e usual place--where do you keep it--on the back step?--all right,
put it there, and then hide back of the willow tree. You say it is
done sometime between ten and twelve, for you go to bed at ten and
your father comes home at midnight and finds the can empty? That
ought to make it easy for you, for you know when to watch for the
thief."

Jack's father was engaged in some delicate electrical experiments
that were conducted in his factory at night to escape the vibration
caused by the heavy machines.

Coming home from the Jordan office a little after then the next
night after he had given Jack his advice, Doctor Hugh remembered
what he had said and wondered if the boy had been successful in
detecting the thief. As he neared the Welles house he heard loud and
angry voices.

CHAPTER IX

WHEN PATIENCE SLIPS

"If I ever catch you touching my can of worms again, I'll--I'll--"
words apparently failed Jack and he began to sputter.

"Got him, Jack?" the doctor leaped the hedge lightly and ran
diagonally across the lawn to the back of the Welles's house.

"Him?" growled Jack in disgust. "Him! Look at this--" and he flashed
a pocket light that revealed to the astonished Doctor Hugh the
tear-streaked face of Sarah.

"For the love of Mike!" gasped her brother. "Have you been taking
Jack's worms?"

"Yes she has," Jack answered for her. "She's been dumping the can
out every night. And if she does it again I'll shake her if she is a
girl."

"Hold on, hold on," said Doctor Hugh pacifically. "Let's get the
hang of this; why did you empty Jack's can of worms, Sarah?"

"It--it hurts them to be jabbed with a hook," wept Sarah.

"Like fun it does," retorted Jack scornfully. "Worms haven't any
feelings, hardly."

"Well fishes have and if you haven't any worms you can't catch
fishes," stormed Sarah. "I will too throw away your worms."

"You will not!" flashed Jack, taking a step toward her.

Sarah, the defiant, turned and fled toward her brother. He put his
arm about her and found that she was shaking with nervous sobbing.

"I'll see you to-morrow, Jack," he said quietly. "There is no use in
rousing the whole neighborhood. Come on, Sarah, we're going home."

He lifted the little girl in his arms and strode across the grass,
entering the door of the house noiselessly and depositing her in a
large arm chair in the office. Then he went into the kitchen, warmed
a glass of milk and made her drink it.

"Now tell me a