“Get out!” laughed Prescott.  “I spoke my piece two hours ago.”

Yet the boys continued to crowd about him.

“He’s going to tell us now what the man on the clubhouse steps said!” proclaimed Danny Grin hopefully.

Chapter XXII

HI HEARS SOMETHING ELEVATING

“Do you fellows really want to know what the man on the clubhouse steps said?” Prescott asked, looking about him with a tantalizing smile.

“Do we?” came in a chorus.

“Hurry up and tell us!”

“Quit your kidding,” begged Tom Reade.  “Dick, we’ve waited for months to have the mystery solved.  Now, surely, we ought to know.  Look at these diplomas; they certify that we know everything else.  So trot on the speech of the man on the clubhouse steps.”

“Or look for trouble!” added Harry Hazelton warningly.

Dick appeared to hesitate.  The boys around him, highly curious, thought he was debating within himself whether or not to give the desired information.

“Come, get swift,” desired Spoff Henderson.

“See here, fellows, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” proposed Dick at last.

“You’ll tell us what the man on the clubhouse steps said,” broke in Toby Ross.

“Yes,” Dick agreed; “but you’ll have to let me do so on my own conditions and in my own way.  You see this diploma?” holding it up.  “I’ve been working hard for eight years to win this document.  Now I’m going to hurry home and put this in a place of safety.  After that I’ll put on my everyday clothes, and then I’ll meet you at the usual corner on Main Street at five o’clock.  If any of you fellows really want to know, then, what the man on the clubhouse steps said, I’ll tell you.”

“You won’t postpone telling us, and you won’t try to crawl out of it?” pressed Dave Darrin.

“On my honor, I won’t,” Dick promised.

“On your honor, you won’t tell us what the man on the clubhouse steps said?” demanded Tom Reade suspiciously.

“On my honor, I won’t try to dodge out of it, or postpone it a minute beyond five o’clock.  On my honor I’ll tell you, at five o’clock, to-day, what the man on the clubhouse steps said.”

“Good!” cried many voices.

“Will many of you be there?” Dick inquired.

“We’ll all be there,” declared Spoff Henderson.  “But, remember, Dick Prescott, you’re in honor bound to tell us at last.”

“You won’t find me dodging or up to any tricks,” Dick agreed solemnly.  “Until five o’clock, then.”

Dick started along.  At first quite a crowd went with him, but by degrees the number decreased until only his own five immediate chums were with him.

“Say,” suggested Reade suddenly, “since you’re going to make a public, show of this, Dick, you ought to let our little crowd in on a private view.”

“What do you mean?” Prescott quizzed.