CHAPTER V

LAURIE TO THE RESCUE

Laurie's rush to get back to school did not prevent him from pausing when, having turned the corner into Summit Street and proceeded half-way along the block, he caught sight of Bob Starling in the back garden of the Coventry place. The Coventry place, which consisted of a big square house set at the Walnut Street end of a broad and deep plot of land facing the school property, had been rented by Bob's father, who was the engineer in charge of the big new railroad bridge in course of construction near Orstead. Bob was entered at Hillman's School as a day-student. He was sixteen years old, a slim but well built chap with a very attractive countenance. Bob's mission in life, as he believed, was to play a great deal of tennis and play it better than any one else. In that mission he very nearly succeeded. It was tennis that was ac-