“Everyone’s here,” he whispered jubilantly.
“Everyone except Mr. Weldon,” Brad replied and his voice was tense with worry. “What if he doesn’t show up?”
“He promised, didn’t he?”
“Sure, but we haven’t seen him since that day in the belfry. Maybe he’s skipped town. Tell you the truth, Dan, I’m jittery. If he doesn’t come to identify Pat, what’ll we do?”
“He’ll come,” Dan said.
Though he spoke confidently, he too shared the older boy’s uneasiness. Twice since the two had seen Mr. Weldon in the church belfry, they had returned to seek him. They had found only a locked, and apparently deserted church. The stranger who had claimed to be Chub’s father, obviously had moved out immediately after his meeting with them. Had he left Webster City? They had no way of knowing, but they had not once seen him on the street.
As for the game itself, feeling was running high. The greater percentage of rooters seemed to favor the Cubs, but one section of the gymnasium was jammed with friends of Pat and the Bay Shore boys. Dan wondered how they would take a loss of the game, or a disclosure that the Purple Five team was wanted in Juvenile Court.
“I feel sort of sorry for Pat,” he remarked privately to Dan. “The guy doesn’t have a suspicion of what’s going to happen to him.”
“Assuming that Mr. Weldon shows up.”
“Pat isn’t such a bad sort when you get to know him,” Dan went on. “He’s a show off, of course, and full of mischief. He’s quieted down a lot though lately.”