CHAPTER II
A VISITOR
On the side of this Ford car was printed TEMPLE CAMP, GREENE COUNTY, N. Y. Its arrival was so headlong and bizarre that Miss Arden Cowell smiled rather more broadly than she would otherwise have done, considering her very slight acquaintance with the occupant.
Tom Slade, however, practised no modest reserve in the matter of his smiles; instead he laughed heartily at Arden and said as he stepped out, “Now you see it, now you don’t. Or rather now you don’t and now you do. What’s the matter with Billy, anyway? I met Blakeley and he said they carried him in the house—fainted or something or other.”
“He fell unconscious, that’s all we know,” said Arden. “He seems to be better now; we’re waiting for the doctor.”
“What d’you know!” exclaimed Tom in a tone of surprise and sympathy.
“Did—did that Blakeley boy say anything about his being a coward?” the girl asked, seeming to block Tom’s entrance into the house. “Just a minute, Mr. Slade; did they—the boys—did they say he was a—a—yellow something or other?”
“Naah,” laughed Tom. “Why, what’s the matter? May I see him?”
“Yes, you may,” whispered the girl, still holding the knob of the door; “but I—I’d like—first—I—before you hear anything I want you to say you know he isn’t a coward—yellow.”
“What was it, a scrap?”
“No, but it might have been,” said Arden. Tom looked rather puzzled.