ll let you know, Mrs. Joslyn," Carl promised.

"And furthermore," she continued, "if I happen to see Dock doing
anything that looks queer or suspicious I'll get word to you. He might
happen to have his hiding-place somewhere around the back yard or the
hen house, you know. He may have buried the paper in the garden. I'll
keep an eye on the neighbors while he's home."

Tom was chuckling at a great rate as he and Carl went down the street.

"It looks as if you've got Mrs. Joslyn a whole lot interested, Carl,"
he told the other. "She's just burning with curiosity to find out
something. Every time Dock steps out to feed the chickens she's going
to drop whatever she may be doing, and focus her eyes on him, even if
her pork chops burn to black leather."

"I wonder what he's meaning to do?" remarked Carl, in a speculative
way.

"Oh! just as Mrs. Joslyn told us, Dock's a lazy fellow," Tom suggested;
"and now that his father is working steadily he thinks it's time for
him to have a rest. Then we believe he's expecting sooner or later to
get a big lot of money from Mr. Culpepper, when they come to terms."

"Yes," added Carl. "And in the meantime perhaps he's got Amasa to hand
him over a few dollars a week, just to keep him quiet. That would
supply his cigarettes, you know, and give him spending money."

"Well, it's a question how long his father will put up with it," Tom
mused. "One of these fine days we'll likely hear that Dock has been
kicked out, and taken to the road."

"He's going with that Tony Pollock crowd you know," Carl hinted; "and
some of them would put him up for a time. But I'm hoping we'll find a
chance to make him own up, and hand back the thing he stole. I'd like
to see my mother look happy again."

"Does Amasa still drop in to call now and then?" asked the other.

"Yes, but my mother insists that I sit up until he goes whenever he
does. You'd have a fit laughing, Tom, to see the black looks he gives
me. I pretend to be studying to beat the band, and in the end he has
to take his hat and go. I'm allowed to sleep an hour later after those
nights, you see, to make up. It's getting to be a regular nuisance, and
mother says she means to send him about his business; but somehow his
hide is so thick he can't take an ordinary hint. I think his middle
name should have been Rhinoceros instead of Reuben."

"What will she do when you're away with the rest of us on that ten day
hike over Big Bear Mountain?" asked