“There’s no show for me here,” grunted the young prowler.  “I wonder if any of the windows have been left unlocked.”

His good sense told him that it would be a serious matter indeed to raise a window and enter the building—–­if he were caught.

But Fred, after a few moments of strained listening, decided to take the chance.  At any hazard that he dared take he must get to the war canoe and put it out of commission for all time.

He tried three of the windows.  All of them proved to be locked.

“I’m going to have some more of my usual luck,” groaned young Ripley.  “I wonder why it is that I always have such poor luck when I have my heart most set on doing a thing?”

He was slipping along to the fourth window when he heard a sound that almost caused his heart to stop beating.

Merely the sound of footsteps pausing by the gate to the boatyard—–­that was all, for a moment.  But Fred cowered in acute dread.

“Who’s in there?” called a steady voice, that filled Fred Ripley with consternation, He knew that voice!  It belonged to a member of the Gridley police force.

“Talk about your tough luck!” shivered Fred.  “This is the limit!  Now, I’m in for it.”

For a few moments he crouched close to the boathouse nearly paralyzed with fright.  His consternation increased when a sound over by the fence indicated that the policeman was trying to mount that barrier.

Now, Fred’s courage returned, or enough of it to enable him to try to escape.  Bending low, he turned and ran swiftly, almost noiselessly.  His speed astonished even himself.  He gained the corner of the fence by which he had entered the yard.  Taking a firm hold, he swung himself around the fence and out of sight just as the policeman’s head showed over the top of it.

Fortunately for the fugitive, the policeman, in climbing the fence, had made noise enough to drown the slight sounds produced by Ripley’s frenzied flight.

His first thought being of burglars, the policeman drew his revolver as soon as his feet touched the ground inside the yard.  With his left hand he held an electric pocket flash lamp, whose rays he flashed into the dark places.

Fred did not stop until he found himself safely within the grounds of his home.  There he halted, fanning himself with his hat and taking long breaths.  If discovered by anyone he could easily claim that he had found the night too hot to sleep inside and had come outdoors for air.

The next morning, about ten o’clock, Hiram Driggs, who had already been visited by Dick & Co., on their way to Katson’s Hill, was called upon by Policeman Curtis of the Gridley force.  Curtis, being off duty, was in citizen’s clothes.

“Did you miss anything out of the plant this morning, Mr. Driggs?” inquired the guardian of life and property.

“Nothing that I know of,” Driggs answered.  “Why?”