to
an operation at the hands of a noted surgeon he recommended. But they
are poor, you know, boys, and it's next to impossible for them to ever
think of raising the three hundred dollars the operation would cost. She
told my mother Fred was making himself fairly sick over his inability to
do something to earn that big sum. So you see the poor chap has had
plenty of reason for looking glum lately."

"I knew nothing about Fred's mother being sick," Jack admitted; "and I'm
sorry to learn it now; but don't you see, your explanation only seems to
make matters all the blacker for him, Toby?"

"Why, how can that be, Jack?"

"Only this, that while Fred might never be bribed to listen to any
scheme to throw the game in favor of Harmony, on his own account, the
tempting bait of three hundred dollars might win him over now, because
of his love for his mother."

"But, Jack, however could he explain where he got so much money?" cried
Steve. "It would come out, and he'd be called on for an explanation.
Even his mother would refuse to touch a cent dishonestly gained, though
she died for it. Why, Fred would be crazy to think he could get away
with such a game."

"Still, he might be blind to that fact," Jack explained. "The one thing
before his eyes would be that he could pick up the money so sorely
needed, and for which he might even be tempted to barter his honor. All
sorts of explanations could be made up to tell where he got the cash.
But there's even something more than that to make matters look bad for
Fred."

"As what, Jack?" begged Toby, breathlessly.

"Just day before yesterday," the other continued, "I chanced to pass
along over yonder, and glancing across saw Fred sitting on this very
bench. He was so busy talking with a man that he never noticed me. That
man was a stranger in Chester, at least I had never seen him before.
Yes, and somehow it struck me there was a bit of a sporty look about his
appearance!"

"Gee whiz! the plot thickens, and that does look black for Fred, I must
say," grunted Toby, aghast.

"I was interested to the extent of hanging around to watch them
further," Jack went on to say, "and for half an hour they continued to
sit here, all the while talking. I thought the sporty stranger glanced
around a number of times, as though he didn't want any one to overhear a
word of what he was saying. He seemed to have a paper of some sort, too,
which I saw Fred signing. I wondered then if he could be such