“Great!” cried Reggie, almost as delighted as they were themselves. “Maybe the girls won’t be glad to see you. They’ll go batty. You boys are so busy gettin’ ready, suppose I send ’em a wire tellin’ them you’re comin’?”
“Not on your life!” protested Joe. “Thanks just the same, old boy, but we’re going to make this a surprise party. They’re not going to know a thing about it till we burst in on them. What time does the next train go, Jim?” he asked of his chum, who had avidly seized a schedule and was trying to mark out their route and time.
“We can catch the midnight express at Ormsby Junction,” answered Jim. “If we make any sort of connections, we can get into Riverside before noon day after to-morrow. Oh, boy, at noon day after to-morrow! Say, Joe, pinch me so that I’ll know that I’m not dreaming.”
Joe complied so vigorously that Jim jumped.
“No need of being so confounded literal,” he remarked, as he rubbed his arm.
“Wish I were goin’ with you,” remarked Reggie wistfully.
“Why don’t you?” asked Joe.
“Can’t,” said Reggie, shaking his head. “Got to give in my report to the guv’nor, so I’ll just have to toddle on to Goldsboro. But I’ll be up in New York a good many times this season to see you boys strip the bloomin’ hides off the other fellahs.”
There was a great deal to do and little time to do it in, but it would have taken nothing short of an earthquake to have stopped the boys from getting the midnight express at the Junction.