you happen to know; and it'll be a heap better than standing here,
where people may come along any old time and interrupt us."

That last line of argument seemed to convince Bob, for he immediately
agreed.

"The fact is, Jack," he went on to say, "I wouldn't want to have
anybody hear what I'm going to tell you now. It certainly is a shame
how I've muddled this thing up, and I guess I deserve all I'm getting
in the shape of worry. It's going to be a lesson to me, I give you my
word on that, Jack."

They were trudging along in company when Big Bob said that. Of course
such talk could only excite Jack's natural curiosity still more. He
began to understand that whatever the other had been searching for was
not his own property, for he was hardly the kind of fellow, inclined
to be careless, and free from anxiety, to let such a personal loss
bother him greatly.

Presently the pair found themselves in Jack's particular room, which
he, like most boys of the present day, liked to call his "den." It was
an odd-shaped room for which there had really been no especial use,
and which the boy had fitted up with a stove, chairs, table and
bookcases, also covering the walls with college pennants, and all
manner of things connected with boys' sports.

Jack closed the door carefully.

"Pick your chair, Bob, and I'll draw up close to you," he said,
briskly, as though bent on raising the other's drooping spirits