"How very odd! Mrs. Hunt's blinds are all down, and so are Mrs. Pettifer's. There must be some one dead. I didn't know either of them had any one ill."
"A relative has died suddenly, perhaps," suggested Dick's mother; while the boy, who trembled all over thought Jim would never get the front door open.
At last it swung back, and the two boys lifted the carriage into the passage. Then, between them, they carried Susie into the back room and laid her gently on the couch.
Meanwhile Mrs. Boden had gone on home, leaving word for Dick to follow; so, after wishing Susie and her mother good-bye, he went out, accompanied by Jim.
"Come outside," he whispered, "and pull the door to. There's bad news in the town."
"Bad news!" echoed Jim, wondering why his chum trembled so.
"Yes, that's what upset Temple. It's in the paper; but there's only a line or two, and it mayn't be true."
"But what is it?" asked Jim, and, oddly enough, his voice sank to a whisper, while his face was as white as Dick's.
"It's about the—the Morning Star," gasped the boy.
Then Jim understood in a flash what had happened, and why the neighbours had darkened their windows.