"Wha—wha—what does it mean?" Joe stammered.
"I should say things were gettin' serious," Donovan replied, as he read the message over Joe's shoulder, "Mr. Wright is a hard man to fight, an' the chances are he'll get the best of you."
Then he left the house as if in great haste to spread this additional news, and the partners looked at each other in dismay.
"That is why we've heard nothin' from the superintendent since our secret leaked out," Bill said, grimly. "You two had better tramp across to save time. You can get there three hours ahead of the next train."
"Come on," Fred cried, as he aroused from the daze caused by the startling intelligence. "Let's learn the worst quickly."
"It's pretty tough to lose the thing after swellin' as we have for the last couple of days," Joe added, gloomily, but without rising from his seat.
"Don't whine 'till we're sure it's gone," and Bill tried very hard to speak cheerily.
At this point Mrs. Byram entered the invalid's room to say:
"Mr. Wright has sent over to ask Fred and Mr. Brace to call at his office."
"Matters are beginning to look brighter already," Bill cried, and Joe asked gruffly: