“And then what happened?” asked Jack.

“That’s all, except that I came on here in a hurry, and Sam was fairly dragged into the doctor’s office by Appleby.”

There was silence in the room of the chums for a moment, and then Bert remarked: 

“Well, Tom, what do you make of it?”

“I don’t know,” was the answer, slowly given.  “It looks queer, and yet Sam may have only trespassed on Appleby’s place by chance.”

“Don’t you believe it!” exclaimed Jack.  “He had some object all right.”

“And it’s up to us to find out what it is,” added Bert.

“No, I’ll try it,” insisted Tom.  “This is my game.”

“But we’re going to help you play it!” exclaimed Jack.  “What’s the matter with you, anyhow?  Don’t you want us to help you clear yourself of this suspicion that’s hanging over you?”

“Of course I do, but------”

“‘But me no buts,’ old man.  Just you let us help you out in this.  Now it wouldn’t look well for you to go around sneaking under the doctor’s windows, trying to hear what’s going on.  But it wouldn’t hurt either of us,” and he indicated, by a sweeping gesture, himself and his two close chums.

“So, Tom, my boy,” he went on, “we’ll just see what we can learn.  The doctor’s sure to hold an audience with Appleby and Sam in the big front office, and he always has a window open, for Merry is a fresh air fiend, you know.  Some of the talk will leak out and it may give us a clew.”

“All right,” assented Tom, after a moment’s thought.  “Go ahead.  I don’t believe it will amount to anything, though.  Then I can go on with my drug store end of it,” and he briefly explained to George where he had been headed for when the interruption came.

“Shall we all go?” asked Bert.  “Won’t it look sort of queer for three of us to be hanging around the doctor’s house?”

“It will,” assented Jack, “and, therefore, we won’t all hang out in the same place.  I’ll get under the big office window; Bert, you can take the window on the other side, and George will guard the front door.”

“Guard the front door?  For what?”

“Well, just sort of drape yourself around it,” suggested Jack, who had assumed the direction of matters.  “Maybe you can overhear something as Sam and Appleby come out.  I don’t just like this sort of thing,” he added, “but the end justifies the means, I think.”

Tom nodded gravely.  The stain against his name had affected him more than he cared to admit.  The three lads went out and Tom sat down in moody silence to await their return.  They were not long away, and came back together, rather silent.

“Well?” asked Tom questioningly, as his chums entered.

“Nothing much,” answered Jack in despondent tones.  “We were almost too late, but I did manage to overhear something.  Sam and Appleby came out a short time after we got there.  It seems that the farmer caught Sam sneaking around his barn, and as he’s been suspicious, and on the watch ever since the poisoning of his horses, he rushed out in a hurry and collared him.”