Five long minutes they cowered there in the dark. Then, satisfied that all was well, Felix tucked some wires through a crack in the wall, and they were away.
“You’re all right!” A moment later in the broad light of the street the inventor’s son offered Johnny a slim hand. “I—I just wanted to make sure. You weren’t much afraid, were you?”
“Do you mean—” The muscles in Johnny’s face hardened. “Mean to say there really wasn’t any danger back there?”
“Danger?” Felix stared. “Of course there was danger! Those men were there, somewhere, no doubt about that. They’re bad ones too! Up to something rather terrible, I imagine. But then,” he added as a sort of afterthought, “we’re not detectives. I only wanted to get some things in there to try them out. You may have a chance to help at that. There’s a lot of things to do.
“But not tomorrow.” His brow wrinkled in thought. “Father and I will be away tomorrow. Tell you what—that’ll be all for today. Why don’t you come back day after tomorrow? We’ll try something out then, something rather thrilling, I’d say.”
It was to be thrilling, that thing they were to try out; but the thrill was to be of a different sort than that expected by Felix. Fate too would step in and change the date for them. Fate has a way of doing that little thing, as Johnny had long since learned.
Gripping Felix’s hand, Johnny hurried away to catch a bus.
“Just in time for one more auction,” he thought to himself. “That other auction brought me luck and promise of adventure. Why might not another do the same? Might go to the shack and see if Drew Lane is there,” he told himself. “Do that after the auction is over.”
He was going to the shack right enough, but not in just the manner he would have chosen.