“Well, through some mistake one of the boxes was left behind. Mr. Hitter, had it in his office, intending to ship it back to the man, for it wasn’t worth while to send one box away out west, but it fell and burst partly open. The box was in one corner of the room, and, while I was there Mr. Hitter’s dog went up to it and began sniffing at it. All at once the dog fell over, just as if he’d been shot. He stiffened out, and we thought he was dead, from having eaten something poisoned he found on the floor.”
“Was he?”
“No, after a while he seemed to come to, and was all right, but he looked sick. Mr. Hitter said there must be something queer in that box, to make the dog act that way, and he and I smelled of it, taking care not to get too close.”
“What was in it?” asked Ned.
“I don’t know. It was something that smelled rather sweet, and somewhat sickish. Mr. Hitter said it might be some queer kind of poison that acted on animals, but not on human beings, and he put the box up on a high shelf where his dog couldn’t get at it. But I thought it was rather queer stuff for a man to be sending away out to the coast.”
“It certainly was,” agreed Bob. “That man acted in a strange manner, too, as if he was afraid some one would see him. I wonder if there is any mystery connected with him?”
There came a time when the boys had good reason to remember this incident of the box filled with a strange substance, for they were in great danger from it.
“Well, I don’t know that it concerns us,” mused Ned. “I guess we’ll not get any damages from the railroad company in time to use the money on our California trip, so we might as well take some cash out of our saving fund. I do wish we’d hear from the professor. It’s several days since I wrote to him, saying we would go with him.”
“I suppose he is so busy catching a new kind of flea, or a rare specimen of mud turtle, that he has forgotten all about writing,” suggested Bob. “If he doesn’t—”
What Bob intended saying was interrupted by a commotion at the front door. The bell had rung a few seconds before, and the servant maid had answered it. Now the boys heard her voice raised in protest: