colonel snow and the greatly excited boys accompanied the officer and his charge to the judge's office.

"good evening, colonel; good evening, boys," said the judge, greeting them pleasantly when they came in under the escort of the officer. "i am glad to see you. is this an official visit?"

"good evening, judge," replied rand. "i suppose it must be. the officer said i was under arrest."

"gracious, no! not at all," said the judge. "that was a blunder, indeed. i merely told him i wanted to see you. i wanted to see if you could throw any light on the robbing of my office."

"have you any reason to think that they know anything about it?" demanded the colonel indignantly.

"no sufficient reason," replied the judge. "now, don't get excited," as the colonel was about to speak, "but there has been a lot of loose talk circulating, and i thought i would like to settle it."

"loose talk!" exclaimed the colonel; "about whom?"

"about randolph, dick wilson and young blake," explained the judge; "and, by the way, where is pepper? i don't see him here."

"we don't know where he is," replied jack. "we have been hunting for him all the afternoon, but we couldn't find him."

"how is that?" questioned the judge.

whereupon the story of the unavailing search was told.

"that is certainly remarkable," admitted the judge. "perhaps we had better put this matter off until we see if we can't find him. have you any plans, colonel?"

"no," replied the colonel, forgetting his anger over the blundering arrest. "i am at a complete loss how to proceed. if the ground had opened and swallowed him he could not have disappeared more suddenly and more completely."

"we shall certainly have to start another search. the question is where to begin," mused the judge, and just then, catching sight of officer dugan, his mind reverting to the latter's inexcusable blunder, he gave the chagrined minion of the law a severe reprimand. how far the angry judge might have proceeded is not known, for just at this moment pepper appeared in the doorway.

"pepper!" cried jack. "where in the world have you been?"

"where in the world haven't i been?" he responded.

"you evidently found yourself," asserted the colonel.

"is it really you, pepper?" asked gerald; "and where did you hide yourself?" and other questions came thick and fast.

"just returned from delivery of the message to the highpoint scouts," finally answered the boy when he was afforded an opportunity to speak.

"highpoint! why, we went to highpoint!" cried rand, "and you had not been there. which way did you go?"

"don't know," replied the messenger. "round by robin hood's barn, i guess; but i came out on the side of the cliff, and the highpoints fortunately found me."

"but how did you get out of the tree?" asked the colonel. "we couldn't find any trail."

"did you know i was up a tree? well, i climbed into the next tree," was the reply.

"ah!" said the colonel, "that accounts for it. i never thought of that."

"tell us about it," requested the judge.

"there isn't very much to tell," said pepper, repeating the details of his trip, from the time of meeting the horse and wagon with monkey rae and the man.

"of course," muttered jack, "you could bet monkey would be in it somewhere."

"s-s-say," went on pepper, "how did that fight come out? i didn't have time to stop and see."

"i should think not," observed the judge; "it was your busy day."

"i think it must have been a draw," answered the colonel, "for each went his own way. but to return to our business. you said, judge, there was some talk about these boys; what is it?"

"well, you know," began the judge, "my office was broken into some time ago and some things taken."

"you don't think that these boys had anything to do with it, do you?" interrupted the colonel.

"of course not," the judge assured him; "but there were some boys' tracks--now let me go on--and it has been said that these boys were out very early on that morning, and that they have been spending money pretty freely of late, buying uniforms and other things."

"but we earned that money ourselves," interrupted pepper indignantly.

"don't get hot, pepper," counseled donald.

"i don't doubt it," replied the judge; "and then it is reported that randolph and pepper claimed to have found money on the road."

"i don't know as you could call it money," demurred rand, showing the coin that he had found. "i found this and pepper found another."

"ah!" remarked the judge, taking the coin, "that looks like one of those stolen from me. where did you find it?"

"on the mountain road," answered rand. "we did not know that they were yours, or we should have returned them."

"i don't know that they are mine," said the judge, "although they are similar. you had better keep them for the present. so that is the way they went," he mused; "they probably escaped in a boat. i'm afraid there isn't much chance of capturing them. that is all, boys. i just wanted to have a talk with you to straighten things out."

"where did all these stories come from?" asked the colonel.

"oh, i think it is mostly boys' talk," said the judge. "i think tompkins said he heard it from his boy."

"sam tompkins!" cried jack, "of course. he's trying to throw suspicion on us, but i guess he knows a lot more about it than we do."

"i think you have hit it, jack," agreed the judge. "i believe that is a clue worth following up."

"but what about the tools?" asked the officer.

"oh, yes," continued the judge, "i had forgotten about them. do you know anything about these tools, dick?"

"yes, sir; they came from our shop," he answered.

"ah! that's what i thought," said the officer to himself. "it isn't going to end here."

"they were taken from there," went on dick. "we missed them several days before the robbery, but i don't know who took them."

"then they must have been taken by some one around here," concluded the judge. "it seems to me that the farther we go the more mysterious it gets. jack, i think that you had better set your wits to work and see if you can't clear it up."

"very well, judge," answered jack, who had been going over the matter in his mind. "i think i have a clue that i am going to follow up and see what comes of it."

"good," commented the judge. "while i do not believe for an instant that any of you young gentlemen had anything to do with the robbery, i would like to see it brought home to those who did it."

"and i, too," added the colonel.

"good night, boys," continued the judge. "you have had rather an exciting day, and i think you had better be getting home. i think you want to look out for pepper so that nothing more happens to him to-night."

"good night, judge," responded the boys, jack adding as they went out, "i won't leave him out of sight until i have him safe in the house."