“And you’d have stayed him off by promising him a good bit more if he’d wait?”
“By hook or crook!” cried Evan, desperately. “But unless I can get away from the match, I’m done.”
Jan put on an air of sombre mystery, lightened only by the crafty twinkle in his eyes. Chips would have read it as Jan’s first step to the rescue. But Evan missed the twinkle, and everything else except the explicit statement:
“You can’t get away, Evan.”
“Then it’s all up with me!”
“Not yet a bit.”
“But the fellow means it!”
“Let him mean it.”
“If I’m not there——”
“Somebody else may take your place.”