"Well, you see," replied Dick quizzically, "I've been thinking."
"Thinking?" repeated Tom. "Oh, I understand. You've been thinking about what the man on the clubhouse steps said."
"Well, hardly anything as big as that," teased Dick. "I'm afraid that you fellows are growing impatient on what is, after all, not a very important matter."
"So, then, the speech of the man on the clubhouse steps wasn't very important?" inquired Tom, seeking to pin their leader down.
"Why, that would depend on how you happened to regard what the man on the clubhouse steps said," Dick laughed.
"Is that what you're going to tell us?" almost bowled Hazelton.
"I don't know that I am going to tell you much of anything," Prescott continued.
"What did the man on the clubhouse steps say?" asked Dan, advancing with uplifted bat.
"You'll never drag the secret from me by threats or violence," retorted Dick, with a stubborn shake of the head.
"We're getting away from the point," Tom went on. "You said you had been thinking."