"The stick is in pickle for them, for I overheard a little conversation to-day that made me think as I think."
"You have long ears. Where did you hear it?" queried David.
"Coming around the corner of Warren Hall to-night I interrupted a little conference. Some one said 'cheese it,' and then the bunch began to talk very loud about the prospects for the football team."
"Was that a suspicious circumstance?" asked Jimmy.
"Something in the cut of their jib, as Captain Silas might say, made me think they were not so much interested in the football team at that moment as they pretended to be. My instincts as a detective got the better of my natural modesty—ahem, ahem—and after walking along a little ways, I sneaked back like the thug in the play and dodged behind that little jog in the wall."
"Go on, Sherlock."
"And what happened then?"
"Were they planning to kidnap Old Pop-Eye?"
These questions were fired at the Codfish in rapid succession.