tor. "Your right names, too!"

"I guess you know all of our names now, if you take a good look at us,"
smiled Prescott.

"Yes, I do," nodded Mr. Green grimly. "I wouldn't have thought it of any
of you boys, either. But there's no telling what boys won't do
nowadays."

"What are we supposed to have done?" Dick queried.

"You're the youngsters who threw a volley of stones and broke the
railroad signal lights."

"Guess again!" suggested Dave.

"Aren't the lights broken, and didn't I catch you moving away from the
scene?" glared Mr. Green.

"Yes; but didn't you hear some other boys getting away at the same
time?" demanded Prescott.

"Um! I--er--suppose I did."

"Doesn't it strike you that the boys who broke your signal lights were
the ones who ran away so fast?"

"Then you boys didn't do it!"

"We certainly didn't."

"Who were the boys, then!"

"Excuse me, Mr. Green, but you'll have to find that out for yourself."

"Who were they?" pressed the operator.

"As I said before, Mr. Green, you'll have to find that out for
yourself."

"Then I guess I'll take you youngsters in on the charge. You know that I
belong to the railway police, don't you?"

"Yes; and I also know," smiled Dick steadily, "that, if you don't
succeed in proving your charge, you'll lay both yourself and the
railroad liable to damages for false arrest."

Mr. Green looked a bit uneasy. This is a point of law intended to
restrain officers of the law from making arrests without evidence.

"For the last time, will you tell me the names of the boys who threw the
stones?"

"No," Dick rejoined, "for we don't know exactly what boys did the
throwing."

"Name the boys you suspect, then."

"Nothing doing," Dave Darrin interposed, with emphasis.

"Then I'll have to take you boys in."

"That's your privilege--and your risk, as Dick has explained," laughed
Dave.

Green fidgeted. He didn't want to make any mistakes, but he did wish
that these Grammar School boys could be scared more easily.

"Will you come back to the station with me, without going in arrest?"
asked the operator.

"Why?" questioned Prescott, pointedly.

"Because I'm going to send for the chief of police, and I shall want him
to talk with you," Green answered.

"The chief of police knows where to find any of us when he wants to,"
hinted Darrin.

"If Mr. Green asks us to go to the railway station with him, without
being placed under arrest, I don't see what harm that ca