which
Thad shot a knowing glance toward his chum, which said as plain as
could be: "There, what did I say to you?"

"All right, Owen, relieve yourself of the load right away, before you
burst," Hugh went on to advise, in his pleasant fashion.

"It's about a certain chap who's under suspicion right now of having
been implicated in that breaking into the Kramer store and robbing
it."

"Tip Slavin, you mean, Owen?" asked Hugh, looking interested at once.

"Yes, no other, Hugh. Well, I've discovered beyond a shadow of a
doubt that he is the guilty partner of Leon Disney, just as everybody
suspected!"

CHAPTER IX

AN ADVENTURE ON THE ROAD

Thad gave utterance to an ejaculation, and then followed it up by
saying:

"Well, now, I like that! After all, Hugh, I may not have to bother
giving the Chief that tip you mentioned, if Owen here has discovered
something big. Tell us about it, Owen, please; since you've got us
excited by your news."

"I couldn't get over to practice this afternoon, Hugh, as of course
you noticed," the other commenced to say. "But it wasn't any fault
of mine, I give you my word. I had to do several things around the
house for mother. One of the pipes had frozen and had to be thawed
out. Then there were other jobs that kept me busy for an hour.
Finally, when I began to hope I might get down a short time before
you closed shop, she remembered an errand that would take me out on
the road leading to Hobson's Mill-Pond. I had to go to Farmer
Brown's for some butter and eggs."

All this was said with such a lugubrious expression that Hugh had to
laugh.

"It's plain to be seen you started on that walk feeling anything but
pleased, Owen," he went on to remark. "Of course you'd much rather
have been skating with the balance of the crowd over at our new rink.
Well, what happened?"

"Just this, Hugh. I was well out of town, and walking briskly along,
thinking of the game we expect to win on Saturday, when someone
suddenly turned a bend ahead. I saw that it was a boy who was
smoking a cigarette like everything,--yes, Tip Slavin, if you please.
He discovered me at about the same second, and, say, you ought to
have seen how he flipped that coffin-nail thing from his lips, and
came on as bold as anything."

Thad chuckled.

"Huh! guess you got him dead to rights that time, Owen. Did you
accuse him of being a thief?" he asked hurriedly.

"Well, hardly, because, you see, I wasn't beg