the woods."

"He asked me if there were many dangerous characters lurking in the
woods around Lake Dunkirk," chuckled Lance. "Somebody has been
stringing him about outlaws."

"Short and Long looks guilty," said Chet, suspiciously. "What you been
stuffin' Purt with, Billy?"

Billy Long, who straddled the piazza rail, swinging his feet, showed
his teeth in a broad smile. "You read about that Halliday fellow,
didn't you?" he asked.

"Oh! the chap they say stole the money from that Albany bank?"
responded Lance.

"It was securities he stole--and forged people's names to them so as
to get money," said Laura. "The Lockwood girls' Aunt Dora lost some
money by him."

"That is--if he did it," said Chet, doubtfully.

"Well, the newspapers say so," Jess observed.

"What if they do?" demanded Billy, belligerently. "They all said _I_
helped burglarize that department store last summer--didn't they? And
I never did it at all."

"No. It was another monkey," chuckled Lance.

The others laughed, for Billy Long had gotten them into serious
trouble on the occasion mentioned, and it was long enough in the past
now to seem amusing. But Chet added:

"It's a wonder to me that Norman Halliday had a chance to get hold of
all those securities and forge people's names to them. And he knew
just which papers to take. Looks fishy."

"Well, he ran away, anyhow," Lance said.

"So did Billy," Bobby said. "And for the same reason, perhaps. He was
scared."

"My father says," Chet pursued, "he has his doubts about Halliday's
guilt. He believes he is a catspaw for somebody else."

"Anyhow," said Billy, "the papers say he's gone into the Big Woods
south of Lake Dunkirk. And Purt wants to carry a gun to defend himself
from outlaws."

"If he does," Chet said, seriously, "I'll see that there are no
cartridges in the gun. Huh! I wouldn't trust Purt Sweet with a
pop-gun."

Bobby, meanwhile, was saying to Laura: "I wonder why Old Dimple was
interested enough in that Albany bank robbery to carry around that
clipping out of the paper?"

"Maybe he lost money, too," Laura suggested.

"What's that about the old Prof?" put in Chet. "Do you know he's gone
out of town already?"

"No!" was the chorus in reply.

"Fact. I saw him with his suitcase this forenoon. He took the boat to
Lumberport."

"Well, as we shall all start in that same direction to-morrow morning,
bright and early----"

"Not all of us bright, but presumably early," put in