"But this I do know," continued Dowdell, "if the weather continues cold there'll be some elegant skating before the week is out." Gridley did not slumber over the nitroglycerine mystery. Len Spencer, though he could gain no actual information, managed to have something interesting on the subject in each morning's "Blade." The people of Gridley talked of the mystery everywhere.

To his chagrin he found his bantering had fallen flat. "Oh, well," gaped Dowdell, gazing out of the window near which he stood, "I know one important fact about the mystery." "What's that?" asked half a dozen quickly. "None of the five hundred is destined to come my way. "That jest saddens a lot of us with the same conviction," muttered Ted Butler, shaking his head.