“You can send fifty if you make it a night letter.”
“Great Scott, Bowles would come then! I know; I’ll just add ‘Boosh.’”
“Add what?”
“‘Boosh.’”
“What’s that?”
“Blessed if I know,” chuckled Hugh. “Neither will Bowles, and it’ll give him something to study on a bit.” Hugh added “Ordway” to his message and laid it aside until supper time. When one lived on the fourth floor of Lothrop one didn’t make unnecessary trips over the stairs!
The next morning the two boys hurried to the village after their French recitation and secured the money, and later Hugh paid his debts to Cathcart and Mr. Crump, and Bert dispatched a money order to Fallon and Turner. Hugh managed to appease Cathcart’s curiosity without involving Bert’s name, although he had a suspicion that Cathcart remained rather puzzled. Mr. Crump seemed disappointed at being paid back so soon and almost insisted that Hugh should keep the money longer. But Hugh finally satisfied him with a solemn promise to come to him again should he ever find himself in similar financial difficulties, and Mr. Crump, after going into the history of his family at some length and with much detail, tucked the bills in the pocket of his overalls, shouldered his broom and wandered on.
That afternoon Mr. Crowley summoned Hugh into the line-up as though the late unpleasantness had never been and Hugh played through two twelve-minute periods with so much credit that he noticed afterwards a thoughtful and speculative look on the countenance of Hanser.