"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.