The Banner Boy Scouts on a Tour | Page 4

down, and staring into the safe. Paul watched him
uneasily, for that open door worried the boy.

"What is it, father?" exclaimed Joe, as he saw the gentleman begin
hastily to open several compartments in the metal receptacle, and Paul
noticed that his hand shook as though with palsy.
"Look on the floor, boys, please. Tell me if you can see a small tin box
anywhere. Of course I must have dropped it when I fell in that faint,"
Mr. Clausin was saying; but Paul fancied it was more to bolster up his
own courage, than because he really believed what he observed.
The boys immediately set to work examining the floor of the office
thoroughly. But none of them met with any success.
"How large a tin box was it, father?" continued Joe, presently.
"Some eight inches long, by half as many wide. Could I have misplaced
it in any way?" and Mr. Clausin began to feel in his pockets. Once
more he looked into the yawning safe.
"We don't seem to see it anywhere, sir," said Paul, who suspected what
was coming.
The feed merchant stood up before them, with a very grave face. He
was clasping both hands together in a nervous fashion.
"Then there is only one thing that can have happened, boys! I have
been robbed while I lay here unconscious!" he said, solemnly, at which
Bobolink gasped.
"Do you miss any money from your safe, sir?" questioned Paul, who
seemed to be able to keep his head in this crisis.
"Fortunately I took my wife's advice this time," returned the owner of
the feed store, "and deposited all I had in the bank this afternoon. Still,
possibly the thief believed I would keep it here. Seeing that tin box, and
suspecting that it might hold valuables, he has carried it off."
"Do you remember blowing out the lamp at all, sir?" asked Paul.
"I certainly did not," came the answer; "I can recollect seeing it as I

arose. Then all grew dark!"
"That settles it. There must have been a thief here, then!" remarked
Jack, with more or less awe, as he looked around the big storeroom
beyond the glass enclosed office.
CHAPTER II
THE MYSTERY OF THE TIN BOX
"Give the assembly call, Number Three!"
Presently, in answer to Paul's order, the clear, sweet notes of a bugle
sounded through the big gymnasium under the church. More than a
score of lads of all sizes began to pass in from the outside, where they
had been chattering like so many magpies; for it was now Summer,
with vacation at hand.
After telling the bugler to sound the call for the meeting, Paul, who
often had charge in place of the regular scoutmaster, Mr. Gordon,
watched the coming of the boys through the open basement door.
"Everybody on hand to-night, I guess, Paul," observed his chum Jack,
as he laid his hand on the shoulder of the leader of the Red Fox patrol.
Thus far there were three patrols in Stanhope troop. As the first to
organize had chosen to be known as the Red Fox, it pleased the others
simply to call their patrols by the names of Gray and Black Fox.
In one corner of the room reposed a splendid banner of silk, upon
which had been sewn a wonderfully life-like representation of a fox's
head done in colors. Strangely enough, to some it seemed red, while
others were just as fully of the opinion that it could be called gray or
black, so cleverly had the silken threads been arranged.
This banner was the one offered by the old Quaker, Mr. Westervelt, in
the preceding Autumn, to be given to the troop that excelled in various
scout tactics and knowledge. The contest had been confined to the three

troops along the Bushkill River; and while both Aldine and Manchester
carried off some honors, the boys of Stanhope had counted as many as
both combined.
When the banner was presented to the winners their totem had been
ingeniously fashioned upon its shimmering folds. Every member of
Stanhope troop felt a thrill of pardonable pride whenever his eyes fell
upon the proof of their efficiency.
"What makes you say that, Jack?" asked the young scout leader,
smilingly, when he heard his chum comment on the full attendance.
"Oh! well," laughed the other, "you know the boys understand that
we're going to discuss where we expect to spend our vacation this year.
Every fellow is just wild to hear what the committee has settled on."
"I sent a communication I received from our absent scoutmaster over to
where the committee sat the other night," remarked Paul. "He
recommended a certain place for a hike and camp; but I'm just as much
in the dark as the rest