The girls laughed but they were not ill-pleased.
"How do you like it here?" asked Gertrude.
"Oh, it's too early to say yet," replied the lad. "My brother and I hope to have some fun. But I would be very glad if I could do anything to help you, Miss Gertrude. Is the trouble with Professor Callum a serious one?"
"Most money troubles are serious," said the girl with a sigh. "It's no secret. My mother is a widow, and when poor papa died several years ago he left her some stock or bond shares, in some concern. I don't know just what they were.
"When it came time for me to leave high school and go to Fuller Academy where Grace and I attend, mother needed some extra money. She went to a lawyer who said she could raise money on the stocks or bonds. As it happened Mr. Callum had some to lend and we borrowed it, on a note thinking we could sell the bonds when we had to pay it.
"Everything seemed to be all right, but recently Mr. Callum wanted his money back. Mother and I thought it would be easy enough to take the bonds to some bank, raise the money and pay off the professor. But we found we couldn't."
"Why not?" asked Frank.
"Because it seems that the bonds were worthless. No one would take them, and so we couldn't raise the money to pay back Mr. Callum. He was very angry and though we did our best we have not been able to sell the bonds. So he hasn't been paid. That was what he was speaking to me about on the boat. Oh, if he had taken hold of me I should have fainted I'm sure."
"He's a brute!" exclaimed Frank.
"Poor Gertrude," whispered Grace, putting her arm around her chum.