"I don't know whether that's all quite correct," he said, "but I learned some of it from a book."
Then, very gravely, he picked up the shiny objects, which proved to be impromptu medals carved from the tops of tin biscuit boxes, dangling from red ribbons, and pinned one on the chest of each of the Hardy boys.
There were loud cheers and shrieks of laughter from the boys at this mock ceremony, and the Hardy boys joined in the laugh as well. However, behind all the nonsense, the lads realized that their chums were proud of them. The tin medals were embarrassing, and the boys watched for their first opportunity to take them off.
"Seriously," said Chet, some time later when he was alone with the brothers, "the fellows think you did some mighty smart work fishing that lady out of the water. The captain of the boat told people about it when the yacht docked."
"We couldn't very well stand by and watch her drown," said Frank. "If Biff and Tony could have got there first they'd have done the same."
"Sure! But the point is, you chaps got there first and saved her life. If you hadn't been there, Biff and Tony couldn't have done very much, for their boats aren't fast enough. Where is the lady now? Did she give you her name?"
Frank and Joe then told Chet about Miss Evangeline Todd and about the coincidence that her visit to Bayport had been with the object of seeing Fenton Hardy. Chet was greatly interested when they told him about her search for the missing professor.
"A professor missing, eh? That's something new. If one of the professor's students had disappeared there wouldn't be much mystery about it. I know one student of this high school who would like to drop out of sight for a while—until after these exams are over, at any rate."
"You're hopeless," laughed Frank, and just then the opening bell rang, cutting off further conversation.
When the boys returned home at noon they found that Miss Todd had recovered sufficiently to come downstairs. She seemed in much better spirits and the rest had evidently done her a great deal of good, because she was not in the highly nervous state of the previous Saturday.