e.

"I heard footsteps, too," he said. "Somebody must have been prowling about.
Who could it have been?"

"Perhaps the post office robbers," suggested Mrs. Nelson, somewhat
nervously.

"I don't see what they would be doing about here," rejoined Ralph,
seriously.

"Did they come in this direction?"

"They came down the main street, yes."

Mrs. Nelson sighed deeply. She did not like the idea of any one prowling
about her home after dark.

"I am going to take a look around again," said Ralph, noticing her
uneasiness. "Perhaps it was a sneak-thief who has stolen the ax or the saw
from the woodshed."

Ralph walked outside. It was now growing lighter in the east, for it was
after four o'clock in the morning. He looked about the woodshed and the
cottage, but everything appeared to be all right. Certainly nothing had
been stolen.

The boy was about to return to the kitchen, when he heard several men
coming down the road from the village. He halted in the dooryard to see who
they were.

"There is somebody now!" one of the men exclaimed, and Ralph recognized
Uriah Dick's voice.

"It is Ralph Nelson himself," replied Bart Haycock, the blacksmith, who was
one of the party.

"Hallo, there, Nelson!" called out the third man. It was Jack Rodman, the
district constable.

"Hallo, Rodman!" returned the boy, as he ran down to the gate. "Are you
after the post office robbers?"

"I guess we are that," put in Uriah Dicks. "An' we ain't far from one of
'em!"

"Hush!" put in Jack Rodman, hastily. "Wait till I have a talk with the
boy."

"It ain't no use for to talk," insisted Uriah. "There's the evidence plain
enough."

"There may be a mistake," suggested Bart Haycock. "I cannot believe Ralph
would do anything wrong."

"Why, what--what do you mean?" stammered the boy, hardly catching the drift
of their talk.

"Is this your knife, Ralph?" asked the constable, producing a buck-handle
pocketknife.

"Why, yes, it is," returned Ralph, promptly. "Where did you get it?" he
went on, in surprise, for he had thought the blade safe in his own pocket.

"Jess where you dropped it a couple of hours ago," returned Uriah Dicks,
eagerly. "In the post office."

"The post office? I haven't been in the post office since yesterday."

"What are you doing out so early in the morning?" asked the constable.

"My mother is sick, and I have been over to Dr. Foley's for medicine for
her."

"And you weren't near the post office?"

"O