“Oh, come off, Frank,” retorted Billy, “that’s too much. How on earth can you—?”
“That matters not, my young reporter—we do,” struck in Harry.
“Give me the story then, will you?” begged Billy.
“No, we can’t do that,” replied Frank in a graver tone.
“Oh, of course I wasn’t trying to worm it out of you,” said Billy abashed somewhat.
“We know that, Billy,” said Harry kindly. The reporter looked at him gratefully.
“I just thought you might have something to give out,” went on Billy. “I see that you are in the confidence of the naval department.”
“No, Billy,” continued Frank, “we can’t give you anything for publication. But we can do better than that, we can tell you we are about to start on what may prove the most exciting trip we have ever undertaken.”
“What do you mean?” questioned Billy seeing clearly by Frank’s manner that something very unusual was in the wind.
“That we are going to try to find Lieutenant Chapin and the men who kidnapped him,” replied Frank; “but come along, Billy, we’ve just an hour before train time and if you feel like having a bite of lunch come with us and we can talk it over as we go along.”