“That’s true,” agreed Jim. “Still, what has happened to-day isn’t altogether without its bright side. Up to now you’ve been largely in the dark. You’ve had an uneasy feeling that a web was being woven about you, and you’ve had certain suspicions about Hupft and McCarney. But their actions in to-day’s game and their grouchiness after the game have transformed those suspicions almost into certainties. Now you can plan to fight them and force them into the open without the fear that you might be doing them an injustice.
“Then, too, that Lemblow matter has thrown a little more light on things. It indicates that he’s in cahoots with the other two rascals. The more there are in any conspiracy, the more likely it is that there will be a leak somewhere. To-day’s happenings have given you three sides of a triangle—Hupft, McCarney and Lemblow. Somewhere within that triangle is the plot that is being hatched. At least we know where to look, and that is something.”
“And whatever that something is we’ll meet it and we’ll beat it,” cried Joe, throwing care to the winds. “Let’s think of something pleasant. The girls will be on for that promised visit soon. In less than a week now I’ll see the dearest girl in all the world—Mabel.”
“Clara,” corrected Jim.
And both laughed happily.
[CHAPTER VI]
A HILARIOUS WELCOME
Although naturally burdened by the recent run of events, mystified as they were concerning the motives of McCarney and Hupft and of the lob-eared man whom Jim had seen hurrying from the half-finished structure the day the building material had been pushed from the scaffold, the chums stuck to their decisions to keep worry and conjecture as far as possible from their minds. Their job was to play ball, and to play ball with the best that was in them was what they intended to do.
And on one particular bright morning it was easier than usual to banish dull care. Only the day before Joe and Jim had received word that Mabel and Clara and Mabel’s brother, Reggie, would arrive in New York by noon of the following day. To say that the boys were joyful would be to describe too tamely their emotions. They acted like a couple of wild Indians, brandishing the letters aloft and executing a war dance about the room. Even now, as they jumped into the car, preparatory to making a mad dash for the station to meet the twelve o’clock train, they had not recovered their sanity.