"See here—" began Frank in wonderment.
"Now, you just say it," persisted Stet. "I know my business," and he blinked and chuckled craftily.
"All right—here goes."
"Good as a play," declared Stet, as Frank went through the rigmarole. "Now I needn't tell any lies. Thrown out by my friends, discharged from my job, O—O—Oh!" and Stet affected sobs of the deepest misery. "Had Bob Haven kicked me—not hard—out of the shop last night. See? Object of abuse and sympathy. Oh, I'm fixed now to play Mr. Dale Wacker good and strong."
Stet disappeared the way he had come in a high state of elation. Frank went Into the house for breakfast. He walked as far as the office with his mother. Then he went to the livery stable where he had hired the turnout.
He was soon on the road. Frank tried to forget the anxieties of the mall order business and his missing friend. He planned to cover six little towns by nightfall.
Frank had good luck from the start. At a crossroads there was a country schoolhouse, a general store and some twenty houses. The man running the store was just stocking in for the fall term of school. Frank came in the nick of time. He
