The next morning Toby dashed out of the house at a little after eight, pulling his hat on as he ran, and hurried to the nearest telephone. Over at the Head, Arnold listened to a confused message and then, slamming the receiver on the hook, bolted down to the landing and took a flying leap into the Frolic.
CHAPTER IX
“THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD!”
Toby and Phebe awaited him at the boat-yard wharf and as soon as he had hastily secured the Frolic to the stern of the Follow Me and climbed the ladder they pulled him in triumph to the shed.
“Here he is, dad!” called Toby. “Where is it?”
Mr. Tucker laid down his mallet and led the way to the desk very leisurely. Then, while Toby and Phebe looked on with shining eyes, he placed an envelope in Arnold’s hand. The postmark was “Moorcett, Ct.,” and there was some printing in one corner, but Arnold didn’t stop to read that. Instead, amidst a deep silence, he opened the envelope and drew forth not the folded sheet of paper he expected but a roughly torn section of newspaper. He viewed the others in bewilderment.
“Read it!” cried Toby and Phebe in chorus.
“‘Lost, on Fifth Avenue, between——’”