The Boy Scouts of Lenox Part 8

"Then I'd like to try it before we settle on leaving town, Tom."

"It would do no harm, I should think," his chum advised him. "The only danger I can see would be if Dock took the alarm and went to Mr.

Culpepper, to tell him you were trying to outbid him for the possession of the paper."

"That would be apt to make him come to time with a jump, wouldn't it?"

said Carl.

"Unless he got it into his head that Dock was only trying to frighten him into meeting the stiff price at which he held the paper," said Tom.

"He might make out that he didn't care a pin, with the idea of forcing Dock to come down."

"Yes, because he would believe Dock wouldn't dare put his neck in the noose by confessing to us he had stolen the paper. Then would you advise me to try the plan I spoke of?"

"If you get a good chance I should say yes."

That was on a Wednesday afternoon, and Carl went home, his head filled with a programme he had laid out that concerned the cornering of Dock Phillips.

On Thursday he learned, when home for lunch, that a new boy had come for orders from the grocery. Carl was immediately filled with alarm. In imagination he could see Dock and Mr. Culpepper coming to terms at last.

After school that afternoon he waited for Tom, to whom the startling news was disclosed. The stunning effect of it did not seem to affect Tom's quick acting mind.

"Let's find out just what's happened," he remarked. "Perhaps over at Joslyn's, next door to the Phillips's, we might pick up a clue."

"Yes, and I know Mrs. Joslyn right well in the bargain," said Carl, showing interest at once. "I'm sure that if I told her as a secret just why we wanted to know about Dock she'd tell me if anything had happened there lately."

To the Joslyn house the two boys went. Mrs. Joslyn was an energetic little woman, and said to be able to mind her own business.

She listened with growing eagerness to the story, and at its conclusion said:

"I'm sorry for your mother, Carl, and I don't know that I can help you any; but there was something strange that happened at the Phillips'

house last night."

CHAPTER VIII

SIGNS OF TROUBLE AHEAD

"Was it about Dock?" asked Carl, eagerly, while Tom could see that the color had left his face all of a sudden.

"Yes," continued Mrs. Joslyn, "Dock seems to have fallen into the habit of staying out until midnight, with some of those young fellows who loaf on the corners and get into every kind of mischief they can think up."

"That's what we've been told was going on, ma'am," said Tom.

"I could hear his father scolding him furiously, while his mother was crying, and trying to make peace. Dock was ugly, too, and for a time I thought his father was going to throw him out of the house. But in the end it quieted down."

"That's a new streak in Dock's father, I should say," remarked Tom.

"Time was when he used to come home himself at all hours of the night, and in a condition that must have made his wife's heart sick."

"Yes, but you know he's turned over a new leaf, and acts as if he meant to stick to the water wagon," Mrs. Joslyn explained. "Somehow it's made him just the other way, very severe with Dock. I guess he's afraid now the boy will copy his bad example, and that's peeving Mr. Phillips."

"But he let Dock stay in the house, you say?" Carl continued. "Then I wonder why he didn't show up for orders this morning. The other boy told my mother Dock was sick and couldn't come."

Mrs. Joslyn smiled.

"Yes, he says that," she observed. "I went over to take back a dish I had borrowed, and he was lying on the lounge, smoking a cigarette. He said he was real sick, but between you and me, Carl, I'm of the opinion he's just tired of his job, and means to throw it up. He'd rather loaf than work any day."

Carl breathed more freely. It was of course none of his business what Dock did with himself, though he might think the other was a mean s.h.i.+rk to hang around idle when his people needed every dollar they could sc.r.a.pe up.

"Thank you for telling me this, Mrs. Joslyn," he said as with his chum he prepared to take his departure; "it relieves my mind in several ways. And please don't whisper my secret to any one. I still hope to be able to get that paper from Dock sooner or later, if he doesn't come to terms with Amasa Culpepper."

"I promise you faithfully Carl," the little woman told him. "I guess I'm able to hold my tongue, even if they do say my s.e.x never can. And Carl, you must let me know if anything happens to alter conditions, because I'm dreadfully interested. This is the first time in all my life I've been connected with a secret."

"I certainly will 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 Tom.

"Oh! she says she'll have told Mr. Culpepper before then she doesn't want him to call again," explained Carl; "either that or else she'll have to keep all the rest of the children up, and get them to romping like wild Indians. You know Amasa is nervous, and can't stand noise."

Tom laughed at the picture thus drawn of three boisterous youngsters employed in causing an ardent wooer to take his departure.

"It's only a few days now before we can get started, you know, Carl.

Nearly all the preparations have been made. Each scout will have his new uniform on, with a few extra clothes in his pack."

"We won't try to carry any tent, will we, Tom?"

"That's been settled," came the ready answer. "At the meeting when I was elected patrol leader we discussed this trip, and it took like wildfire. In the first place we haven't a tent worth carrying; and then again it would make too heavy a load. All of us have been studying up on how to make brush shelters when in the woods, and even if it rains I think we'll get on fairly well."