“Why, Enoch!” exclaimed Hopkins, who was fairly staggered by this revelation. “Didn’t you know that by doing that you put yourselves in the way of the best kind of a thrashing?”
“We did, but we took our chances. Now, I want to ask _you_ a question: Did we shut the door of that lodge-room against ourselves by playing the part of spies?”
“Of course not,” answered Egan, promptly. “You didn’t hear anything, and you never will until you have traveled—so and so.”
Here Egan made several motions with his hands, only one of which was intended to mean something; but which one that was, nobody but a first-class boy could have told.
“Now clear up another point,” continued Egan. “Did Bob Endicott’s father know what base uses his carriage was going to be put to that day?”
“No, sir,” said Enoch, with a laugh. “Bob told him that he wanted the carriage, and his father let him have it; but he did not know what was going to be done with it. Bob was sharp enough to keep that to himself. He gave Sam and the footman five dollars apiece for what they did.”
“And they earned the money,” observed Curtis. “Blake and his committee had a fearful time finding their way out of the woods, and Mr. Colson said that when they came into his office they looked like a lot of tramps. It was a sharp trick, Enoch, and no one but you could have managed it.”
“And no one but Lester Brigham would have thought of it in the first place,” said Egan.
From this it would appear that Lester’s secrets were not likely to be revealed. Huggins could not say that it was he who suggested to Lester the idea of running off with a private yacht, for he had left school long ago; and Ross dared not tell that he was the one who planned the stealing of the class dinner, for he was afraid that he would be court-martialed and punished if he did. Lester’s other secret was in the keeping of boys who knew how to hold their tongues.
When the breakfast had been disposed of, and the exciting and amusing incidents that happened during their last term at the academy, as well as the events of the previous night, had been thoroughly discussed, Egan and his party got into the canoe and pushed off for shore, to let Mr. and Mrs. Egan see that the missing boy had come back safe and sound, while Enoch and Jones went aboard the Firefly and set sail for home. In accordance with his promise, Enoch wrote to Lester that very day. After telling him how Don Gordon had escaped from the coaster, he wound up his letter as follows: