I'm pleased to hear you say so, son," the little woman with the rosy
cheeks and the bright eyes told Carl; "and if I can do anything to
assist you please call on me without hesitation, Tom."

"What we want you to tell us, mother," continued Carl, "is how long you
left that Dock Phillips alone in the sitting room when he called for
grocery orders on the morning that paper disappeared."

Mrs. Oskamp looked wonderingly at them both.

"I don't remember saying anything of that sort to you, Carl," she
presently remarked, slowly and with a puzzled expression on her pretty
plump face.

"But you _did_ leave him alone there, didn't you?" the boy persisted,
as though something in her manner convinced him that he was on the
track of a valuable clue.

"Well, yes, but it was not for more than two minutes," she replied.
"There was a mistake in my last weekly bill, and I wanted Dock to take
it back to the store with him for correction. Then I found I had left
it in the pocket of the dress I wore the afternoon before, and so I
went upstairs to get it."

"Two minutes would be plenty of time, wouldn't it, Tom?" Carl
continued, turning on his chum.

"He may have stepped up to the table to see what the paper was," Tom
theorized; "and discovering the name of Amasa Culpepper signed to it,
considered it worth stealing. That may be wronging Dock; but he has a
bad reputation, you know, Mrs. Oskamp. My folks say they are surprised
at Mr. Culpepper's employing him; but everybody knows he hates to pay
out money, and I suppose he can get Dock cheaper than he could most
boys."

"But what would the boy want to do with that paper?" asked the lady,
helplessly.

"Why, mother," said Carl, with a shrug of his shoulders as he looked
toward his chum; "don't you see he may have thought he could tell Mr.
Culpepper about it, and offer to hand over, or destroy the paper, for a
certain amount of cash."

"But that would be very wicked, son!" expostulated Mrs. Oskamp.

"Oh well, a little thing like that wouldn't bother Tony Pollock or Dock
Phillips; and they're both of the same stripe. Haven't we hunted high
and low for that paper, and wondered where under the sun it could have
gone? Well, Dock got it, I'm as sure now as that my name's Carl Oskamp.
The only question that bothers me now is how can I make him give it up,
or tell what he did with it."

"If he took it, and has already handed it over to Mr. Culpepper,
there's not a single chance in ten y