As the moisture disappeared from the brush, he re-dipped it at intervals into the liquid. Almost as swiftly as he worked the writing thus touched by the moist brush faded and disappeared from the paper. He was using a powerful ink-eradicating fluid.
Ten minutes of this work was sufficient to remove from the certificate every trace of writing, leaving blank the places where it had been. At the end he used a blotter upon it to take up the moisture that had not dried out.
Then he picked up the ruined certificate and surveyed it in triumph.
“That settles the case of Mr. Frank Merriwell!” he declared. “’E’ll take no part in the run for the Hashley Trophy, for ’e’ll ’ave no certificate to show when it is called for by the committee. It has cost me five dollars to earn a ’undred.”
Having finished his work and gloated over it a few moments, to the intense satisfaction of his miserable soul, he refolded the ruined certificate, replaced it among the other papers and restored the whole package to the pocketbook. The pocketbook he replaced in Frank’s suit case, which he closed as he had found it.
“Now to get out of here,” he whispered, as he hastened to the door, at which he paused to listen.
Hearing no alarming sound outside, he quickly turned the key and opened the door, stepping out briskly. His satisfaction was complete when he observed no person in the corridor.
Again locking the door, he hastened downstairs.
Three men were in the office, and their words attracted the attention of Hollingsworth as he looked around for the bell boy, to whom he wished to restore the key.
“It’s a cinch that Frank Merriwell will win,” said a slender man in black. “He should have been barred from the race.”