urn, and stepped forward. His comrades saw him
suddenly draw back as though he had made a discovery. Then turning
toward them, he beckoned with his hand, at the same time holding up a
warning finger as though telling them not to make the least noise.

"Now, what's in the wind, Jack?" whispered Toby, as they reached the
side of the other.

"Take a peek and see who's here!" Jack told them.

At that both the others advanced cautiously and stared beyond the big
clump of high bushes. They almost immediately shrank back again, and the
look on their faces announced the receipt of quite a shock.

"Great Caesar! is that chap the man you've both been talking about, tell
me?" asked Toby, half under his breath.

"He is certainly the party I saw Fred talking with so mysteriously,"
asserted Jack, positively.

"And the same fellow who was walking along the road with Fred while I
sat on my log, fishing," added Steve, convincingly.

"But what under the sun is he doing out here near Fred's house, leaning
on that fence, and keeping tabs on the little Badger home, I'd like to
know?" Toby went on to say, wonder written in big letters on his face.

CHAPTER IX

A FAIRY IN THE BADGER HOME

"Let's watch and see what it all means?" suggested Steve, quickly.

Even Jack did not seem averse to doing that same thing. In fact, his
curiosity had been aroused to fever pitch by so unexpectedly discovering
the very man of whom they had been lately talking hovering around poor
Fred's home in such a suspicious fashion.

Peeping around the high bushes again, they saw him leaning idly on the
picket fence. He seemed to have a stout cane, and was smoking a cigar,
though in his undoubted eagerness to keep "tabs" on the humble house he
forgot to draw smoke from the weed between his teeth.

"I must say this is going it pretty strong," grumbled Toby, half under
his breath; "to have that chap prowling around Fred's home, just like he
was afraid the boy'd get out of his grip, and so meant to find a
stronger hold on him."

"That's it," assented Steve; "he wants to learn why Fred seems to hold
back. He means to meet the little mother, and the two small girls, one
of 'em a cripple in the bargain. It's a shame that he should push
himself in on that family, and he a city sport in the bargain. We ought
to find a way to chase him out of town, don't you think, Jack?"

"Hold up, and perhaps we may learn something right now," whispered the
other, aft