“I won’t argue a-bub-bout that. Perhaps you’re right, but the point doesn’t interest me now, with Roy Hooker in his pup-present condition. I didn’t like the way the doctor looked at us. Do you thu-think he suspects us, Pipe?”
“Wouldn’t wonder a bit,” answered Sleuth. “But then, it would be natural for him to be suspicious of any fellow who is friendly with Roy.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I dunno. Let’s not stand here any longer; let’s walk up the street. I’ve got to move; I can’t keep still.”
They were on the point of moving when they saw Chipper Cooper hurrying toward them almost at a run.
“Wait!” called the approaching boy. “Where you fellows going?” And then, as he joined them, he asked in a low tone, “Heard anything this morning?”
“I should say we had,” answered Billy. After which he hastily told Cooper what they had learned from Dr. Grindle.
“Oh, my Jinks!” muttered Chipper, aghast. “I was hoping Roy’d be all right this morning. I was hoping he’d explain to his folks—tell them he had a fall or something to account for the bumps he got.”
“You were hoping he’d lie,” said Billy, with a short, bitter laugh. “We had to lie to the doctor when he cornered us. You can see what the business forces us into—lies! It makes me sick to think of it.”
“I’ve worried all night,” sighed Cooper dolefully. “Kept waking up every ten minutes, it seemed, thinking about that scrap and Roy. What was it the doctor said that he said?”