“Hotchkiss said so.”
“Well, how does Hotchkiss know?”
“He and one or two more of Darrel’s friends at Camp Hawtrey got their heads together and figured it out. Hotchkiss rode over to Dolliver’s to tell Darrel that some of his friends must get the letter away from Parkman.”
“Parkman has already delivered it,” put in Brad.
“Then, Hotchkiss said, it’s got to be taken away from Lenning.”
Merriwell’s dark eyes flashed. He believed fully in Darrel, and he had no confidence whatever in Lenning. In his own mind, Merry was convinced that Lenning had fabricated, and carried into effect, that dastardly plot to make it appear as though Darrel had looted the colonel’s safe of the one thousand dollars.
Was it possible that here, during this brief try-out with Gold Hill, evidence could be deduced proving Darrel innocent of that forgery charge?
Ballard, in his excitement, had not stated the case exactly as it was. Hotchkiss had qualified his assertions somewhat in saying that the communication from Bleeker to Lenning contained forgery evidence. Ballard had merely left out the qualifying words of the friend of Darrel from Camp Hawtrey.
This, at first blush, might seem like a trifling omission, and yet had Merriwell not believed absolutely that Hotchkiss knew what he was talking about, and that the note really contained evidence in the forgery matter, his action would have been vastly different from what it was.
It would soon be time to put the ball into play again. Merriwell, his eyes roving over the field and the scattered players, was thinking deeply.