"
"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.
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