From the book:Now KEEP your word, Frank, and tell us the news! "Yes, you got us to come to your house tonight under a promise, remember. What wonderful thing has happened to make you look so tickled?" "Talk to me about the Sphinx! Frank has the old relic beaten to a frazzle!" Three boys gathered eagerly around the fourth as they bombarded him after this fashion. Frank Langdon looked at the faces of his chums and laughed again. "Well, it would be a shame to keep you squirming on the anxious seat any longer, boys, and I'm going to take you into my confidence just as fast as I can. Sit down and hold your oars. Jerry, pull that stool up; Will, the settee must do for you and Bluff. Now, are you ready?" he asked, tantalizingly. "Crazy to hear!" was the characteristic reply of Bluff, otherwise Richard Masters, son of Centerville's greatest lawyer. "Tell me about that, will you?" exclaimed Jerry Wallington. "Please go on before we explode!" begged Will Milton.