The Boy Scouts Patrol | Page 5

and quick-tempered, he was always getting
into difficulties, but always finding a way out. Romantic and
imaginative, but with a streak of hard horse-sense beneath.
"Well," observed Rand, when Jack at last rose from his box with a sigh
of satisfaction, "what is the exciting thing you have got to tell us this
morning? Whose barn is being painted now?"
"Judge Taylor's office was robbed last night," replied Jack laconically.
"What's that!" cried Rand.

"Judge Taylor's office was robbed last night," repeated Jack, enjoying
the sensation his news had made.
"W-w-what!" stammered Pepper. "Who did it?"
"That's what we all want to know," answered Jack.
"What did they get?" asked Donald.
"How did they get in?" went on Pepper.
"One at a time, boys," put in Rand. "Come, Jack, tell us the whole
story."
"Well, all I know is, Officer Dugan found a window open this morning
and the place all upside down. The judge hadn't come down yet, so they
don't know what's missing. From the tracks around it looks as if some
boys were mixed up in it."
"That's queer," commented Rand. "I wonder who it could have been,
and what they were after?"
"Money, of course," said Pepper.
"I don't think so," returned Jack. "If it was money I think they would
have picked out a more likely place. I guess it must have been papers,
or something like that."
"Pooh!" criticized Donald, "what would anybody in their senses want
to steal papers for?"
"There are more unlikely things than that," replied Jack. "I have read of
such things."
"Pshaw!" retorted Donald, "that's nothing. I've read of robbers' caves
and all that sort of thing, but I've never seen any."
"Which proves there never were any," retorted Jack sarcastically.

"Have you got any dues, Sherlock?" asked Rand laughingly.
"Not yet," replied Jack seriously, "but I am looking for them. They
sometimes turn up in the most unexpected places."
"Huh!" sniffed Donald, "your turnips run mostly to tops."
While talking thus, the boys had been putting their supplies and tackle
into the boat which they had run out into the river.
"Which way do you want to go?" asked Rand when they were ready to
start.
"Up," said Pepper.
"Down," said Jack.
"What do you say, Don?" continued Rand. "Either way," replied
Donald. "Let them toss up for it."
Taking the coin he had picked up in the road from his pocket Rand
tossed it into the air. "What do you say, Jack?" he asked.
"Heads!" responded Jack.
"Tails it is," announced Rand as he picked it up. "Pepper wins. Up, we
go."
"What have you got there, Rand?" asked Jack, who had been eying the
coin Rand had tossed; "something new?"
"It's something that I found in the road this morning," replied Rand,
handing the coin over to Jack. "Pepper found one, too."
"Found it in the road!" cried Jack, instantly on the alert. "That's serious.
Tell me about it."
"There isn't much to tell," replied Rand. "Monkey Rae tried to run us
down this morning and we had a near-fight and after he had gone we

found them."
"Well?" questioned Jack.
"That's all," replied Rand.
"Now I wonder," mused Jack, when the story of the encounter with
Monkey Rae and his companions had been gone over in detail for his
benefit, "what Monkey Rae has to do with these things," jingling the
coins in his hand.
"Not as much as you or I have," announced Donald. "I can no see any
connection between the two."
"Of course you can't, old wisdom," returned Jack. "You lack
imagination, but I think it is there just the same. Whose horse and
wagon was it?"
"That's another strange part of it," replied Rand. "I never saw them
before. I was wondering whose they were, and where he got them."
"That's so," agreed Pepper. "I never thought of that; the truth is, I was
so busy with Monkey that I didn't look at them."
"Well," broke in Don, "if you ask my opinion I think it would be more
to the purpose if we went on our own business instead of wasting time
in speculating on what is no concern of ours."
"All right, Solomon-Donald," said Rand; "it sounds wise."
"Even if it is mostly sound," growled Jack.

CHAPTER IV
UP THE RIVER
"Are you all ready?" called Rand, who was stroke. "Pull!"

The boys bent to their work in earnest, and but few words were spoken
while they sent the boat along, mile after mile, until they had gone
some half dozen miles up the river.
"Phew!" exclaimed Pepper at length, "what is the matter with stopping
here?"
"Tired?" asked Donald.
"Well, I feel as if I had been doing something," replied Pepper, resting
on his oar.
"I suppose there isn't much choice