“I suppose I might.”
“And ask him pointblank who it was that hired the office boy to do this dirty work.”
“I will, for he must know that I could hear all that was said in the room. That is a common occurrence.”
Jack took down the receiver again and called up the office of the News, presently getting an answer after some delay:
“Line is busy.”
“Call me up when it is not, please,” said Jack, giving the number of Dick’s ’phone.
Then he hung up again and said to the eager boys:
“The line is busy, of course. It always is when you want it particularly. However, they will call me up when it is free.”
“Somebody paid the boy to get this thing into the Gazette,” observed Percival, “and that somebody was an enemy of ours. Who was it?”
“Some one who wants to do Jack an injury,” said Harry. “There are Pete Herring, Ernest Merritt and a few others like them but Herring and his side partner are the most likely ones.”