ood are the police, anyway?"

"I don't care much about their finding him, unless they also find my
forty-two dollars on him," mournfully proclaimed another of the losers.

"I am sorry for you, ladies. I don't deserve any sympathy, or very
little, for myself. Well, as the scoundrel has gotten away, and as young
Prescott is growing stronger, I shall go on my way to other patients who
need me."

Dick was still rather dizzy and weak, but Dave's right arm supported
him.

"Does your head ache?" inquired Greg.

"Guess," advised Dick dryly.

As the two policemen had given up looking for the fugitive, and had gone
back to their posts, the crowd was melting. It was nearly noon, and most
people on the streets were moving homeward.

"Guess you won't have a large appetite for the coming meal," observed
Tom Reade to Dick. "Whew! What a crack that sounded like when the
scoundrel struck you! It must have jarred away some of your appetite."

"I can't tell about that until I try to eat," Dick answered.

"No matter whether you eat much or not, but you want to be sure to ask
your mother for two cups of strong coffee with your dinner," advised
Darrin, with all the readiness of the amateur physician.

"I guess I'll go home, fellows," announced Dick, as the noon whistles
blew. "I advise the rest of you to hustle, too. Remember what you've got
to spring on your fathers when you get home. We want to have the whole
thing settled when we meet this afternoon. Try to put it through, all of
you, won't you?"

"I'm going to see you as far as your door, Dick, old fellow," Dave
insisted.

"Oh, I'll be feeling fine in another hour," Dick protested. "It just
knocked my senses for a minute or two."

Shortly after one o'clock the chums gathered again on Main Street. Dick
now looked as keen as ever, and his eyes were shining.

"It's all settled for me," he announced. "I can go camping."

"So can I," Dave reported with satisfaction.

"Dad almost as good as said I could go," Tom declared. "He'll agree to
it by to-night."

"How about you, Dan?" queried Dick.

"I can go--_not_," groaned Dalzell.

"I hope to go," announced Greg. "All I could get out of my father was
that he was in a rush, but that he'd talk it over with me to-morrow and
let me know what he had to say."

Hazelton admitted that he was in the same plight, as to a delayed
decision, but he did not speak as though he were very hopeful of being
permitted to go.

"It'll just b