“Will you be in charge for the next hour or so?”
“I’ll be in charge until I shut up. The boss is not coming back.”
“Good. Now I want to explain something,” went on the Imp, and as speedily as possible related what Billy Sabine had told about the trick Ritter proposed to play. The drug-store clerk was intensely interested, and as he had taken quite a fancy to Pepper he readily consented to do what the other proposed.
“I can fix this Ritter up with a little colored water and alcohol,” he said. “That mixture won’t harm your outfits in the least.”
“That’s the ticket!” exclaimed Andy, with a grin.
The boys then purchased some root beer to drink, and treated the clerk to a cigar—for he was fond of smoking. A minute later, looking out of the doorway, Andy saw Ritter and Coulter coming.
“Here is where we make our escape,” he said, and he and Pepper ran for a back door. They got out into the yard just as Ritter came into the drug store by the front door. Out in the yard it was dark, so the boys felt little fear of detection.
They listened at an open window and heard Ritter ask for several chemicals in liquid form. The clerk came to the rear, behind the prescription partition, and filled several bottles as he had promised.
“Some of these are poison,” he said to his customer. “You want to be careful how you use them.”
“We know all about that,” answered Reff Ritter.