"Very well. I will trust you. Go to your room before opening your instructions."
And the second somewhat mystified boy went out of the library on that memorable Thursday morning, to find his first order one which sent him to a remote district of the city, with the direction to arrive there within three quarters of an hour.
Out on an electric car Cyrus was speeding to another suburb. After getting the letter from the seventh floor of the Norwalk Building, he had read:
Take cross-town car on L Street, transfer to Louisville Avenue, and go out to Kingston Heights. Find corner West and Dwight streets and open Env. No. 3. C. W. Jr.
Cyrus was growing more and more puzzled, but he was also getting interested. At the corner specified he hurriedly tore open No. 3, but found, to his amazement, only the singular direction:
Take Suburban Elevated Road for Duane Street Station. From there go to Sentinel Office and secure third edition of yesterday's paper. Open Env. No. 4. C. W. Jr.
"Well, what under the sun, moon, and stars did he send me out to Kingston Heights for?" cried Cyrus aloud. He caught the next train, thinking longingly of his broken engagement with Harold Dunning, and of certain plans for the afternoon which he was beginning to fear might be thwarted if this seemingly endless and aimless excursion continued. He looked at the packet of unopened envelopes.
"It would be mighty easy to break open the whole outfit and see what this game is," he thought. "Never knew father to do a thing like this before. If it's a joke"—his fingers felt the seal of "Env. No. 4"—"I might as well find it out at once. Still, father never would joke with a fellow's promise the way he asked it of me. 'My word of honour'—that's putting it pretty strong. I'll see it through, of course. My, but I'm getting hungry! It must be near luncheon-time."
It was not; but by the time Cyrus had been ordered twice across the city and once up a sixteen-story building in which the elevator was out of order it was past noon, and he was in a condition to find "Env. No. 7" a very satisfactory one:
Go to Café Reynard on Westchester Square. Take seat at table in left alcove. Ask waiter for card of Cornelius Woodbridge, Jr. Before ordering luncheon read Env. No. 8. C. W. Jr.