Not wishing to keep anyone waiting, and suspecting that it must be either Colon or Bristles who had some sort of communication to make, Fred hurried down to the lower hail where the 'phone hung.

"h.e.l.lo!" he called.

Evidently the other party was waiting, for immediately there came an answer.

"That you, Fred?"

"Yes," replied Fred, at the same time wondering who it could be, because there did not seem to be anything familiar about the half m.u.f.fled tones.

"This is Bristles!" came the voice.

"What's that?" exclaimed Fred, wondering if his friend could be trying to play some trick on him by pretending to change his voice.

"Bristles, don't you know? Wait a minute till I cough," and then followed a series of explosive barks that sounded wonderfully realistic over the wire, after which the m.u.f.fled voice continued: "Seem to have taken a beastly cold somehow, after school. Sneezing to beat the band, in the bargain. But I want to see you, the worst way, Fred. Can't you come over to my house, for I oughtn't to go out in the night air with this cold?"

"Now, you mean, Bristles?"

"Sure, right away. It's only eight o'clock, and I've got something to tell you that'll make you sit up and take notice. Excuse me while I bark a few times, Fred," which he accordingly did in a way that made the other remove the receiver from close contact with his ear.

"Well, you do seem to have a good dose of it, Bristles," Fred remarked, laughingly, when the bombardment had finally ceased. "I'm almost afraid that cold will be catching over the wire. Hope it won't be anything serious, old fellow."

"Oh! I'm not bothering about that, Fred," he was told, "but I'm just aching to tell you something great. You'll be tickled half to death when you hear what it is. Never mind asking me, either, because I won't whisper a word over the wire."

"All right, then, Bristles."

"You'll sure come, Fred?" anxiously asked his unseen chum.

"Why, of course I will," Fred hastened to a.s.sure him. "I meant to run over to your place to-night, anyway, because I've got a little news you ought to hear."

"And Fred, you'll take the short-cut, of course?"

"It's mighty seldom I go any other way, Bristles. Why do you ask?"

"I was only afraid you might have some errand down-town that'd take you the long way around, that's all, Fred. Now, hurry up, because I'll bust if I have to hold this great thing in much longer. So long, Fred!"

As the thick voice ceased to come over the wire Fred put the receiver on the hook, and there was a little frown on his face.

"Now I wonder if he's happened to learn about that Corny Ludson, and means to explode it on me?" Fred was saying, as he picked up his hat.

As he did so, his glance happening to fall upon a heavy cane with a crooked handle belonging to his father, he took possession of it.

Perhaps it was the recollection of what pretty Flo Temple had said when jokingly telling him that he would presently be needing a walking stick, if he kept on dieting for the Marathon race, that suddenly tempted Fred to take this cane, for he had certainly never done it on any previous occasion.

Later on he was inclined to believe there might be some truth in that fable of the sea, to the effect that there is a "little cherub aloft, looking after the affairs of poor Jack," and keeping him in times of sudden peril. At any rate the sudden whim of Fred's, when he thought to play a joke on Bristles, and pretend that he needed a crutch or a cane, since he was becoming lame and decrepit, was fated to turn out one of the finest things he ever did.

When Fred stepped out of the front door, he found that it was fairly dark, as the moon happened to be past its full, and consequently had not as yet appeared above the eastern horizon.

When Fred and Bristles wished to exchange visits they were in the habit of taking a short-cut, that saved considerable distance. It wound in and out over the open lots, though there was only one fence to climb. So frequently had the boys made use of this way, in their endeavor to save themselves from needless steps, that they knew every foot of it like a book. Indeed, a plain trail had been worn by these innumerable trips.

Bristles had often declared he could go from his house to that of Fred with his eyes bandaged, and never once get off the track. No doubt it was the same way with the Fenton boy, who had impressed every little peculiarity of that short-cut on his mind.

Swinging the heavy walking-stick around by the crook, Fred hurried along, climbing the fence on the other side of the road. Just at that moment he chanced to notice a figure coming up the street, and while astride the topmost rail of the fence he stopped to see if his suspicions were confirmed, for he thought he ought to know that peculiar gait.

When the other started in at the Fenton gate Fred called softly:

"h.e.l.lo there, Colon!"

The tall figure turned around at being thus addressed from across the street.

"That you, Fred?" he asked, starting to cross over.

"n.o.body else," replied the other, with a chuckle, "and you happened along just in the nick of time, let me tell you. I'd have been gone in three shakes of a lamb's tail."

"Going across lots to Bristles's shack, I reckon?" ventured the tall boy, as he reached the side of his friend.

"Just what I'm meaning to do," he was told. "Bristles called up before I was ready to start across, and wanted me to hurry over. Said he had something to tell me that was simply great."

"You don't say!" exclaimed Colon.

"And I've been wondering whether he could have learned about that man being in town," continued Fred.

"Meaning Corny?" queried Colon.

"Yes," Fred replied, still sitting on the rail of the fence. "If you saw him, there'd be a chance that Bristles might have heard something along those lines. You know he's the greatest fellow going for picking up information about all sorts of things."

"It might be," mused the other, "and we could have some fun with Bristles by springing the racket on him before he got a chance to let the cat out of the bag."

"You'll go over with me, then?" asked Fred.

"That's my present intention," said Colon. "Fact is, I strolled around to see if you expected to drop in on Bristles, and put him wise. Didn't have anything else to do, this being Friday night, you know. And I'm that full of the race I seem to want to talk it over all the time. But what are you carrying that heavy walking-stick for? Hope there wasn't any truth in what Flo Temple said, and that you're getting weak in the knees, Fred?"

"I just happened to remember all that joshing," Fred told him, "when I saw dad's stick. So I picked it up, thinking I'd play a joke on Bristles, and make out to be lame. But looks a little as if we mightn't have Bristles along with us to-morrow."

"How's that?" Colon wanted to know, instantly.

"Why, it seems he's gone and taken a terrible cold all of a sudden," Fred told him. "You'd never have guessed who it was talking over the wire to me. He had to tell me who it was."

"When was this?" asked Colon, "because I called him up after I got home this evening, to sort of say we _might_ be around, and I didn't notice anything out of the way with him then."

"Is that so?" remarked Fred, as though a little puzzled. Then he added, "Oh! these colds in the head come on with a rush, sometimes. He barked like a dog, and I even had to hold the receiver away from my ear. I told him he'd give it to me over the wire. But chances are he'll not be in a fit state for a twenty-five mile run to-morrow, more's the pity. It's queer about that heavy cold taking him so sudden, though, come to think of it."

"He wanted you to come over, you say?" continued Colon, as he threw one of his long legs across the top rail, and prepared to follow Fred, who had already dropped down on the other side of the fence, and was in the field that was to be crossed first of all, in following the short-cut to the Carpenter home.

"Yes, that was why he called me up," replied Fred. "And he kept urging me not to hold off a minute, because he said what he had to tell was so important he'd just burst if he held in much longer. And then he wanted to make sure I'd take this path across lots."

"But why would he say that, Fred?" continued the tall boy, as side by side they started off, with Fred keeping on the path, which could be seen readily enough in the starlight, once his eyes had become accustomed to the night.

"He said, Colon, he was afraid I might try to kill two birds with one stone, and go down-town first, to do some errand, and he just couldn't wait a minute longer than was necessary."