f scorn. "No, the watch.
How I can put the babee in the boy pocket? That is stupid.
It is easy to do when I am so close to the boy and he not know
it. You have the watch then. You are be arrest, yes?"

"No, I was not arrested, and I found an owner for it. Your friend
tried to get it, but I had heard him say that he had stolen it, and
I would not give it up."

"An, and now he has go away and I do not see him. You want that you
shall arrest him?"

"No, I don't care anything about him," said Jack, "but I did want
to know how the watch got in my pocket without my knowing it."

"An, that is one easy thing to do," laughed the girl. "Then you
do not mean to make me arrest?"

"No, certainly not," said Jack.

"I am very glad. Good morning, sir," said Gabrielle, and in a
moment she had whisked past the boys, and when they turned to see
where she had gone she had disappeared.

"Well, that thing is explained at any rate," said Percival. "We
thought she might have done it, but I don't see now how she managed it."

"She is evidently very quick in her motions," suggested Jack, "and
from what we know of the man she was with, she may have been just
such a character herself, and have learned deftness of fingers from
him. He was evidently a pickpocket, and perhaps she had practiced
the trade herself. That is the only explanation I can give."

"No doubt it is the correct one, but it does not matter. It is
really the only feasible explanation there is. She had had the
watch, and she was the only one who was close enough to you that
night to have done it."

"Well, we shall probably not see her again to find out just how she
did it, and very likely she would not tell us, as that would be
revealing one of the secrets of the trade, and, of course, she could
not do that."

CHAPTER XIX

THE TROUBLES OF THE SURVEYING PARTY

Shortly after the meeting with Gabrielle the boys were greatly
surprised by the doctor's announcing that he had received a proposition
from the company which operated the mountain railroads in that
section for the Hilltop boys to survey a new line and afterward
build it.

"This will give those of you who are studying engineering and
surveying some practical experience," the Doctor added. "Just the
surveying for the branch road will be done at this time, and later,
some time in the fall, before the regular term begins, you will do
the building. If you are agreeable we will move our camp