“And the water is squirting all over the kitchen,” went on Mrs. Sandow. “It ought to be shut off, only I don’t know where to shut it off. That’s another secret about this house,” she added significantly.
“I think I can find out the place to shut it off,” said Tom. “Very likely it’s down in the cellar.”
“Humph! It’s a good thing you know something,” said Mrs. Sandow, with a sniff.
In a few moments the telephone boy had shut off the water, and the plumber had been summoned. That mechanic promised to come at once, and repair the leak.
“If you had attended to the pipe when I told you to,” went on Mrs. Sandow, when the excitement had somewhat calmed down, “this never would have happened.”
“I meant to,” said the doctor, “but I forgot——”
“You’re always forgetting,” interrupted his sister-in-law. “Some day you’ll forget to come home, or lose yourself and then——”
“I’ve lost something now,” exclaimed the doctor. “We were just hunting for something when you knocked, Mrs. Sandow. Have you seen——”
Tom was attacked with a sudden fit of coughing. He wanted to attract the doctor’s attention, and warn him not to speak of the papers.
“Bless my soul!” exclaimed the physician, when he saw what a spasm Tom was having. “That’s a terrible cough. You must take something for it. I would write you a prescription, only I have such a wretched memory that I might start to give you something for a cough, and end up by writing out directions how to cure the mumps. You haven’t the mumps, have you?”