Gone it was. Billy hunted till he was sure of that. He wanted to tell Miss King about it, but he could not stop to tell her then, for he had to distribute the orders for the afternoon.
Here and there he went. Last of all he had to go into the foundry. He was half-way down the room before he realized that he was on the side where he must pass the man with the fierce eyes and the coal black hair. Determined this time to be brave, he went steadily on.
The man was standing still, bending over his drag, his shock of unkempt hair hanging down over his eyes. He was so intent on his work that Billy, so nearly past that he felt quite safe, looked down curiously to see what pattern the man was using.
There, all by itself, in the bottom of the box, lay the great iron key.
CHAPTER VI
A SURPRISE OR TWO
The sight of the key did something more than to make Billy’s eyes open very wide; it struck to his legs. They grew so heavy that, for a minute, he couldn’t lift them at all. But he kept on trying, and finally succeeded in pulling up first one, and then the other, and in starting them both. Then they wanted to move fast, and he had hard work to slow them down to simply a quick walk. At last he reached the door, and hurried across the yard and down the corridor to the office.
When he opened the door, something struck to his feet, and fairly glued them to the threshold.
There at his desk, writing away hard, sat Mr. Prescott.