“He didn’t,” affirmed Bob. “But what’s it all about?”
“Yes, what?” chimed in Ned. “We can’t, for the life of us, guess. End the suspense, Dad!”
“I lost an important letter, somewhere between the hotel in Haredon, where we stopped to wait for you boys, and Leighton, where I had to make a business call,” explained Mr. Slade. “That is, I missed the letter when I got there.
“I thought possibly I might have left it in the room Mr. Baker and I engaged for a short time at the Haredon hotel, so I ’phoned the clerk and asked him to take a look. He did, he said, but there was no trace of the letter anywhere about the place.
“Then I concluded I might have lost it somewhere along the road, and, too, I had an idea that clerk didn’t make any too careful a search. So Mr. Baker and I decided to come back here, or, rather go back to Haredon. And as we were losing time, anyhow, we concluded we might as well lose more and stop off to see you. We were sorry we missed you, but as things were then we didn’t think we could wait.
“So we started back, hiring a machine to travel in, and—well, I guess the professor told you what happened. It was an unfortunate accident, but it might easily have been worse. Neither of us had any bones broken, though I don’t know but what a bruised leg, like mine, pains almost as much as a broken one. Now you have the whole explanation, boys, as to why we are here. We sent for you, thinking you would be able to help us. I want you, Ned, to go to that hotel and see if you can find the letter.
“It contained some important information that I must act on at once, and I need it to refer to. If you can find it——”
Ned interrupted his father by stepping forward with the missive he had picked up in the hotel lobby.
With surprise showing on his face, Mr. Slade unfolded the missive, and as he realized what it was he cried: