Hollingsworth lingered about the office a while, finally finding an opportunity to slip upstairs when he was not observed. He found Room No. 43 without trouble, and fortune seemed to favor him, for no one was in the corridor. He slipped the key into the lock and quickly opened the door. Having stepped into the room, he removed the key, transferred it to the other side of the lock, closed the door softly and turned the key.
“There!” he muttered, with a breath of relief; “that was easy enough. Now if I can find that certificate!”
Five minutes later, opening a long, leather pocketbook he had taken from Merry’s suit case, he removed some papers, and almost the first one examined caused him to utter an exclamation of delight.
“Here it is!” he cried.
It was a certificate of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States, properly filled out, dated and signed, attesting that Frank Merriwell was for the year of date an accepted and registered member of said union.
Hollingsworth’s eyes glittered and he laughed softly.
“’Ow heasy it would be to destroy it!” he muttered, his excitement and triumph causing him to again abuse that much-tortured eighth letter. “But I ’ave a better plan—a much better plan! Oh! it makes me laugh jolly ’ard to think of it! I know I’ll roar my blooming ’ead off if ’e brings it with ’im to show the committee, without hever taking a look at it ’imself!”
In his delight the rascal burst into such laughter that he was startled, and suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth, while he stood there listening, fearing he had been heard outside the room.
After a little, as there seemed no probability that the sound of his evil merriment had reached other ears than his own, he slipped softly across the floor to a desk that stood at one side. Placing a chair in front of the desk, he sat down and spread out the certificate.
For a moment or two he paused to glance over it before continuing his dastardly operations. From his pocket he quickly brought forth a small vial of colorless liquid, together with a camel’s hair brush. Uncorking the vial, he dipped the tiny brush into the liquid, and began at once with this to follow the tracing of the pen upon the document.