he outskirts of small towns. Many of them come from
New York. They pretend to be fond of camping and so lure and
then rob their adventure loving victims....

There was considerable more of this nonsensical twaddle. It was the
silly custom of the Bridgeboro Record to make heroes of the town and
county officials, and soberly to print the rubbish which they uttered
for the pleasure of seeing their names in print.

"Can you beat that?" Westy asked.

"Outskirts of towns!" said Dorry. "Why we met him in Bennett's Candy
Store!"

"He calls us children," said Pee-wee.

"Now that you speak of it," said Warde Hollister, "it seems funny that
he should have gone right into stores in Bridgeboro."

"Parents should be warned against letting their children go into candy
stores," said Roy.

The next day it appeared that the doctors of Bridgeboro were not quite
equal to coping with poor Blythe's case, and the Bridgeboro Record
stated that a specialist from New York had been summoned to determine
whether the desperate scoundrel was feigning unconsciousness in order to
baffle the authorities. It appeared that not only thugs and bandits, but
occasionally a surgeon who knew his business, came from New York.

And then something happened....

CHAPTER XXIX

A DISCOVERY

The doctor from New York discovered something which the eagle eye of
Detective Ferrett had not discovered. And which the Bridgeboro doctors
had not discovered. It was nothing new. It was just two or three tiny
cracks in the skull of the fugitive criminal, not far from the rapidly
healing cut which he received in his deed of heroism. It might have been
two or three years old, the doctor said. He seemed keenly interested in
it.

As a consequence of this, Detective Ferrett and a young doctor from the
hospital called at the homes of several of the older scouts and
questioned them about Blythe's demeanor at camp. The boys had tried to
tell the detective of their companion's peculiarities but he had not
condescended to listen. He listened now. And the outcome of all this
business was another article in the Bridgeboro Record:

CRIMINAL TENDENCIES CAUSED BY CRACKED SKULL?

A delicate operation was performed yesterday on the skull of
Darrell, the Canadian fugitive who is recovering from injuries
in the Bridgeboro hospital. The shaving of the hair from his
head for the purpose of dressing a slight wound received on the
day of his c