Frank turned red and then laughed.
"Oh, pshaw!" he said. "I had hoped that would be kept quiet. But some of the fellows like to talk too much."
"Who was it you jumped over after? They said you held him up until the boat got around—that he could not swim a stroke, and must surely have drowned only for your prompt action. It couldn't have been Cousin Andy, because he can swim nearly as well as you. Tell us, Frank," Janet persisted.
So Frank found himself compelled to relate the whole circumstance. In his usual generous manner he tried to gloss over the conduct of Puss and spoke as though the other had tumbled overboard during a little boyish roughhouse business; but Janet knew of the enmity between the pair, and she could read between the lines.
Frank spent a couple of hours after supper in poring over a book Andy had loaned him. And it might easily be assumed that it had to do with the birds, animals, fauna and inhabitants of that great country lying north of the equator, down in Central and South America.
It was about nine o'clock when his father called to him. The doctor had just come in from a few last visits and looked anxious.
"Frank, I'm in a peck of trouble," he said, with a whimsical smile, "and I wish you could help me out, though I dislike putting you to so much trouble."
"Oh, don't mind that, dad, one little bit; you know I'm only too glad to be of any assistance to you. What's gone wrong now? Machine laid off again and garage closed? But you won't need it till nine tomorrow, will you?"
There was a world of affection in the very way Frank used that word "dad." It might seem disrespectful coming from the lips of many boys, but to the ears of the good doctor it was as sweetest music.
"That's the trouble, Frank. I do need some means of getting around tonight the worst kind. Fact is the car broke down just as I got it in the yard. Same old trouble, and will take an hour to fix it up. And all at once it dawned on me that I had forgotten to take the medicine out to Farmer Lovejoy, which I surely promised tonight. It lies under the seat of the machine. Slipped my mind entirely when I was out. And Frank, there may be a serious turn to that child's sickness unless that medicine gets there within the next hour or so."