“Not for the world.  It’s your secret, and I’d never leak a word without your permission.  But I must be off now.  Leave things just as you always have done; and don’t shut or lock the door here any more than before.  I’ve got to do some studying over this Boy Scout affair when I get back.  Whitson loaned me some pamphlets, but I didn’t have time to read them through.”

Jack accompanied his friend down to the front door.  Here Karl, having heard them descending the stairs, joined them; and so far as Paul could see there was no change in the boy’s manner.  If he had done wrong he must be clever enough to hide the guilt that lay in his heart, and put on a bold face.

“Remember!” was all Paul said as he squeezed Jack’s quivering hand, before jumping down the steps, boy fashion.

It was enough to encourage the sorely distressed lad, for he had the greatest faith in Paul Morrison, the doctor’s son, that any boy could ever place in a comrade; nor had the other ever failed to equal his expectations.

“I really believe Paul will do it,” he was muttering to himself as he slowly went upstairs again to the den, with its decorations of college flags, and pictures of camping, canoeing, outdoor sports such as baseball and football struggles, and kindred things so dear to the heart of almost every growing lad; “yes, I believe he will if anybody can.  But I wish he had let me hide the rest of them away.  It seems like putting temptation in the way of a weak brother.  But he told me I wasn’t even to believe Karl took the coins, and I won’t!”

Nevertheless, Jack Stormways must have passed a miserable night; for the anxious eyes of his mother noticed his distressed looks when he came down to breakfast on the following morning.

“You don’t look well, son,” she observed, as she passed her cool hand across his fevered brow; “I think you ought to step in and see Doctor Morrison some time this morning, and let him give you something.”

“All right, mother; but it’s only a little headache,” he protested, for like all boys he disliked the thought of being considered sick.

Her eyes turned solicitously toward him many times during the meal, for she saw that Jack was unusually dull, and took little part in the conversation.

But it seemed that Karl made up for his brother’s lack of energy, for he was more than ordinarily inclined to be merry, and told numerous jokes he had heard from his fellows in the boys’ club he had joined.

Jack mentioned that they were about to organize a Boy Scout patrol; and very naturally his mother looked a bit serious at this news, until he explained some of the really excellent points connected with such an association; when her face cleared at once.

“If that is what the movement means then the sooner a patrol is organized in Stanhope the better.  There are a lot of boys who would be vastly benefitted by such uplifting resolutions,” she declared, with some show of enthusiasm.