CHAPTER VII
FORCED TO PLAY
"Hold the wire!" exclaimed Lanky. "You've taken my breath away! Don't break off yet, please, Bill!"
"All right, if you say so. I'm on my way back to that snug little hangout up on Rattail Island; but there ain't no great hurry. I had my breakfast, thanks," came drifting over the wire.
Lanky by a great effort managed to recover his wits.
"Say, I want to thank you again for what you told me," he went on, quickly. "Some of us had an idea that way; but there wasn't any proof. Did I understand you to say you everheard Lef Seller and his crowd talking about doing us up, so we couldn't play Clifford?"
"That's about the stuff. I couldn't get all they said, but that covers the bill."
"Where was it this happened, Bill?" asked the eager boy at the other end of the wire, his eyes
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