h his supper.
He was so full of misery that he didn't have the slightest idea
what the meal was like.

"I wonder if I'd better run away from home before I'm arrested?"
puzzled Ted, as he secured his hat and stole away from the house.
"Br-r-r-r! I don't like the idea of being hauled up in court."

It finally occurred to him that, if the officers were on his track,
the news would be known up in town.

"If I nose about Main Street, but keep myself out of sight, and
keep my eyes peeled for trouble," reflected wretched Ted, "I may
find out something that will show me how to act."

So to Main Street Ted slowly made his way, keeping an alert lookout
all the time for trouble in the form of a policeman.

At one corner Ted suddenly gasped, feeling his legs give way under
him. By a supreme effort of will he mastered his legs in time
to dart into a dark doorway.

"Huh! But that was a lucky escape for me," Teall gasped, as he
came out from the doorway, peering down the street after the retreating
form of Hi Martin's father. "I guess he's out looking for me.
He'll want his son's gold watch. Crackey! I wonder if folks
will think I'm low enough down to steal a fellow's watch?"

If Teall was rough, he was none the less honest, and had all of
an honest boy's sensitive horror of being thought guilty of theft.

"Yet the matter stands just this way," Ted reflected as he moped
along. "The watch must have been in the trousers when I snatched
'em up, and the watch wasn't there when I returned the trousers.
What will folks naturally think? Oh, I wonder if there ever was as
unlucky a fellow in the world before?"

A great lump formed in Ted's throat as he puzzled over this problem.

"Hello, Teall!" called a hearty voice. "Was Hi much obliged when
you gave him back his duds this afternoon?"

Dick Prescott was the speaker, and with him were his five chums.

"Nothing like it," muttered Ted, turning as the boys came up.
"Say, something awful happened to-day, and I'm in a peck of trouble!"

"Tell us about it," urged Tom Reade.

Ted started to tell them, mournfully.

"I don't believe a word of that, Ted," Dick broke in energetically.

"I'm telling you just as it happened," Teall protested.

"Oh, I guess you are, all right. But I don't believe Hi had his
watch with him. If he had had it, he would have worn a chain
or a fob, and I didn't see any, did you, fellows?"

"If I thought he had fooled me-----" muttered Ted vengefully.
Then