“So he is worrying about the cup, eh?” asked the colonel, when Don and Jim showed him the strange letter.
At the colonel’s suggestion they had read the entire thing, taking the responsibility upon themselves in view of the fact that every effort to clear George Long was justifiable. But outside of the one passage that Don had read there was no other clue in the letter.
“He seems to be,” Don answered. “What do you make of that part about scraping the bottom of the cup, sir?”
“I don’t know what to make of it,” the headmaster confessed. “It is very strange, and I’m afraid that we will have to get possession of the cup in order to find out just what all this mystery is. We must get the cup.”
“If we do get it, we’ll have to work fast,” Jim put in. “This friend of his is to take it away to Canada with him.”
“Yes,” agreed the colonel. “We will have to work fast. In the meantime, I shall have a copy of this letter made and then we’ll seal it up and one of you should take it to the postoffice and drop it in the incoming mail slot. In that way Gates will get it without ever knowing that it had been tampered with.”
The colonel had a copy made of the letter and then Don and Jim walked down to the postoffice and placed it in the proper slot.
In a day or two the colonel reported very satisfactory developments. He showed Don an advertisement in the town paper. The advertisement read as follows:
“Wanted: A butler for large household, must have previous experience and good references. Apply at any hour to 14 Portville Avenue and ask for Mr. Melvin Gates.”
“That ad just suits our purpose and couldn’t be better,” the colonel told Don.