n with guns in a lonely spot, as
you say. But how did you escape?"

"We were rescued by some boys!"

Although at the end of a sentence, Mr. Stanlock stopped so quickly
that only a dull person could fail to notice it. His sudden stop, of
course, was occasioned by the return to his mind of his promise to
keep the secret of the Boy Scouts.

"Boys," said Mrs. Stanlock, wonderingly. "I didn't know that we had
any heroes of that type in Hollyhill."

"They were some young fellows out hunting," explained the narrator.
"They witnessed the hold-up and leveled their guns at the rascals and
drove them away."

"Who are those boys?" Marion demanded, and one might almost have
imagined from her manner that she had half a kingdom to bestow on the
rescuers of her father.

"I'm afraid I can't give you their names," Mr. Stanlock replied
slowly.

"You don't mean to say that you let them get away without finding out
who they were, do you?" his daughter inquired with just a shade of
indignation.

"No, not exactly that, for I can easily get all their names any time I
want them. But I know also that they don't wish to get into the
newspapers in connection with this affair."

"Can't you tell me who some of them are, papa?" Marion pleaded. "I
want to know who it was that, perhaps, saved the life of my father."

"I can't tell you now, Marion. I have promised faithfully not to
reveal their identity at present for very good reasons which they gave
to me."

"Where is Jake, the driver, Henry?" asked Mrs. Stanlock. "I see you
drove home alone."

"Jake proved himself to be a scoundrel and a traitor and when he
discovered that I had found him out he vamoosed. I expect to swear
out a warrant for his arrest tomorrow. Shortly before my usual time
for coming home, I received a letter by messenger, supposedly from Mr.
Mills, chairman of a special hospital committee that is looking after
the sick members of striking miners' families. I had been expecting a
call of a meeting and this letter stated that it was important that I
be present. He lives out on the Foothill pike near the quarries. I
thought that I would make a quick run out there and call you up from
his home and let you know how late I would be. Well, I didn't get
there. It seems that Jake was one of the conspirators in a plot to get
me out there and waylay me. By the way, that makes me think I ought to
call Mills up and find out if he did call a meeting. The notice was on
his statio