“Oh, that reminds me of something,” exclaimed the cashier. “Mr. Endicott’s black coachman, Sam, has just been in here, and left these valises, which he requested me to hand to Mr. Blake if he should happen around.”
Blake and his friends did not care a snap of their fingers for their valises just then. The articles they contained would be of no use to them that night, and so they asked permission to leave them in the cashier’s charge for a few hours longer. Then they went out on the sidewalk and held a short council of war as they moved along.
“Did anybody ever hear of anything so exasperating?” exclaimed Forester, who was so angry that he could scarcely speak plainly. “Why didn’t you ask him what sort of a looking fellow it was who came to him and told him that the class had decided to eat their dinner in Bordentown?”
“I had two reasons,” answered Blake. “In the first place, I did not think it necessary to ask him any questions. I know who it was.”
“So do I,” said White. “It was one of Brigham’s crowd—one of the fellows who helped him steal Mr. Packard’s yacht last term.”
“And in the next place,” continued Blake, “I did not want to let him into our secret. There is no need that we should tell it to some one who will spread it all over town before we can have a chance to retrieve the day.”
Blake’s companions looked at him in great surprise. They had given the dinner up for lost, but it was plain that the chairman didn’t consider that he and his class had been beaten yet.
“Do you mean to say that you are going to try to get it back?” demanded Forester.
“I mean that Lester Brigham and his crowd shan’t eat that dinner, but our fellows shall,” said Blake, quietly but firmly. “Don’t ask me what I am going to do, because I can’t tell until I have seen Mr. Colson. We are all acquainted with him, and we know that he can be trusted. Let’s go and ask him to tell us what happened here this morning, and then we shall know how to go to work to circumvent those pirates.”
The boys had no trouble in finding Mr. Colson. He was sitting in his office at Clarendon Hall, and fortunately he was alone. He looked up in great astonishment when he saw Blake’s face at the window.