“Yes, to-night.”
“Good! Tell him that I will call for the papers and to deliver them to no one else.”
“Why don’t you phone him?” asked Arthur. “That will save a lot of trouble.”
“And perhaps cause more,” laughed Jack. “I don’t like telephoning myself. There are too many listeners.”
“I have a wire,” said Dick. “You may use it if you like. I do often and I don’t know that I am bothered much.”
“Just now the old ladies on the party wire are not doing their afternoon gossip,” chuckled Arthur. “They are busy getting supper instead. I don’t believe we would have any trouble. Go ahead, Jack.”
Thus urged Jack stepped to the telephone, took down the receiver and called:
“Let me have one two three Riverton, please. Office of the News, yes. They are not busy?”
“Here’s your party,” said the operator on the other end of the wire.
At the same moment Jack heard some one say, not at the ’phone but evidently in the room where the instrument was kept: