The Boy Scouts of Lenox Part 3

"Just what it was," continued Tom. "Suppose your mother could never produce that receipt, Mr. Culpepper would be under no necessity of handing over any papers. I don't pretend to know much about such things, and so I can't tell just how he could profit by holding them.

But even if he couldn't get them made over in his own name, he might keep your mother from becoming rich unless she agreed to marry him!"

Carl was so taken aback by this bold statement that he lost his breath for a brief period of time.

"But Tom, Amasa Culpepper wasn't in our house that morning?" he objected.

"Perhaps not, but Dock Phillips was, and he's a boy I'd hate to trust any further than I could see him," Tom agreed.

"Do you think Mr. Culpepper could have hired Dock to _steal_ the paper?" continued the sorely-puzzled Carl.

"Well, hardly that. If Dock took it he did the job on his own responsibility. Perhaps he had a chance to glance at the paper and find out what it stood for, and in his cunning way figured that he might hold his employer up for a good sum if he gave him to understand he could produce that receipt."

"Yes, yes, I'm following you now, go on," implored the deeply interested Carl.

"Here we are at your house, Carl; suppose you ask me in. I'd like to find out if Dock was left alone in the sitting room for even a minute that morning."

"Done!" cried the other, vehemently, as he pushed open the white gate, and led the way quickly along the snow-cleaned walk up to the front door.

Mrs. Oskamp was surprised as she stood over the stove in the neat kitchen of her little cottage home when her oldest boy and his chum, Tom Chesney, whom she liked very much indeed, entered. Their manner told her immediately that it was design and not accident that had brought them in together.

"I've been telling Tom, mother," said Carl, after looking around and making certain that none of the other children were within earshot; "and he's struck what promises to be a clue that may explain the mystery we've been worrying over."

"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 a.s.sist 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 you'll ever see it again," Tom a.s.serted; "but we've got one thing in our favor."

"I'm glad to hear that, Tom," the little lady told him, for she had a great respect for the opinion of her son's chum; "tell us what it is, won't you?"

"Everybody knows how Amasa Culpepper is getting more and more stingy every year he lives," Tom explained. "He hates to let a dollar go without squeezing it until it squeals, they say. Well, if Dock holds out for a fairly decent sum I expect Amasa will keep putting him off, and try to make him come down in his price. That's our best chance of ever getting the paper back."

"Tom, I want you to go with me to-night and face Dock Phillips," said Carl.

"Just as you say; we can look him up on our way to the meeting."

CHAPTER IV

THE DEFIANCE OF DOCK PHILLIPS

Remembering his promise, Tom called early for his chum. Carl lived in a pretty little cottage with his mother, and three other children. There was Angus, a little chap of five, Dot just three, and Elsie well turned seven.

Everybody liked to visit the Oskamp home, there was such an air of contentment and happiness about the entire family, despite the fact that they missed the presence of the one who had long been their guide and protector.

Tom was an especial favorite with the three youngsters, and they were always ready for a romp with him when he came to spend an evening with his chum. On this occasion however Tom did not get inside the house, for Carl was on the lookout and hurried out of the door as soon as he heard the gate shut.

"h.e.l.lo! seems to me you're in a big hurry to-night," laughed Tom, when he saw the other slip out of the house and come down the path to meet him; "what's all the rush about, Carl?"

"Why, you see I knew we meant to drop in at Dock Phillips' place, and we wouldn't want to be too late at the meeting if we happened to be held up there," was the explanation Carl gave.

As they hurried along they talked together, and of course much of their conversation was connected with this visit to Dock. Carl seemed hopeful of good results, but to tell the truth Tom had his doubts.

In the first place he was a better judge of human nature than his chum, and he knew that the Phillips boy was stubborn, as well as vicious. If he were really guilty of having taken the paper he would be likely to deny it vehemently through thick and thin.

Knowing how apt Carl was to become discouraged if things went against him very strongly, Tom felt it was his duty to prepare the other for disappointment.

"Even if Dock denies that he ever saw the paper, we mustn't let ourselves feel that this is the end of it, you know, Carl," he started to say.

"I'll be terribly disappointed, though, Tom," admitted the other boy, with a sigh that told how he had lain awake much the last two nights trying to solve the puzzle that seemed to have no answer.

"Oh! that would only be natural," his chum told him, cheerily; "but you know if we expect to become scouts we must figure out what they would do under the same conditions, and act that way."

"That's right, Tom," agreed the other, bracing up. "Tell me what a true-blue scout would figure out as his line of duty in case he ran up against a snag when his whole heart was set on doing a thing."

"He'd just remember that old motto we used to write in our copybooks at school, and take it to heart--'if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!' And Carl, a scout would keep on trying right along. He'd set his teeth together as firm as iron and say he'd solve that problem, or know the reason why."

"Tom, you know how to brace a weak-kneed fellow up all right."

"But you're not that kind, Carl. Only in this case there's so much at stake you hardly do yourself justice. Remember how Grant went at it, and when he found that Lee met all of his tactics so cleverly he got his back up and said he'd fight it out on that line if it took all summer."

"I see what you mean, and I'm game enough to say the same thing!"

declared the other, with a ring of resolution in his voice.