"All right; I'll keep an eye out for the chap. Never heard about him. What's he been doing to get locked up?" asked the other, and Frank could not see any indication that he cared particularly about the matter.
"Oh! he's a bad egg, and the Chief says there's a reward of three hundred dollars out for him. Worth hauling in, Bill?" suggested Frank.
"Sure, and I'll collar it if so be he comes this way. So-long, Frank. Dinner at twelve, sharp. Remember that, if you happen along. 'Taint a genuine Christmas feed, but beggars ain't got a right to be choosers. If I had my way I'd be in a different place to-day. Luck's agin me, I reckon. They've gone, and I'm out in the cold!"
With that they left him there, muttering to himself. Frank had caught those significant last sentences. He really began to feel something of the same curiosity creep over him that had captured Lanky.
"He speaks my name as if he had known me a long time. Lanky said the same; and there's Lef Seller, he seems to be on to his ways from the ground up. Besides, he mentioned the drug clerk's name. Now, you see he doesn't pay any attention to you, Ralph. That may be because you're a newcomer in Columbia; only been here a year and a half, all told. H'm! I wonder if he is somebody we once knew? Lanky declares it is so, and I'm beginning to think so too."
But he was determined that he would not be so foolish as his friend, and allow the perplexing mystery to annoy him. So he cast it away, and started to speak of other things connected with their morning sport.
Presently they reached Clifford.
Here another batch of skaters was to be seen, more than below. Clifford, as has been said before, was given over wholly to winter sports; and every boy and girl seemed to vie in becoming an accomplished skater.
Some of them knew Frank, and called out a greeting as he came up. Perhaps they anticipated that his errand might be in connection with the challenge that he had himself carried to the high school of the upper town but a few days previous.
"Going to back down, Allen? Taking water? Hope not, for we've got it in for you Columbia boys, day after to-morrow!" one fellow cried out.