 Jerry, hot ferox. Custis Hall, and have a little talk with Major Davis before dinner. OK, Mr. Randall. Are you going to eat with us in the mess hall? Well, I don't know, Jerry. I haven't been invited yet. I don't think you need to worry about that, sir. I'm pretty sure Major Davis will give you an invitation. Well, maybe he will, Lee. Maybe he will. I must say, your meals here come pretty close to being as good as those Leo puts out. Don't they, Jerry? I'll say they do, sir. Yeah. I'll see you boys a little later. Mr. Randall. Yes, son? You mind if I walk over to Custis Hall with you? No, no, not at all. Come along, Jerry. And see you later, Lee, and you, too, Bruce. Yes, sir. Where did all the cadets disappear to, Jerry? Oh, they're all in their own rooms and in the shower room getting ready for mess. Oh, I see. Did you have something more you wanted to talk with me about, Jerry? Well, I didn't really have anything more to talk about right now. But well, I did want to tell you how much I appreciate you doing what you did, Mr. Randall. Oh, well, now, son, I haven't done anything much. Yet? Yet. Well, I mean that because Lee Phillips is your best pal here at Faroaks and because I think he's a fine lad, I'm going to do everything in my power to see to it that he gets cleared away from the mess he's in right now. And also to see to it that he's able to at least finish this year at Faroaks. Oh, gee, Mr. Randall, I knew you'd do it. Oh, you did, eh? Well, don't forget, son, I said I'd do all in my power. When we get into the thing a little deeper, I mean, when I find out more about it than I do now, it may be that I'll find my hands tied. Oh, no, sir, you can. Just a minute, Jerry. I mean that, well, I told you it's ticklish business trying to offer a loan of money to a friend. Yes, sir. Well, now it's even more ticklish for me to meddle in a situation where I haven't been asked to help by the very people that affects Lee and Mr. Thorpe as attorney. Oh, I know that, sir, but well. What does I say? I will do all I can. I just don't want you to be disappointed if things don't turn out the way we both hope they will. Well, I guess I can't help being disappointed pretty much if Lee can't come back to Faroq's next term. Well, I realize that, son. But if we do all we can, it doesn't turn out that Lee can't come back to Faroq's, that he has to leave. Well, he'll know at least that we have done everything we could. That's the way to look at it, Jerry. Well, now you run along back to your room and get ready for dinner. Oh, by the way, Jerry. Yes, sir. I'd like to have you and Lee wait in your room till I get back. Will you do that? Yes, sir. Fine. How about Bruce? Oh, he's an upperclassman, Mr. Randall. He'll be going over to his own room in Trent Hall to get ready for dinner himself. I see. Very well, well. See you later, son. Yes, sir. We'll wait in the room. All right. Hello there, Major Davis. Well, welcome to Faroq's once more. Thank you, thank you. You're just a little early for the midterm exercises, aren't you? Yes, sir. I guess I am. Just taking a few days extra vacation, that's all. Well, that's fine. Will you join me and Mrs. Davis for dinner, sir? Well, I did want to have a little talk with you first. Certainly, sir. I won't be keeping you from your dinner, will I? Oh, no, no. That's entirely all right. Mrs. Davis is used to me coming in late. No, I see. Now, come in, sir. Thank you. Please sit down. Thanks. I hope this isn't anything about Jerry. Well, indirectly it is, yes. I mean, I hope you're not thinking of taking him out of Faroq's. He's been doing so well. Oh, no, no. Not at all, not at all. Well, that's good to hear. Major Davis, yesterday Jerry telephoned me long distance. I was with the circus in Winter Quarters, of course, and Melrose City. I see. I didn't know he telephoned. I think he phoned from Max Place. I don't think he wanted anyone around the school to know what he was calling about until he had talked with me. I understand. Smart boy. You bet he is. Well, as you probably know, Jerry has quite a neat little sum of money of his own. No, no, I didn't know that. Yes, his father left him some property, several acres, as a matter of fact, in Montana, which we assumed to be almost worthless, until a representative of a railroad line came along and told us that his company needed Jerry's property for a right-of-way for a new branch line. Well, that was fortunate for Jerry. It certainly was. Jerry was paid $7,500 for the property, and that's the reason he was able to come here to school. Oh, I see. I had just presumed up to now that you were paying his way as his legal guardian. I don't think the boy would have stood for that. No, no, probably not. Well, when I got here this afternoon, Jerry told me about the unfortunate development for Lee Phillips. Oh, yes, yes, that's too bad. Lee's a fine boy, and a good student. It's a shame he has to leave the academy. Well, now Major Jerry thinks he has a solution to Lee's problem. Oh, is that so? First, he wants to invite Lee and Bruce Dow Campbell to spend midterm vacation with him at the Circus Winter Quarters. I've given my permission for that, of course, and I've told Lee I'd wire this Mr. Thorpe and ask him to give his permission. I'm going to do that as soon as I get to the hotel. That's fine, sir. It'll be a great change for the boy. I think so, too. Then Jerry asked my permission to lend Lee enough money to finish this year here at school. That presents an entirely different problem, doesn't it, Major? It certainly does. In the first place, of course, we don't know that Lee would accept the loan, and in the second place, we don't know what Mr. Thorpe will say about it. That's right. Now, before I make my decision to allow Jerry to at least make the offer, I want to know more about Lee's background. Jerry's told me the lads an orphan. That's right. And that because of some change in his father's business enterprise, Lee is going to have to leave the school. Yes. Major, what sort of business was his father in? I believe it's some sort of printing plant, lithographing, I think. Lithographing, yes. And as far as I can find out, up to now, it's been a flourishing business. Lithographing. Wait a minute. Lee's home is in Mapleton. Yes. Yes, he and his father had lived in Mapleton ever since Lee was born. Wait a minute. Was his father Carter L. Phillips? Yes. Yes, that's right. Did you know him, Mr. Randall? Know him. I knew him very well. That's amazing. You know, of course, Major, that all the advertising paper that Circus has used, billboards, one sheets, hand bills, everything, all that paper is lithographed. Well, I suppose I hadn't thought much about it. Now, what's the name of the firm that Lee's father ran? Now, wait. Wait a minute. No, I can't remember. Just a minute. I'll ask the bookkeeper. It would be on the checks, which Mr. Thorpe has sent here. Just a moment. Miss Harper, what's the name of the business firm which sends the money for Lee Phillips' tuition and board? What's that? Oh, thank you. Waterman and Phillips. I knew it. Waterman and Phillips. Major, I've been doing business with Waterman and Phillips for more than 15 years. You know. Yeah? I bought all my advertising paper, all my billboards, hand bills, and everything else from that firm for almost 17 years. Well, what do you know about that? As a matter of fact, I had just come back from Melrose City after buying all my paper for next season when I got that call from Jerry. Well, then you must know, Mr. Thorpe. No. Never met him. Well, I don't quite understand that. He's the executive of Mr. Phillips' estate and the trustee of the business. Yeah, as I know. It is a little strange that I haven't met Mr. Thorpe, isn't it? Mr. Randall, I hope you aren't going to say what I think is probably on your mind. I'm going to have to say it, Major. I'm going to have to tell you exactly what I think, because I'm going to need your help in digging into this thing. Then you think? Major Davis, I think there's no reason for Lee Phillips to leave Fair Oaks Military Academy. I think, no, I'll put it this way. I know that Waterman and Phillips are doing as much business right now as the firm did while Lee's father was still alive. I firmly believe that Waterman and Phillips are selling more printing than they ever have in the history of the firm. That's a little bit frightening, isn't it? Yeah, just is. Then you believe that Mr. Thorpe is no question about it in my mind. I believe that this Mr. Ross Thorpe has been stealing money from Waterman and Phillips. I believe he's been doing it ever since Carter Phillips died. And I believe that's the reason he is written here and told you that Lee must leave the school. But, but Mr. Randall, that's embezzlement. Sure, sure it is. But, well, it's been done before, you know. Oh, that's horrible. Imagine ruining a young boy's life like that. Mm, yeah. Yeah, of course, we haven't any proof right now that this Thorpe has been embezzling money from the business, but believe you me, I'm going to find out. And I'm with you, Mr. Randall. Fine, Major, fine. Now, I've got a little plan. Yes, sir? In the first place, I'm going to ask that we keep this a personal matter between the two of us. Agreed. I'd much rather not bring the Academy into it at all anyway. Good. Now, first, let me call for a cab, will you please? Oh, I'll call one. This is Major Davis at Farrokh's Military Academy. Yes. Send a cab to the front entrance of the school right away, will you? Thank you. All right. Now, I'm going to the hotel and send that telegram to Thorpe immediately. I'd like to have you get a hold of Jerry and Lee, and tell them that I had to go back to the hotel right away, and that I'd like to have them come down and have dinner with me there. Good. You would probably better hold them here a few minutes to give me time to get that wire off. Well, that'll be easy. I'll just tell them that you've asked my permission to have Lee accompany you and Jerry to the Circus Winter Headquarters. Now, that I've told you that Farrokhs would be glad to have the two roommates together during vacation. I can string that out as long as you like. Just let me get away from here about 10 minutes before they leave and send them down in a cab, which I'll pay for at the hotel. Right. Oh, say, I'd better catch them before they start over to the mess hall. Oh, yes, yes. Go ahead. Captain Bogart? Bogart, this is made to Davis. Yes. Go into Phillips and Dugans room right away, please, and hold them there for about three minutes, and then send them over to my office. Right. Thanks. Well, Major, you and I are into something, something which may turn out to be a pretty nasty mess before we're through with it. Mr. Randall, I'm with you in it. I'm with you in it all the way. My only hope is that we can clear it up, and if it is in my power to save Lee's life from being utterly ruined by some crook, I'll be more than satisfied. You and me both, Major. Shake.