Mrs. McGregor said
with an affectionate smile. "Well, we're certainly glad you have the
watch. It will be fine and useful. Just see you do not get it smashed
to bits in some of the scraps you are mixed up in."

"Do you think I am going to stand dumb as an oyster and let somebody
land a blow over my vest pocket hard enough to smash that watch, Mrs.
McGregor?" interrogated the giant. "Pray, where would I be while he was
doing it?"

"Gentlemen with gold watches should keep out of the prize ring," put in
Uncle Frederick mischievously.

"Oh, sir, one has to have a watch to call time on the other feller,"
Hal retorted.

"Put it on and let's see how you look, Hal," Tim begged.

"Yes, do!" echoed Mary.

"All right, I'll dress up in it since you say the word," answered Hal,
with an impish grimace. "You may as well see me in it and get used to
the sight; then you won't be taking me for an alderman when you meet me
on the street."

He slipped the chain through his buttonhole and the watch into his
pocket.

"Don't I look for all the world like the Lord Mayor of London or one of
the Common Council?"

"You look like an old sport," Carl asserted, giving his chum a blow on
the chest.

Harling accepted the knock much as a kitten might have accepted a
caress.

"Just for that I've half a mind not to tell you the rest of what I came
for," grinned he. "I've something else to say that will set your hair
on end. But you're that rude that you don't deserve to be told it."

"Oh, what is it, Hal?" Mary cried.

"Another secret!" Tim ejaculated.

"It isn't exactly a secret," Hal said. "It's a clue."

"A clue! To what, for pity's sake?" Carl murmured.

"You are thick, to-night--no mistake!" laughed Hal. "Why, what have we
been arguing over all day--twisting and turning this way and that? What
have we been speculating over until our brains are weak? Tell me that?"

"You haven't a clue about the Christmas baskets!" gasped Mrs. McGregor.

"I've a theory," nodded Hal, with tantalizing solemnity.

"Tell us! Tell us!" cried a chorus of voices.

"It's only a theory, remember, and it doesn't hitch up in every
detail," went on Hal, quite serious now. "But it is worth considering."

"Tell us!"

"Well, it isn't much of a story, so don't get your hopes up. But the
fact is that when we emptied our basket I turned it upside down----"

"Because you were still hungry!" cut in Carl.

"Exactly! How well you read me. Yes, being still f