“We can’t get out of here until that two-thirty-seven train for the East,” Hugh was saying, as they swung along the main street. The sky overhead was heavy gray, and threatened to send down another downpour of rain at any time to add to the misery of the situation.
“I noticed that there was a pretty good lunch counter down at the railroad station,” remarked Billy. “You see, some of the trains make a meal stop here at Lawrence. So they prepare for a rush of custom. I reckon we can fill up there, and be handy for the train when it comes along.”
“A good idea, Billy, to hit two birds with one stone,” declared Hugh. “While I think of it, there’s another thing we might do at the same time.”
“What’s that, Hugh?”
“We have to pass the postoffice on the way down to the station, you may remember,” said the patrol leader.
“Yes, I saw where it was,” Billy replied. “That habit of noticing things, which scouts are drilled in, can be made use of by a fellow everywhere. Nowadays I’m always looking to the right and to the left, and let me tell you it’s mighty few things that escape my eye. But tell me what the postoffice has to do with our going back home. You don’t think of sending that paper by mail after all, I hope, Hugh?”
“After going to all the trouble I have?” cried the other. “Well, I should think not, Billy. It’s a whole lot safer in my pocket than with the mails, even if I registered the package. But about the postoffice—I just happened to remember that it’s a part of the program daily, at our town, to receive the Government weather report, and post the same on the bulletin board. I suppose they do likewise here in Lawrence.”
“Oh, I see now what you’re after,” observed Billy hastily. “You think that, with these unusual conditions hanging over this section of country, Uncle Sam might get out special flood reports and predictions.”
“That’s it,” Hugh declared. “I’ve got an idea something like that must have happened, because when we were passing the postoffice I could see quite a crowd hanging around, mostly men; and Billy, they seemed to be talking in knots, as though discussing something mighty serious.”
“And Hugh, that crowd is bigger than ever now. Look yonder, and you can see how it stretches out into the street. People are heading that way, too, from all directions, you notice. It looks to me as if there is something doing that has all the earmarks of a tragedy.”