"Oh, never mind your kindlings! You can split those any time. I've got a sure thing now; and if Jack says it's all right, I'll let you go partnership."
Of course, this was more important than any paltry consideration of lighting the fires next morning; so I threw down the hatchet, and we started.
"I think we'd better go by the postern," said I.
Postern was a word we had found frequently used in "The Haunted Castle;" and we had looked out its meaning in the dictionary. Whenever we thought it desirable to get away from the house without being seen,—as, for instance, when we were leaving kindlings unsplit,—we climbed over the back fence, and called it "going by the postern."
"All right," said Ned, for in these things he was a wise boy, and a word to him was sufficient.
"What is it?" said I, as soon as we were fairly out of sight of the house. "Tell me all about it."
"Wait till we get to Jack's," said he.
"Has your Aunt Mercy given you money to make a muddle of it?" said I.
"That troubles me a little—that fifteen dollars," said Ned. "You see, we got it honestly; we thought Fay's invention was going to be a great thing, and we must have money to start. But now, if Aunt Mercy knew it was a failure, it would look to her very much as if we had swindled her."
"Not if you gave her back the money," said I.