ed the lieutenant into the transmitter. "This is the
police station. We have your little girl here, all safe and sound. How
was she found? Three schoolboys, Dick Prescott, Dave Dar---- Oh, you
know the names? Well, they trailed the cab to where it had stopped
outside of a drug store. They knocked the driver down and got away with
the cab. How did three boys manage to do such a deed? Wait! I'll let
Master Prescott himself tell you over the 'phone."

The lieutenant wheeled about.

"Where in the name of mischief are those boys?" he demanded. The two
policemen turned in equal confusion. Certain it was that the Grammar
School boys had bolted.

So the lieutenant sent out to find a driver, and one of his policemen
got inside with Myra, to take her home. The policeman was also
instructed to remain on guard outside through the night, in case Dexter
and his confederate should feel inclined to make another attempt to
abduct the little one.

Dick and his chums, after leaving the station house silently, had run
until they found themselves around the corner on Main Street.

"We don't want to be thanked any more by Mrs. Dexter to-night," Dick
ventured to his friends.

"We certainly don't," agreed Dave.

"What'll we do now?" asked Greg.

"We'll go home," suggested young Prescott. "Our folks will be wondering
where we are."

"Whee! But we'll have a lot to tell the folks!" chuckled Greg. "When my
mother hears what we've been through to-night the chances are ten to one
that she'll make me stay in nights."

"Not if she pauses to think what you did to help another mother out,"
hinted Dave.

"Well, good night, fellows," called Dick as he reached his corner.
"We've had a bully time, but that won't get us up early in the morning."

The bookstore was due to close at nine o'clock, but it was twenty-five
minutes after that hour when Dick swung in through the front door.

"Mother, here's the boy," called Mr. Prescott, being the first to espy
the returning son. "Young man, you'll have to give your mother a good
account of yourself. She's been worrying about you."

"Oh, I knew Dick was in no great danger," laughed Mrs. Prescott, coming
forward to kiss her son, now that her worry had ended pleasantly. "But,
Richard, you're still a bit young to stay out so late."

"I suppose, mother, that depends a bit upon what I've been doing,
doesn't it?"

"Why, has anything happened out of the usual?"

"I'll tell you about it," agreed the lad