“Yes, but I didn’t know what it was till I dropped it in the wash room. I hunted for the others in the cave night before last, but couldn’t find any more.”
“Well, Mr. Miles tells me he has decided that you are honest. He believes your story after being with you and talking with you on the mountain. But don’t you think you made a mistake by running away? Shouldn’t you have remained here and faced the music?”
“Maybe I should,” Hal replied dubiously. “But I don’t see how I could have proved I was innocent.”
“Well,” concluded the doctor slowly, “I’ve decided you ought not to be punished; only I want to give you this advice: Don’t ever run away from unjust suspicion and don’t do anything that will make you liable to just suspicion. As to you other boys, there is no excuse for your running away.”
“We didn’t mean to run away,” broke in Pickles. “We were just going a ways with Hal and then come back before morning. But we got caught.”
“Is that true?” inquired the doctor, addressing the other boys.
“Yes, it is,” came the reply in chorus.
“Well!” exclaimed the owner of Lakefarm. “It came near being a pretty serious trap, didn’t it? I’ll take the matter under advisement and decide later what I’ll do. Meanwhile, there is a more important matter to be looked after. How would you boys like to visit the top of Flathead again?”
“In the airship?” inquired Byron eagerly.
“That’s the only way to get up there, now that the passage through the roof of the cave is closed.”