“This certainly looks black for the Rover boys,” said Squire Haggerty.  “How do ye account for having the goods on your persons, tell me that now?”

“I can account for it only in one way,” said Dick.  “The thief, whoever he was, placed them there, for the double purpose of keeping suspicion from himself and to get us into trouble.”

“Thin, if he wanted to git you into throuble, he was after being a fellow who had a grudge against ye?”

“That must be it,” put in Captain Putnam.

“Do ye know of any such persons?”

“Yes, there are a number of such persons,” answered Dick.  And he mentioned Dan Baxter, Flapp, Rockley, and a number of others who in the past had proved to be his enemies.

Following this, Captain Putnam related how Dan Baxter had escaped after trying to harm Dick Rover and how it was that Lew Flapp was considered an enemy and how the fellow had been dismissed from the academy, along with several followers.  Squire Haggerty listened attentively.

“Well, if one of thim fellows robbed the shop he must have visited your camp, too,” said Squire Haggerty.  “Did ye see any of thim around?”

Captain Putnam looked inquiringly at the Rover boys.

“I must confess I didn’t see any of them,” said Dick.

“But we heard from Lew Flapp,” cried Tom, suddenly.  “How strange that I didn’t think of this before.”

“Where did you hear from him, Thomas?”

“At the hotel where we stopped for supper yesterday.  A boy who works around the stables told me Flapp had been there and was very angry because he had been sent away from the academy.  The boy said Flapp vowed he was going to get square with the Rovers for what they had done.”

“What boy was that?” asked Josiah Cotton, with interest.

The boy was described and, a little later, he was brought over from the hotel.  He was very much frightened and insisted upon it that he had had nothing to do with the robbery.

“Tell what you can about Lew Flapp,” said Dick, and the boy did so.

“That young fellow had been drinking, or else he wouldn’t have talked so much,” added the lad.  “He certainly said he was going to get square with the Rover brothers.”

“Have you seen him since?”

“Yes, I saw him in the village right after the cadets left.”

“Anywhere near Mr. Fairchild’s shop?”

“On the road that runs back of the shop.”

“Where was he going?”

“I don’t know.”

“And that is the last you saw of him?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You don’t know if he went towards the back of the shop?”

“No, sir.”

More than this the boy could not tell and he was excused.  Squire Haggerty shook his head in perplexity.

“I don’t know about this,” he said.  “But it looks to me as if I’ll have to hold these Rover brothers until they can clear themselves.”