“I think we know what he was doing,” declared Dick. “We’re lucky to arrive uninjured, Mr. Duncan.”
He then told of their narrow escape from a serious accident.
“Do you think it possible any one actually tampered with those rails?” gasped William Drake, in horror.
“My goodness! my goodness!” cried Eustace Smiley, his pudgy hands uplifted. “It must have been an accident.”
“It will be investigated,” said Dick. “Both motorman and conductor declared the rails had been loosened and spread.”
“Dreadful! dreadful!” said Smiley.
Bart Hodge now stepped forward and made himself known to Duncan, who remembered him well and welcomed him once more to Maplewood.
“In order to avoid trouble with Hammerswell,” said Duncan, “we decided to entertain you at the clubhouse instead of at the hotel. Hammerswell has been keeping his team at the hotel, and he has some sort of a pull there.”
“We’re well aware of that,” nodded Dick, smiling grimly. “He had a pull sufficient to push us from the place the day we first arrived in this town.”
“A most disgraceful piece of business,” said Smiley.