“Just this! that horse of yours drove away with one of my bee hives two nights ago. Dick,” went on the farmer to one of his sons, “Saddle Nellie and get lickety-switch to Squire Bisbee. Tell him to fetch a couple of constables with him. I’m going to sift this business and know the rights of things before you leave this farm, stranger!”
CHAPTER XXV
EXCELSOR!—CONCLUSION
“It’s great news!” declared Mr. Strapp.
“Grand—wonderful!” added Professor Barrington. “That Pep Smith of yours is a genius. As to this Vic Belton, he deserves his good fortune in every way.”
The “great news” was the arrival of a letter from Pep, reciting his own and the adventure of Vic in their search for the stolen camels. Farmer Bacon had soon straightened out matters. The leader of the movies bandits was in jail for stealing, his accomplices had fled, and the camp on the swamp island was broken up and deserted.
The two young heroes, as the admiring Ben Jolly insisted on dubbing them, had the camels in safe and comfortable charge and would be in Boston and back at the Standard the next day.
“Yes,” said Frank, brightly, “things are coming out finely all along the line. We should be very happy and hopeful, Professor, over the wonderful success of your educational films.”
“There’s no doubt of that,” acknowledged the old savant gratefully, but he added with a sigh: “if we only hadn’t lost the great film!”
“Forget it!” instantly advised Mr. Strapp, in his brusque, practical way. “It’s gone, and we haven’t any time to spare crying over spilled milk. That Slavin crowd got it. There is no doubt of that, according to my way of thinking.”
“It hasn’t brought them much luck,” submitted Ben Jolly. “Randy here says they’ve not had the money to go on smoothly. They have almost dropped the educational line, working in two ‘funnies’ for part of their programme. Just as you said at the start, too, Durham, their location is wrong. It’s just far enough off the lively belt to lose the transients.”