Part 36 (1/2)

”Then you had better.”

”You might have spoken about them, Flockley,” said d.i.c.k coldly. ”Any other student would have done so.”

”Or you could have handed us the letters at lunch,” added Sam.

”I am not your hired man!” cried Dudd Flockley. ”Next time I'll not touch the letters at all!” And then he dropped back into his chair and pretended to read again.

”If we don't find the letters you'll hear from us again,” said d.i.c.k.

And then he and his brothers retired.

They entered the room occupied by Sam and Tom and lit up. The notes were not on the table.

”Here they are!” cried Sam, and picked them up from the floor, under the edge of Tom's bed. They looked rather mussed up, and all of the Rovers wondered if Flockley had opened and read them.

”I don't think he'd be any too good to do it,” muttered Tom as he opened the note addressed to himself.

It was from Nellie, and rather cool in tone. It said all were called home on account of the case at court, but did not give any particulars. At the bottom was mentioned the time of departure from Hope and also from Ashton. The notes from Dora and Grace contained about the same information, and Grace added that she wanted Sam to write to her.

”If we had had these letters this afternoon we might have gone to Hope instead of nutting,” said Tom bitterly.

”They must have expected to see us, either there or at the depot,”

said Sam. ”Otherwise they wouldn't have been so particular about mentioning the time of departure from both places.”

”Yes, I guess they expected to see us, or hear from us,” said d.i.c.k, and breathed a deep sigh.

”Well, they did see us--when we were with Miss Sanderson and her friends.”

”What must they have thought--if they imagined we had received the letters?” groaned Tom.

”They thought we cut 'em dead,” replied Sam. ”Isn't this the worst ever? And all on Flockley's account! I'd like to punch his nose!”

”I'd like to be sure of one thing,” said d.i.c.k, a hard tone stealing into his voice. ”Did Flockley just happen to be in Ashton when the girls got there, or did he open and read these letters and then go on purpose, with Koswell and Larkspur?”

”Say, that's something to think about!” cried Tom. ”If he opened the letters I'd like to make him confess.”

”Well, one thing is certain,” said d.i.c.k after the matter had been talked over for a while, ”we missed a splendid chance to talk matters over with the girls. It is too bad!” And his face showed his concern.

”And you didn't even want to go to Hope with me,” commented Tom, with a humor he could not repress.

”Wish we had gone yesterday,” answered Sam bluntly. He could read ”between the lines” of the note he had received, and knew that Grace wanted to see him just as much as he wanted to see her.

Sam said he was going to write a letter that night, and finally Tom and d.i.c.k agreed to do the same.

”But I shan't write much,” said d.i.c.k. ”I am not going to put my foot in it.” Nevertheless he wrote a letter of four pages, and then added a postscript of two pages more. And the communications Sam and Tom penned were equally long.

”We'll not trust 'em to the college mail,” said Tom. ”We can take 'em to the post-office when we go to church to-morrow,” And this was done.

After the letters were posted the brothers waited anxiously for replies, and in the meantime buckled down once more to their studies.