"Of course I could. Didn't the chap come into the station to get water for his machine?" was the instant reply. "I talked with him quite a bit while he was fixing up his engine. He seemed in a powerful rush to be off and wasn't overgracious."
"But could Bob leave now, Archibald?" questioned his wife. "Isn't there the possibility of news from Mr. O'Connel?"
"Jove! I had forgotten that."
"Maybe O'Connel won't call; he didn't to-day, you know," Nancy said.
"It seems to me Bob ought to go and land those chaps if there is a chance of doing it," Dick declared. "He would not need to be gone more than one night, would he?"
"No. Nevertheless, he would miss the morning wireless," returned Mr. Crowninshield. "Should there be important news we should not get it."
"It is a pity you boys can't take a message," Nancy remarked, turning toward her brother and Walter. "If you only had your Morse code learned you might be quite some good to us now."
"I wish I had whooped up on it faster," bewailed Dick, with engaging candor. "I'm an awful rotter—plain lazy, I guess."
"Well, I don't know but we'd better let Bob go, all things considered," observed Mr. Crowninshield, who had been quietly thinking the matter over.
"I say Bob goes, too," reiterated Dick. "It is worth something to put such fellows as those dog thieves behind the bars."