e a shame if we can't all go," Dave declared seriously. "It
won't be a quarter as much fun unless we have the whole crowd."

"Say, watch that slim, well-dressed fellow with the brown derby,"
whispered Hazelton. "See him coming along behind the two women. I'm sure
I saw him, earlier this morning, talking with the same fit-thrower that
bumped Dick."

"Humph! So did I," muttered Dick. "I remember. This slim fellow was with
a short, thick-set man with a black moustache."

"Right!" nodded Harry.

"They must all be members of the same gang of thieves, then," flashed
Dick. "I've read in the newspapers that the thieves who work the
Christmas trade generally go in gangs. By crackey! Did you see that?"

"Yes!" muttered Tom Reade excitedly.

"What?" questioned Greg.

"Why," explained Dick, "Mr. Slim put his hand in a woman's skirt pocket.
He slipped a wallet from her pocket to his."

"That's what he did," nodded Tom.

"Come along," urged Dick. "We'll see if we can come across a policeman
before Mr. Slim gets all the money in the town."

Falling in by twos the Grammar School boys, full of excitement, trailed
after the slim, neatly dressed thief.

Two blocks lower down the boys ran across Policeman Whalen, who, in
citizen's clothes, had been turned out to watch for thieves.

In an undertone Dick called attention to the slim fellow, who was still
moving along in the moving crowds of shopping women. Whalen cautiously
took up the trail, while Dick & Co. fell back somewhat.

Two minutes later Whalen made a sudden leap forward, seizing the
suspected young man by the coat collar.

"Stand by, till I shake ye down!" roared the policeman, thrashing the
thief about until the slim one's teeth chattered. A small morocco purse
fell to the sidewalk.

"Why, that's mine!" cried a woman.

"I know it, ma'am. I saw this spalpeen take it from your pocket," nodded
Policeman Whalen. "Come along with me, lad! And ye come, too, ma'am, and
claim your pocketbook."

"Oh, I'm so glad you saw him do it," quivered the young woman, her face
white from the shock caused by the thought of losing her Christmas
money.

"I wouldn't have seen him do it," admitted Whalen honestly, "only Dick
Prescott called my attention to the spalpeen."

The prisoner, who realized that he could not twist himself away from the
strong clutch of the policeman, scowled at Dick as the young woman
thanked him.

A crowd formed in an instant, but Whalen broke up the ex