y six o'clock Harry was aroused. A closed cab, its driver pledged
to secrecy, was at the door to carry Harry on his rounds. He
visited the parents of all the members of Dick & Co., informing
them that the story they might soon hear was not based on any
facts that need alarm them.

Before seven o'clock that morning Dodge and Bayliss, wild-eyed
and haggard looking, met at Bert's home. Mr. Dodge took them,
soon after, down onto Main Street with him.

The first public whisper of the news sent it flying fast over
Gridley.

By nine o'clock Main Street was unwontedly crowded. Groups of
men, women and young people everywhere discussed the "awful news."
Those who had been privileged to hear Dodge and Bayliss tell
the story were looked upon as most interesting people.

Of course a few Gridleyites tried to find the parents of the "slain"
boys and express their sympathy, but the parents of the members
of Dick & Co., strangely enough, could not be found.

With many repetitions of the story, Dodge and Bayliss almost
unintentionally began to picture themselves as heroes, who had risked
their lives in order to bring the single survivor away to safety.

"There's some good in young Dodge and Bayliss, after all," was
a not infrequent comment that morning.

"It must have taken real nerve, anyway, for them to make that
thrilling rescue of Hazelton," said others.

So Dodge and Bayliss, much to their astonishment and not a little
to their delight, found themselves somewhat in the hero class.
Their exhausted, wild-eyed, haggard appearance gave more color
to the story of the harrowing experience they claimed to have
undergone in rescuing Hazelton from that awful field of carnage
up by the second lake.

At ten o'clock Mr. Pollock's automobile drew up at the rear door
of the "Blade" building. Hazelton slipped out, crouching low
in the car, that he might not be seen and recognized, while Mr.
Pollock and his star reporter, Len Spencer, openly entered and
drove away. They made straight for the wilderness camp of Dick
& Co. Once out of the town Harry rose to a comfortable seat,
and made up some of his lost sleep during the trip.

One thing that puzzled the excited citizens of Gridley was the
placid way in which the chief of police and the sheriff of the
county appeared to take the sad news.

Mr. Pollock drove his car as close to camp as he could, after
which he and his companions hurried over the uneven ground until
they came u