“My! you must be going to keep me busy the rest of the morning, boys!” remarked the young fellow who acted as ticket agent, express representative and telegraph operator combined.
“Oh! we’ll let you have time to grab a bite of lunch, Conrad,” replied Lanky, in his humorous fashion.
It took the boys about half an hour to concoct a satisfactory message. They wanted to cover all the ground without wasting words; for money did not grow on bushes, Lanky remarked, as he cut out several adjectives that counted for little.
Lanky wanted to sign Frank’s name to the message, but the other refused to allow it.
“This is your affair, and I’m not going to butt in,” he declared positively. “And I only hope you reach the gentleman without delay, so that you may have a reply soon.”
“What could delay it?” asked Lanky. “Seems to me that he’ll be just wild to get in touch with us, if that bonnet is like the one his child wore when the nurse lit out with her.”
“He might be away from home, you know, and they would have some trouble in getting him,” Frank observed, for he knew his chum would be bitterly disappointed if he did not hear from Mr. Elverson right away; why, just as likely as not Lanky would lie awake half the night, expecting to hear the telephone bell ring, and the voice of the night operator at the station calling for him.
They had to look very mysterious when Conrad, the agent at the station, having read the message, and counted the words, informed them it would cost three dollars and a quarter; and then seemed to expect them to tell him what was in the wind. For Frank had cautioned his rather talkative chum not to breathe a word about it to a living soul until they had heard from the gentleman.
“Now we’ve got the rest of the day before us,” said Frank, as they left the station, arm in arm; “what are we going to do with it?”
“It’s about ten, now,” Lanky remarked, “and I reckon there’ll be quite a squad of our fellows down at the athletic field, tryin’ every stunt going; because, you see, lots of ’em believe they can qualify for the broad jump, the shot-put, the hammer-throw, or even in the sprints. And you’ll see some of the queerest athletic work ever if you come down there right now.”