acquaintances Frank had with her severe looks and manner. The Jordans had
lived at Tipton for only a year. The greater part of that time Frank had
been absent at a boarding-school in a neighboring town. The lads with whom
he had formerly associated in Tipton were away at various academies. Frank
did not know the town schoolboys very well.

He went downtown and strolled about for a time. Defiantly he walked calmly
past Mace's jewelry store, and even paused and looked through its front
plate-glass show window. He passed the usual hangout of Judge Roseberry,
and did not hasten his steps a bit when he saw that the judge, lounging on
a bench, noticed him.

Frank fancied that after he had passed the tavern the judge said something
to some of his fellow hangers on, and that they glanced after him with some
curiosity. A little farther on two little schoolboys paused in their walk,
stared hard at him and then scooted away, saying something about a
"burglary."

"Mace is bluffing, and so is the judge," determined Frank. "They have no
evidence against me, and they don't dare to arrest me. If they spread their
false stories, all the same, they shall suffer for it."

Frank felt pretty lonesome and gloomy as he passed the schoolhouse. The
boys were rushing out, free from the tasks of the day. It might have been
imagination, but Frank fancied that one or two of them greeted him with a
cool nod and hurried on. As he politely lifted his cap to a bevy of girls,
he imagined that they were rather constrained in their return greeting and
looked at him queerly.

Beyond the schoolhouse was Bolter's Hill, a famous place for coasting in