bout such
things as an old maid."

"You can make your mind tip that when the evidence is needed to show up
the owner of this hat at school, it will be forthcoming. I'll take it
home with me, and keep it safe and sound."

The two boys were already moving off, heading across the field. They
could easily see the lights in the Carpenter house, which was only a
short distance away, though if one went around by the road it would take
some fifteen minutes to make the journey.

They did not bother to look back after they had quitted the vicinity of
the big cluster of bushes. Had they done so, and the starlight been
strong enough for them to see as a cat does at nighttime, Fred and Colon
might have discovered a bare-headed figure that came creeping out of the
bushes. This wretched person looked after them with more or less
grumbling and complaining, as though not at all relishing some of the
things so recently spoken by the two chums.

CHAPTER XVI

TELLING BRISTLES

"Hello there, Fred, and you too, Colon; glad to see you both! Step in,
and come upstairs with me to my den, won't you?"

In this fashion did Bristles meet the two visitors at the front door, and
convinced by the warmth of the reception that they were going to be
welcome guests, Fred and the tall boy fell in behind the one who had
admitted them. Presently they found themselves comfortably seated in
such chairs as decorated the so-called "den," which was a small room on
the top story, where Bristles kept his belongings and did his studying.

"Glad to see your bad cold is a lot better, Bristles!" remarked Colon,
with a sly wink over toward Fred, who chuckled.

Bristles of course looked puzzled.

"I suppose that's, some sort of a poor joke," he ventured, cautiously,
glancing from one to the other of his visitors; "but me, I'm groping all
around in the dark, and don't seem to catch on. S'pose you open up, and
explain how it works, Colon."

The tall boy allowed his eyebrows to go up as though tremendously
surprised.

"Do you mean to tell me, Bristles Carpenter, that you didn't call up
Fred, here, a little while back, and while begging him to hurry over, as
you had something important to explain, say you'd taken such a cold you
could hardly speak plain?"

"What, me? Say, you're dreaming, Colon. I never said a word of that,
and right now I haven't got the least bit of a cold!" exclaimed the
other, indignantly. At the same time he began to s