Owen,--let the Chief know of your discovery, or keep mum?"

"Why, I look at it this way," said the other, with a line of
perplexity marked upon his usually smooth forehead; "if it was only a
_suspicion_ I might keep quiet, not wanting to injure Tip, though
I've got little cause to love the brute. But since I actually _know_
something that would prove a valuable clue to the officers, I'm
afraid it would be what I've heard a lawyer call 'compounding a
felony' if I refused to inform on Tip. How about that, Hugh? I want
to do the right thing, even if I hate to be an informer."

"It's up to you, Owen, and your duty is plain enough," said Hugh.

"Then I ought to see the Chief, you mean?" asked the other.

"I'd advise you to do so, for your future peace of mind, if nothing
else," Hugh told the hesitating boy, who thereupon drew a long
breath, and remarked:

"I'm more than half sorry now I went back to look for this cigarette;
because only for my picking up such positive evidence I needn't get
into this nasty game. But I'm in now, and I'll have to shoulder my
share of the responsibility, I guess. So, while the thing is still
fresh in my mind, I'll trot around to Headquarters to wake up our
sleeping Chief. Things have come to a pretty pass here in Scranton
when boys have to lend a helping hand to the police force so as to
nab a petty thief."

With that Owen left them. When he had a duty to perform, however
unpleasant it might be, Owen was accustomed to grappling with it, and
not compromising.

Thad looked after the other and remarked:

"How queer things do come about, Hugh. Just to think of Owen
discovering Tip sauntering along the road and smoking one of those
stolen cigarettes. Pretty cute of him, too, sneaking back and
hunting for the evidence. I suppose it'll wind up in Tip being
locked up with Leon, and eventually going to the Reform School."

"Few people will be sorry," observed Hugh, although he felt a twinge
when his mind reverted to the mothers of the two boys.

"I wonder what Nick thinks of it all," mused Thad. "He must realize
that he had a narrow squeak of it; because, only for that sudden
change of heart on his part, brought around by what you did about
those nickeled skates, he might have been in the cooler right now,
along with crafty Leon."

As they had arrived at the point where their paths diverged, the two
chums separated. Hugh had returned home somewhat earlier than
customary, as he