his attention elsewhere; but
he came up to them about the time they were thinking of taking their
departure.

His indignation was strong when he heard what a foolish accusation the
almost distracted storekeeper had made against Bobolink. Still Paul
was a sensible lad, and he realized that Mr. Briggs could hardly be
held responsible for what he said at such a time.

"Better forget all about it, Bobolink," he told the other, who was
still fretting under the unmerited charge. "Perhaps when he cools off
and realizes what a serious thing he has said, Mr. Briggs will
publicly take his words back, and will thank you fellows in the
bargain."

"But how came it you were so slow in getting to the fire, Paul?" asked
Tom Betts; for, as a rule, the patrol leader could be counted on to
arrive with the first.

Paul laughed at that.

"I knew you'd be wondering," he said, and then went on to explain.
"For once I was caught in a trap, and, much as I wanted to get out and
run, I just had to hold my horses for a spell. You see, after you had
gone father asked me to hold something for him while he was attending
to it, and I couldn't very well drop it until he was through."

"Whew! it sure must have been something pretty important to keep Paul
Morrison from running to a fire," chuckled Frank.

"It was important," came the ready reply. "In fact, it was a man's
broken arm I was holding. Ben Holliday was brought in just after you
boys left. He had fallen in some way and sustained a compound fracture
of his left arm. Neither of the men who were along with him could be
counted on to assist, so father called on me to lend a hand. And
that's why I was late at the Briggs' store fire."

"You missed a great sight, Paul, let me tell you," affirmed Bluff.

"Yes, and you missed hearing a friend of yours called a fire-bug, too,
in the bargain," grunted Bobolink. "And after I'd sweated and toiled
like fun to drag a lot of his old junk out of reach of fire and flood!
That's what makes me sore. Now, if I'd just stood around and laughed,
like a lot of the fellows did, it wouldn't have been so bad."

"Listen!" said Jud Elderkin, lowering his voice, "when old Briggs got
the notion that some bad boy set his store on fire in a spirit of
revenge, maybe he wasn't so far wrong after all."

"Say, what are you hinting at now, Jud?" gasped Bobolink,
suspiciously. "You know as well as anything I was along with the crowd
every minute of the time."

"Sure I