“Easy!” cautioned Phil. “Do you want to wreck our most cherished possession?”
“Anyone who can wreck this would be a wonder,” retorted Holly, as he looked over the edge, and saw the boards that had been nailed on to repair a bad fracture. “Hello!” he exclaimed a moment later, as he picked up from the floor a scrap of paper. “You fellows are getting most uncommon untidy. First you know Proc. Zane will have you up on the carpet. You should keep your scraps of paper picked up.”
“We didn’t put that there,” declared Tom. “That must be part of the note Sid tore up.”
Idly Holly turned the bit of paper over. It was blank on one side, but, at the sight of the reverse the athlete uttered a cry.
“I say, fellows, look here!” he said.
He held the paper scrap out for their inspection. It needed but a glance to see that it bore but one word, though there were pen tracings of parts of other words on the edges. But the word that stood plainly out was “trouble,” and it appeared to be the end of a sentence, for a period followed it.
“Trouble,” mused Holly.
“Trouble,” repeated Phil. “I wonder if that means Sid is going to get into trouble?” and his voice took a curious turn.
“Trouble,” added Tom, the last of the trio to use the word. “Certainly something is up or Sid wouldn’t act the way he did. I wonder——”