The man turned back, and the grocer pulled the coin from his pocket and dropped it into the man's gloved hand.
"Good luck to you," he said, then finished weighing out the gum-drops for Roy, and dropped the nickel in his cash drawer.
Slowly Roy retraced his steps. "Well, what happened?" asked Willie, as Roy rejoined him.
"Nothing," said Roy in disgust. "The errand boy came in and handed the grocer a dollar that he had collected for sugar. Pretty soon an automobile driver came in to get some sugar and the grocer said he hadn't any more, but he paid him a dollar he owed him."
Willie was silent, turning the matter over in his mind. "Then what?" he asked after a time.
"Nothing, except that I bought some candy and the grocer put the money in his cash drawer. Then I left."
"Where else would he put it?" asked Willie, abstractedly, as he tried to read some meaning into the grocer's apparently meaningless acts.
"Well," said Roy, "he didn't put the dollar the errand boy gave him into the drawer. He dropped that into his pocket."
"Why, that's exactly what happened when I was in there the other day," said Willie in surprise.
The daylight waned. Dusk came on. It grew too dark to see the spy's house from the pines. It was past time to relieve Henry at the wireless. The two scouts climbed to their own house for orders. As they came up the stairs they heard the voice of Henry.