“If you get a good chance I should say yes.”
That was on a Wednesday afternoon, and Carl went home, his head filled with a programme he had laid out that concerned the cornering of Dock Phillips.
On Thursday he learned, when home for lunch, that a new boy had come for orders from the grocery. Carl was immediately filled with alarm. In imagination he could see Dock and Mr. Culpepper coming to terms at last.
After school that afternoon he waited for Tom, to whom the startling news was disclosed. The stunning effect of it did not seem to affect Tom’s quick acting mind.
“Let’s find out just what’s happened,” he remarked. “Perhaps over at Joslyn’s, next door to the Phillips’s, we might pick up a clue.”
“Yes, and I know Mrs. Joslyn right well in the bargain,” said Carl, showing interest at once. “I’m sure that if I told her as a secret just why we wanted to know about Dock she’d tell me if anything had happened there lately.”
To the Joslyn house the two boys went. Mrs. Joslyn was an energetic little woman, and said to be able to mind her own business.
She listened with growing eagerness to the story, and at its conclusion said:
“I’m sorry for your mother, Carl, and I don’t know that I can help you any; but there was something strange that happened at the Phillips’ house last night.”