remont replied. "I won't
run away. What would be the use of that? They'd find me and bring me
back. Go on out and bring in anyone you want to. I guess I'll never
make the trip to the Rio Grande we were planning to-night--just before
I came here."

"The Black Bears?" asked Jimmie. "Were they planning a trip to the Rio
Grande?"

Fremont nodded and pointed toward the door.

"Anyway," he said, "you can get me out of this suspense. You can let
me know, if you want to, whether I am going to the Rio Grande or to the
Tombs."

"Jere! What a trip that would be."

Without waiting for any further words, Jimmie darted out of the door
and then his steps were heard on the staircase. Fremont had never in
all his life had a key turned on him before. He threw himself into a
chair, then, realizing how selfish he was, he hastened to the north
room and again bent over the injured man.

There appeared to be little change in Mr. Cameron's condition. He
moved restlessly at intervals. Fremont brought water and used it
freely, but its application did not produce any immediate effect.
Realizing that a surgeon should be summoned at once, the boy moved
toward the telephone.

However, he found himself unable to bring himself to the point of
communicating with the surgeon he had in mind. Questions would be
asked, and he would be suspected, and the intervention of the Boy
Scouts could do him no good. He understood now that his every hope for
the future centered in the little lad who was hurrying through the
night in quest of Ned Nestor, his patrol leader. If these boys of the
Wolf Patrol should decide against him, and the injured man should not
recover, there was the end of life and of hope. And only an hour ago
he had planned the wonderful excursion down the Rio Grande. That time
seemed farther away to him now than the birth of Adam.

And mixed with the horror of the situation was the mystery of it! What
motive could have actuate the criminal? Had the blow been struck by a
personal enemy, in payment of a grudge, or had robbery been the motive?
Surely not the latter, for the injured man's valuable watch and chain,
his diamonds, were in place. Stocks and bonds, good in the hands of
any holder, lay on the floor in front of the open safe. A robber would
have taken both bonds and jewelry.

The one reasonable theory was that the act had been committed by some
person in quest of papers kept in the office files. The manner in
w