before yesterday," said the chauffeur, "but I know he left town that night—I saw him board a freight train." "Well, it is strange. Keep your eyes open," said Senator Morr, and then he returned to the house, to quiet his wife and retire once more. "It's mighty queer about that fire," remarked Luke, when the boys were undressing. "It certainly does look as if it was set." "Dave, do you think Merwell and Haskers would do it?" questioned Roger. "Yes, if they were in this neighborhood. But have they been here?" The boys looked at each other. Nobody had seen Merwell or the former teacher of Oak Hall in that vicinity. "Let us make some inquiries down at the railroad station in the morning," suggested Dave. "If those two stopped off here somebody must have seen them." "Phew! what a noise that cannon cracker did make!" murmured Phil. "If we had set that off in the morning—as we intended—I reckon it would have woke up the neighborhood pretty well." "It did wake some folks up," answered Roger, for quite a few boys and men had come up to find out what the flames and noise meant. "It was certainly some firecracker," was Luke's comment. "Say, speaking of firecrackers puts me in mind of a story!" burst out Shadow. "Wow! A story this time of night!" murmured Buster. "I'm going to bed." "This is a short one," pleaded the would-be story-teller. "A man was giving a celebration one Fourth of July to a lot of children. He had ordered a lot of firecrackers, but they didn't come. So he sent a telegram to the wholesale house in the city. 'Send big and little crackers as ordered at once.' About an hour afterwards he got a return telegram which said, 'Our grocery department is closed to-day. Your order for crackers will be filled to-morrow.'" "Call that a crackerjack joke?" asked Roger, with a grin. "Don't crack any more like that, Shadow," added Dave. "You might get fired if you do," contributed Phil; and then a general laugh went up, after which all of the boys again retired.
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