Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/54

34 "There, what do you think of that?" he asked, with a grin.

It was not an elaborate or even an ornamental pin—merely the two large letters SB twisted together in ordinary copper wire.

"What does it mean?" Stoddard asked.

"How about Society Busters?" Rupert answered. "But we need n't tell anybody; just keep 'em guessing."

At that moment Nat Belmont and Jerry Dorr came down the basement steps to the express office.

"Shall we elect them members?" Rupert whispered, on a sudden inspiration. "I've got a couple of extra pins. These fellows are not in the Crown, and I guess it would amuse them."

"All right," said Stoddard.

Rupert summoned the two boys, and then said to them mysteriously, "Do you fellows want to join the SB?"

"What's that?" asked Belmont.

"A bluff," replied Rupert. "Some people will think it's a secret society, but it is n't.