CHAPTER V
LAURIE TO THE RESCUE
Laurie’s rush to get back to school did not prevent him from pausing when, having turned the corner into Summit Street and proceeded half-way along the block, he caught sight of Bob Starling in the back garden of the Coventry place. The Coventry place, which consisted of a big square house set at the Walnut Street end of a broad and deep plot of land facing the school property, had been rented by Bob’s father, who was the engineer in charge of the big new railroad bridge in course of construction near Orstead. Bob was entered at Hillman’s School as a day-student. He was sixteen years old, a slim but well built chap with a very attractive countenance. Bob’s mission in life, as he believed, was to play a great deal of tennis and play it better than any one else. In that mission he very nearly succeeded. It was tennis that was accountable for his presence just now in the back yard, as Laurie well knew.
“How soon are you going to start work?” called Laurie.
“Hello, Nod! Come on in!”
“Can’t. Nearly six. What are you doing?”
“Just looking around,” replied Bob, drawing near. “I’ve got the stakes all set. Gosh, if the ground would dry up so they could begin to dig I’d have the old court ready in a week.”
“I guess so.” Laurie nodded. “Well, a few more days like this will do the trick. Say, remember how we planned to make a pergola out of that old lumber that came out of the arbor you pulled down?”
“Yes, and we’ll do it as soon as the court’s made. Dad’s got me twenty loads of the finest cinders you ever saw.”
“Good work! Reckon you’ll be giving tennis teas in another month, Bob.”
“Before that if the weather behaves. Been over to the Widow’s?” Bob grinned faintly.