"Well," the doctor resumed, wiping his eyes, "I called up my office, and the girl said that just about the time I started, Bill Morton's stenographer called up and warned her to look out for a fake call she heard somebody send in from Morton's private office."
"Oh! Who could have done such a thing!" gasped Mrs. Cane.
"Bill's stenographer didn't know who it was," replied the doctor, watching Sube out of the corner of his eye. "He was too quick for her! She didn't see him!"
Sube straightened up at once and for the first time appeared to take an interest in the story.
"We had already started!" laughed the doctor uproariously. "And such a time as we had!"
The doctor's laughter was infectious. Mr. Cane had been chuckling throughout the account of their adventures and now Mrs. Cane was beginning.
"The mud was a foot deep!" cried Mr. Cane, taking up the narrative, "and we had to get out and wade around in it twice while we changed a tire. And then to top off the adventure the engine got wet and went out of commission and we had to give up the ship and _walk home_!!"
"But what is so funny about it?" insisted Mrs. Cane. "If I didn't know you were both teetotalers I should certainly think you men had been drinking."
The doctor subdued his laughter with an effort as he said: "It's Sube I'm laughing at!"
Sube's magazine fell to the floor; he half stood up, then dropped back into his chair stiff as a poker.
"Isn't he immense!" howled the doctor. "Isn't he delicious! That boy will make _his_ mark in the world!"
"But what has _he_ to do with it?" asked Mrs. Cane, glancing at the boy's open mouth and popping eyes.
"Oh--oh, nothing to do with _that_," stammered the doctor. "I was just laughing at the way he was sitting there reading. I wanted to come in and get a look at him!"
"Why, yes!" roared the doctor. "He's had his head shingled and I hadn't seen him!"
As soon as the doctor had gone Mrs. Cane hurried her husband to his room for dry clothing. Sube heard with bitterness the sound of their suppressed laughter.
"That's right," he muttered. "Laugh at some joke of ol' Doc Richards and then come down and whale the daylights out of me--"
He listened. They were coming down the stairs. As his mother entered the room he noticed that there were tears in her eyes, and that the corners of her mouth were twitching. His breath came faster as he observed his father's determined walk.