"
"Never mind," said Peggy, "all's well that ends well. We start for Hampton
to-morrow and once there they won't have a chance to try any more tricks.
Luckily all their mean plans and schemes have ended in nothing. Roy will
be as good as ever by to-morrow, won't you boy?"
Roy nodded.
"I've got to be," he said, decisively; "those tests have got to bring the
_Golden Butterfly_ out on top."
"And they will, too," declared Jess, with a nod of her dark head, "that
poky old Harding and his crowd won't have a word to say when they are
over."
"Let's hope not. It doesn't do to be too confident, you know," smiled
Peggy, throwing an arm round the waist of her enthusiastic friend.
"As the man said when he thought he'd lassoed a horse but found he'd roped
his own foot instead;" grinned Jimsy, "but, say, what's all this coming up
the road?"
Sure enough, a small crowd of ten or a dozen persons could be seen
approaching the Prescott house. They were coming from the direction of the
Mortlake plant. In advance, as they drew nearer, could be seen Mortlake
himself, with a tall man by his side and Fanning Harding. The men behind
seemed to be workmen from the plant.
"Wonder where they can be going to?" queried Jess, idly. For a few moments
more they watched the advancing throng, and then Jimsy cried suddenly:
"Why, that's Sheriff Lawley with Mortlake, and there's Si Hardscrabble the
constable, right behind them, what can they be after?"
"Clues," laughed Peggy, but the laugh faded on her lips as she exclaimed:
"Why--why, they're coming here!"
"Here!" echoed the others.
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