“Don’t take my appetite away, Chunky!” begged Jerry. “I don’t want to think about it until I have to. And yet, with it all, I can’t believe the professor has betrayed us.”
“Me either,” chimed in Ned.
Mrs. Hopkins, after some thought, consented to the plans of her son and his chums.
“I know you will be careful,” she said, “though I have not much hope that you will accomplish anything. I haven’t the least idea that Professor Snodgrass is at fault. He is not that sort of a character. There has been some mistake, I am sure. But the trip may do you good, even if you don’t get my land back, Jerry,” and she smiled at her impulsive son.
“Well, I’ll give the professor a chance to explain, anyhow,” the tall lad remarked. “One funny thing about it is that he hasn’t sent for the things he left here. I should think he’d want them. There are some specimens, and his clothes. I wonder——”
Jerry was interrupted by a ring at the door. A servant came back with a note.
“Great Scott!” cried Jerry, as he noted the writing on the envelope, “it’s from Professor Snodgrass himself!”
“Maybe he’s coming back!” added Ned.
“Or maybe it’s an explanation,” said Bob.
But it was neither, as Jerry discovered when he opened it. It was merely a request that the professor’s possessions at the Hopkins house be sent to an address he gave.