“But where’s the hurry, Jim?” asked Bob, impatiently; “I don’t see why things need be rushed in the style you want.”
“Do it to oblige me, Bob, and then I have something to say to you which is of importance and which will please you.”
“Let me hear it now,” said Bob, brightening up with expectancy.
“You sha’n’t hear a word till after the letter is written.”
The task was distasteful to young Budd, and he held off for awhile longer, but Jim would not let up. He was determined that the letter should be written in his presence and before he went away.
Seeing there was no escape, Bob turned to the stand containing writing material, and addressed a brief note to his uncle, giving him the important information that he had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from the flood that drowned one of his companions and came mighty near carrying off the other.
The main portion of the letter was taken up with an emphatic request of his uncle and aunt not to give the slightest hint of what they had learned until they heard further from him.
This letter was sealed and directed.
“Let me have it,” said Jim.
“What for?”