"Why didn't he tell us about it?
It couldn't have been such an awful secret he had to keep it to himself." "It's a deuce of a hard thing to figure out," said Merry.

"I don't think we ever will understand it until Borrodaile bobs up and clears away the mystery himself.

I've a hunch that Blunt is the key to this riddle of the professor's whereabouts.

The Wonder may be somewhere around--that is, if McGurvin wasn't lying." "You can bank on it, Chip, that a robber like McGurvin wouldn't tell the truth if it was to his interest to tell something else." "He said he didn't know Nick Porter, a man who has been roaming these deserts all his life.

If that's the truth, it's remarkable." "Now you're getting back to Porter again.