“How so, sir?” asked Don, puzzled.
The colonel laughed. “I’ll show you this afternoon. Go to Captain Rhodes and tell him I have excused you from drill formation, then come and report to me. We will take a little drive together.”
After classes that day Don reported to Rhodes and repeated the colonel’s order, and the drill instructor readily excused him from duty. While the other cadets were drilling on the windswept field Don went to the colonel’s office to accompany the headmaster on his unknown journey. The colonel was ready for him and when Don entered he called up a local taxi agency and ordered a cab.
“We are going in style—and in secrecy,” the colonel chuckled, amused at the wondering look on the cadet’s face.
In due time the taxi arrived and the colonel and Don got into the cab, after the headmaster had given an order to the driver in a low tone. When they were safely underway Colonel Morrell told Don that they were going to call on the police.
“A sort of a diplomatic excursion,” he smiled. “The fewer who see us, the better.”
They rode down into Portville and stopped at last in front of the town hall, where the colonel alighted, paid his bill and then led Don inside and into a small private office, where they remained alone for some fifteen minutes. At last a small door opened and Captain Dorran of the local police came into the room. He was an old friend of the colonel’s and they shook hands heartily.
“This is one of my cadets, cap’n,” remarked the colonel, nodding to Don. “One of my very best, too, the young man who helped me out of that bad scrape last year.”
“Glad to know you, young man,” the police chief laughed. “I thought at first that the colonel was bringing you to me for business purposes!”
“We have some business on hand,” said the colonel, as Don shook hands with the police chief. “And we’ll want a little help from you.”