“Last night? Run? I don’t understand you. I went to bed quite early last night and slept very nicely. Once I thought I heard a noise, a sort of jarring, rumbling noise, but I paid no attention to it. What a beautiful morning it is! ‘O Beauteous Spring, thou art——’” His head settled back against the pillar again.
The others laughed, and Dick remarked soberly: “I suppose you’ve heard that they got Morris?”
Lanny opened his eyes once more and winked gravely. “I just had him on the phone a few minutes ago.” He smiled wanly. “He couldn’t get in the house when he got back and had to sleep out in the stable in a carriage.”
“How about you?” asked Gordon.
Lanny waved a hand carelessly. “No trouble at all. Merely shinned up a water-spout and got in the linen closet window. Then I fell over a carpet-sweeper and went to bed. I shall insist on having a latch-key after this.”
“But where the dickens did you and Morris run to?” insisted Gordon. “I never saw you once after I turned into the field.”
“By that time I was shinning up the spout,” replied Lanny. “You see, I had a fine start on you, Gordie. I don’t know just what my time was for the distance, but I’ll bet it was mighty good. I’m pretty sure that I did the first two-twenty yards in something under twenty seconds! As for Morris, I never saw him. He says he fell over something and lay in the grass for about half an hour and then went home by way of the river. Something of a detour, that!”
“Well, tell me one thing, Lanny,” said Dick. “Did the rolling do the field any good?”
Lanny became almost animated. “It certainly did! Want to go over and have a look at it?” Dick shook his head. “Well, it made a lot of difference. Of course, as I told the others, it ought to have been gone over two or three times to get it in real good shape, but it’s at least a hundred per cent. better than it was before. I was afraid it might be too dry, but it wasn’t. That old roller just squashed it right down in great style. I think we broke the board around the track in a few places, but it was pretty rotten anyway.”
“That’s good; I mean about the field. As I just said to Gordie, if you fellows have got to go to jail it’s sort of a satisfaction that you accomplished something. I’ll send you fruit and old magazines now and then, and a month will soon pass.”