"I wonder what Mr. Cantwell is thinking about, _now_?" Dick asked
himself, with an inward grin as he picked up his pencil.

That Board meeting was about as dull and uneventful as the average.
Yet Dick managed to make a few live paragraphs out of it that
Guilford, "The Blade's" news editor, accepted.

It still lacked some minutes of ten o'clock when young Prescott
left the morning newspaper office and started briskly homeward.

"I didn't catch that Board-reporting idea a day too soon," the
boy told himself, laughing. "Mr. Cantwell was certainly on hand
for mischief to-night. But how quickly he made his get-away when
he discovered that his culprit was present as a member of the
press! I guess Mr. Gadsby must have passed him a strong hint.
But I must be careful not to have any malice in the matter.
Some evening when Mr. Cantwell does come before the Board with
some report I must take pains to give him and his report a nice
little notice and ask 'The Blade' folks to be sure to print it.
Then---gracious!"

Utterly startled, Dick heard and saw an ugly brickbat whizz by
his head. It came out of the dark alley that the sophomore was
passing at that moment. And now came another, aimed straight
for his head!




CHAPTER IV