u know I would approve--and
you always do know when I approve--then you may fly. I hope and pray
that it will not come, but if it does, you will know how to act. And
whatever you do you will know that your mother stands back of you
because she trusts in your judgment.

"'I sound like a _nobul parent_, don't I, Bill dear? Well, I _do_ feel
that I am on the safe side, because I cannot foresee any possible
occasion for you to go flying off from school. However, if ever you feel
that you _must_, why, you _may_!

"'Get that nice boy Ernest to teach you everything he can, and if you
have to fly, ask him to fly with you.'

"That's all she says about _that_," said Bill with a happy grin, "but
now I feel safe. I don't know why, but I had a sort of hunch that I
ought to ask her to let me fly if I had to."

"It is certainly nice of your mother," remarked Ernest, "but I agree
with her that there will be very little chance of your finding it
absolutely necessary to go aloft in the near future. Of course if you
go, I will go along."

"I have not read the rest of the letter," said Bill, "but I had to show
you this. I will read the rest now."

He hurried back to the library and resumed his reading. And the very
next sentence made him sit up straight, a dark scowl on his face.

"And now I must tell you something so dreadful and so sad that I can
scarcely write it," said the letter. "You will remember the money that
was stolen from a certain officer next door to us here? It happened just
before you left for school. Oh, Bill, you will find it almost
impossible to believe it when I tell you that our Lee, Lee whom we have
always found so honest and so faithful, is _under arrest_ for taking it.

"It seems that two ladies were sewing or visiting on the porch across
from our quarters, and a colonel was reading at the end of our own
porch. Lee came out and went to the telephone and kept saying hello so
many times that they all noticed him. The telephone is right beside the
window, and inside, on a desk, the money was lying in an open envelope
under a paperweight. The weight was so heavy the money could _not_ blow
away. Lee was the only one out there while the owner of the desk was
away from it. He was only gone for a moment, while he spoke to an
orderly at the back door.

"You know Lee always has lots of money of his own, but now they don't
believe that his grandfather sends him the money at all. He is up for
trial and if he is convi