a feather when I saw that it was a souvenir tea spoon, an ornate one at
that, representing some foreign city, I don't know which, for I was too
flustered by my terrible discovery to look close. Now, what do you
think of that?"




CHAPTER IX

JUST BETWEEN CHUMS

"Oh! I'm sorry to hear that, Thad!" exclaimed Hugh. "Are you dead
certain it was a souvenir spoon you glimpsed? Couldn't you have been
mistaken?"

The other boy shook his head in the negative.

"I sure wish I could say so, Hugh, and that's a fact," he replied; "but
I've got pretty good eyes, and I ought to know what such things look
like, for hasn't my mother been collecting the same for ten years now.
Of course, ours are all of this country, representative of cities and
places she and dad have visited. But this one was different. I'm as
certain as anything that it must have come from some foreign place,
because the style and marking stamped is of no American workmanship."

Evidently, what he had just heard caused Hugh considerable anxiety. It
seemed as though things were getting darker for Owen Dugdale with every
passing day. Even stout-hearted Hugh felt his doubts rising. He
wondered if, after all, he had made a mistake in his judgment of Owen,