For the first time he observed the extreme lateness of the hour. The delays caused by falls and the protest of Silver’s play had wonderfully lengthened out the playing time. The sun had set and night was fast coming on.
Bink and Danny were aghast.
“Our team!” Danny squalled. “Did you ever?”
As they were not aware of Belton’s infatuation for Inza, they had nothing on which to build a theory.
Merriwell’s leap for the nearest vehicle set the whole crowd in motion. Starbright and Dashleigh sprang toward a horse. Dashleigh’s mind was in a whirl, as it went back to what he had seen in that house on Whitney Avenue while he was searching for the “party” given by Mrs. Whitlock. He could not help feeling that what he had beheld there was in some way connected with what was now happening. Yet he could not see the connection. The girl seen in that house was not Inza Burrage. He knew that, though she had looked so much like her.
“I don’t know what to think!” he stammered to Starbright.
“You can see what Belton is doing!”
“Yes, but——”
“Hello!” cried Starbright in dismay. “The harness is cut!”
Merriwell made the same discovery concerning the horse to which he had run. The harness had been slashed with a sharp knife, which had cut through the leather in several places, rendering it useless.