d, "but if it was ever safe, I should say that this was the time.
He's an awfully smooth scoundrel, or he wouldn't have been able to fool
the Burtons the way he did. Still, it's hard, as you say, sir, to see
what harm could come to Jack to-night."

"I think it's worth risking, anyhow," said Durland. "You and I will go
along, Dick. And I think I'll have a talk with Jim Burroughs, too. It
might be that he would feel like coming along with us."

"Can I bring Pete Stubbs and Tom Binns with us, sir?" asked Jack. "I
think they'd like to be along."

"By all means," said Durland.

Jack went off then to look for his two chums. But they were nowhere to
be seen. He was surprised, for, since they were on active duty, they
were supposed to be always in readiness at the headquarters of the Troop
unless detached with special orders. Finally, after hunting for them for
half an hour, he asked Bob Hart about them.

Bob, who, as Patrol Leader of the Crow Patrol, ranked during the
maneuvers as a sergeant, seemed surprised.

"I gave them permission to be absent from headquarters until eleven
o'clock," he said. "Didn't you know they were going to ask for it?"

"I did not," said Jack, decidedly surprised.

Pete and Tom had known of the chance that he might meet Broom, and he
wondered how it was that they were willing to be absent at a time when
he might need them. It was the first time either of them had ever failed
him, and he was puzzled and bothered by their absence.

"That's certainly mighty queer!" he said to himself. "I wonder if they
forgot about Broom, or if they thought I would?"

But there was no sense in trying to puzzle out the reason for their
having gone. They were off--that was plain, and he would have to go
without them.

While he waited for Durland and Dick Crawford to return, he began to
speculate a good deal as to what the reason for Broom's new shift might
be. He was sure, from the way Broom had acted, that the man was as much
his enemy as ever. And yet he had seemed to feel that he and Jack
together might be able to accomplish something that was beyond the power
of either of them, alone, to get done.

"Perhaps he's had trouble of some sort with the people who want to keep
me from finding out about myself," thought Jack. "In that case, he's
simply turned traitor to them, and is trying to use me to get even with
them. Well, I don't care! They must be a pretty bad lot, and if I can
find out about myself I don't