"How provoking you can be, when you want to, Tom," pouted Clara.
"Why don't you go on?"
"Because I found myself stuck fast in a new quagmire of thought," Reade confessed humbly. "What I was about to say is that the first thing to do is to write to Mr. William Howgate, secretary of the Gridley High School Athletic Council of the Alumni Association. But that was where the thought came in and stabbed me with a question mark. Mr. Howgate is out of town. Does anyone here know his address?"
Fourteen Gridley faces looked blank until Dick at last remarked:
"I suppose a letter sent to his address in Gridley would reach him. It would be forwarded."
"Thank goodness for one quick-witted boy in Gridley High School!" uttered Belle. "Of course a letter would be forwarded."
"And there isn't any time to be lost, either," urged Susie. "Girls, we'll take Dick right up to the hotel now, and sit and watch him while he writes and mails that letter."
"Right!" came a prompt chorus.
"Come along, boys," added Susie, as the girls started away with their willing captive.
"Let Dave go," spoke up Tom. "Some of us must stay behind and stand by our canoe. It's valuable—-to us!"
So Darrin was shoved forward. He and Prescott had walked a few yards when the latter stopped in sudden dismay.