“And that was very kind of you,” said Don. He saw that the butler was not overly bright and that he would probably have no trouble with the man. “It must have been an accident, my getting locked in here. Well, I’ll go downstairs and join Mr. Gates. Thank you very much.”
“You are very welcome, sir. But—”
“But what?” inquired Don, frowning at the man. “Do you think I am a burglar, man? Can’t you see the uniform I have on? I’m a cadet at Woodcrest School.”
“No offense meant, sir,” hastily replied the butler. “It was just—hum—irregular, sir, and I wondered. Goodnight, sir.”
“Goodnight,” responded Don, hoping that Gates had not heard the talking.
Apparently he had not, for there was no movement as he walked cautiously down to the second floor. The butler had gone back to his room and no one was in the hall. The young cadet was undecided as to what to do now that he was free.
“I ought to make a good effort to get hold of that cup, now that I am in the house,” he reasoned. “But I don’t know how to go about it.”
He tiptoed along the second floor hall, determined to go to the lower floor and look around down there for the cup. He was not greatly worried about the whole situation for he knew that the colonel was back of him in whatever he did, and even in the event that the Gates family got highhanded about things he was sure that the significant word spoken to them would serve to cool their temper. So he had some degree of comfort in the fact that it would probably come out right in the end. And when he stopped to think of the heavy injustice that George Long had suffered all these years because of the flagrant villainy of these same people he had no scruples against prowling around Gates’ house.
A light showed under the door of the room into which the cadets had carried Melvin Gates the night of the accident and Don stopped there, struck by an idea. He moved up close to the door and listened, being rewarded by the murmur of voices inside. Although they were pitched in a low key he was nevertheless able to make out what was being said.
“But you cannot keep that young man a prisoner,” he heard Melvin Gates say.