“Edmonds!”
“Here.”
“Falls!”
Alex broke away with a painful effort and bolted weakly forward. “He got away! I tried—I tried—” His voice trailed off as he toppled down into a khaki heap on the bare floor.
The principal, himself, picked him up. “My poor boy, whatever happened?”
The clerk went hustling out to summon the school nurse. When she arrived she bandaged Alex’ wounded leg. Soon the boy was revived enough to answer the questions put to him by the principal. He was very pale, but eager to tell what had happened.
“You saved the honor system, White,” Mr. Link said when he heard the story, and he patted Alex’ shoulder.
Just then, “the Three Musketeers from the Journal,” as Chub called them later, appeared at the big doors across the room. All three blinked in the yellow light and stared at Joan and Chub and the scene before them.
“How did you get here?” was written on each of their faces. And how Mack’s eyes snapped when he heard about the subway tunnel!
“We waited and waited for you two to come back,” Tim explained. “Then we went all through that hospital and couldn’t find you. We came back here to telephone the police you’d disappeared.”