"How?"
"Why, by reading the letter," laughed Matt, "instead of standing there and bothering your head about it."
"Sure," returned Chub. "That's the one thing to do, and it's the one thing I hadn't thought of."
Just as he started to take the letter out of the envelope, a shrill voice reached the boys from along the road.
"Mark! Come here, Mark—and hurry!"
Chub and Matt shifted their gaze to the front of the house. Chub's sister Susie was standing by the gate and seemed to be considerably excited. As she called to her brother, she waved her hands frantically.
"Gee-whiskers!" exclaimed Chub, pushing the letter into his pocket. "What's to pay now?"
"Perhaps Welcome refuses to be smoothed down," suggested Matt.
"It's somethin' besides that," declared Chub.
Matt mounted the Comet and kept abreast of Chub as he hurried back toward the house.