I guess I've got a right to listen." Looking about him, Prescott saw a chance to slip into a yard, get over a fence, and creep up rather close to Scammon, though still being hidden from that scoundrel.

At last Prescott found himself well hidden in the yard behind Tip.
So Dick heard the talk.

Now, as he hurried back to "The Blade" office the young soph guessed shrewdly at the meaning of what he had heard.
"Now, what had I better do about it ?" Dick Prescott asked himself.
"What's the fair and honorable thing to do---keep quiet?
It would seem a bit sneaky to go and tell Lawyer Ripley.

Shall I tell Fred?
I wonder if I could make him understand how foolish and cowardly it is to go on paying for a blackmailer's silence?
Yet it's ten to one that Fred wouldn't thank me.

Oh, bother it, what had a fellow better do in a case like this ?" A moment later, Dick laughed dryly.
"I know one thing I could do.