“Not a thing,” answered Piper. “What have you heard?”
“Nothing, and that’s mighty funny. We expected old Priscilla Kent would have the whole town stirred up by this time. If Rod Grant hadn’t come home last night she’d been throwing fits all over the territory before this.”
“Perhaps he came home,” said Cooper hopefully. “You’re right about Miss Priscilla, and so in this case no news sounds like good news.”
“Have you seen anything of Barker this morning?” questioned Jack Nelson.
Sleuth promptly gave them the same information concerning Berlin which he had imparted to Cooper and Tuttle, concluding with an expression of his views regarding the conduct of Barker. Their indignation was boundless, and, as one fellow, they agreed that the chap who had been the main mover in the hazing had shown the white feather.
“That’s enough for me, by jinks!” cried Sile Crane. “He run away last night, and now he’s dug out of Oakdale. Yeou bate I’ll tell him something when he comes back! If Rod Grant is——”
“Great Cæsar!” gasped Piper suddenly. “Here comes Grant this minute, and Stone is with him!”
He pointed with an unsteady finger, and those boys beheld Rod Grant and Ben Stone coming down along the footpath from the direction of Tige Fletcher’s house.