Central Grammar met at Dave Darrin's house. In the front yard
they waited for their captain.

"Queer Dick should be a bit late," muttered Torn Reade. "He's
our model of punctuality."

"You'll see him come around the corner 'most any minute," Greg
predicted.

Nor was Holmes wrong in this. When Prescott arrived he came on
a jog trot.

"We wondered what kept you, our right-to-the-minute captain,"
announced Dave.

"Well, you see," replied Dick quizzically, "I've been thinking."

"Thinking?" repeated Tom. "Oh, I understand. You've been thinking
about what the man on the clubhouse steps said."

"Well, hardly anything as big as that," teased Dick. "I'm afraid
that you fellows are growing impatient on what is, after all,
not a very important matter."

"So, then, the speech of the man on the clubhouse steps wasn't
very important?" inquired Tom, seeking to pin their leader down.

"Why, that would depend on how you happened to regard what the
man on the clubhouse steps said," Dick laughed.