit in the great stone fireplace.
Presently Merriwell remembered that he wanted to call up the Hanlon farm to find out about the little girl, and, on inquiring, found that the telephone was in a small room opening out of the hall.
He had no trouble in getting the number, and Mrs. Hanlon herself came to the telephone. She seemed very much worried and nervous, and told that the doctor had been there almost all the afternoon. The child’s arm had been broken and her head badly cut, and, from the symptoms, the physician was afraid that there was some internal trouble.
“Poor little kid!” Dick muttered as he hung up the receiver. “I certainly shall do my best to show up the brute who is responsible for that. He ought to get the maximum penalty, and if she doesn’t pull through I shouldn’t like to be in his shoes.”
He opened a door which led directly outside, and stepped out on the deserted veranda. It was a perfect night, still and rather cool for that time of year, and, as he looked up at the glittering stars, he drew a long breath of pure oxygen.
All at once he heard a stealthy footfall behind him, and, half turning, he caught a glimpse of a crouching figure close upon him.
As he leaped instinctively to one side he felt the impact of a spent blow on his back. Something sharp pricked his skin.