Tom Slade

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n mounted higher Mrs. Temple felt greatly fatigued. Mary looked about for a spot where her mother might sit do

ng the road a little way, calling aloud, when suddenly she heard a sound. Pausing to listen she distinctly heard again what sounded like a bugle call,

h could gather from the frightened girl that her mother was in real need, he rushed "Doc" Carson, the fi

l, and this Carson bandaged skilfully. She was still too weak to walk, however, and the boys

d prepared a sort of couch of fir boughs. Onto this they h

. Mary had a thousand questions to ask as to the meaning of the various signals, and the kind scoutmaster answered them all patiently, finally summoning Eddie Ingram to show her about the camp and explain all its mysteries. Then, seeing that Mrs. Temple showed some interest in the maneuvers,

e alarmed at her long absence she called to Mary and insisted upon returning home immediate

yguard they returned to Five Oaks, the boys laughingly contesting for the honor of w

hat something was wrong. One of the servants was in the portecochere, wringin

uniformed scouts did not

n the road from the window of the library, a room which he

rs. Temple asked. "I hav

was lost and he took on so--not knowing which way to go at all--and

ha

has gone away an' all Miss Mary's thing

sent in another direction and shortly thereafter one of the maids had heard footsteps on the floor above. Thinking that Mrs. Temple must have returned, she went upstairs when, to her terror, a frightful-looking man brushed past her and went down the back stairs. She had

ss or evidence of ransacking except that in Mary's room the contents of the top b

they were inter

ame! I don't care what else they took--that's the only thing I care about! Oh, I t

very much, dear,"

don't understand. I thought as much o

tand," sa

stand--don't we

fixed on the girlish trinkets w

too mean of th

my ruby out of his safe if

ed Westy, noticing that

emple," whispered Dorry Benton. "I don't belie

o his mind something else which had been said in the same half-doubtful, half-trustful voice, many weeks before. "Will you promise to toss it back?" And out of the past he heard a rough, sneering v

episode would have gone the way of all such memories in the hoodlum mind, except that something had happened to Tom Slade since then.

ot much danger of being seen from any of the rear ground floor windows, for these were all of heavy cathedral glass. The ground beneath them wa

and caught a fleeting glimpse of a gray car rolling up the private way toward the porte-cochere. He heard other

a scout, and had now given place to a feeling of awe for the man who could own a place of such magnificence as Five Oaks. Never before had Tom been in such a house. He had supposed that Roy's

been exceptional. But he had still to acquire that self-confidence and self-possession which are the invariable result of

eave with the chauffeur alone, and heard the smot

nother to Keensburgh; he could call up every police station in the state and offer rewards which would cause sheriffs and constables to sit up and take notice. H

in, Will you promise to toss it back? and those

d within. While he knew the Scout Handbook did not lie, just the same he hesitated to give this deducing and tracking business a practical te