THE MUFFLED VOICE
"Fred, someone wants you on the 'phone!"
"All right, Sis, tell him I'll be right down, and to hold the wire!"
At the time his younger sister, Josie, called him. Fred was sitting in
his own room at home. It was around eight o'clock, and he had just been
studying, so as to get such matters off his mind until Monday swung
around again. The next day being Saturday, he and the other selected
contestants for honors in the big race expected to cover the course at a
pretty good pace, so as to familiarize themselves with its numerous
shortcomings and advantages.
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.
"Hello!" 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 muffled 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 muffled 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 assure 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:
"Hello there, Colon!"
The tall figure turned around at being thus addressed from across the
street.
"That you, Fred?" he asked, starting to cross over.
"Nobody 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."
"Huh! that's funny," grunted Colon, as though he failed to understand
exactly why the said Bristles should have been so very particular.
They walked along, with Colon clutching the left arm of his chum, for he
depended upon Fred to show the way, not being very familiar with the
crooked path himself.
They kept on talking as they walked, for there were any amount of things
that interested them jointly, from the mystery concerning the actions of
Corny Ludson, to the plans they had in mind concerning the winning of the
glorious Marathon.
Here and there clumps of bushes caused them to turn aside, but that was
the way the trail ran, very much like what Fred called a "cow-path."
Indeed, it meandered along in a zigzag fashion, though always heading for
the opposite side of the field.
The two boys were just in the act of passing the densest patch of bushes
that the cow-pasture boasted, when without the slightest warning three
figures suddenly confronted them. They leaped from the covert where they
had been lying concealed, and, as though all their plans had been
arranged beforehand, two of the figures instantly sprang past, so that
from all sides of a triangle Fred and Colon found themselves furiously
assailed.