Well, some of us had a little idea that way, Bobolink, but we never
thought you'd admit it so coolly," remarked Tom Betts, laughingly.

"And the wild animal show down there is just immense," the other went on,
not heeding the slur cast upon his reputation; for like many boys,
Bobolink had a pretty tough skin, and was not easily offended; "and I
guess I've thought about what I saw done there heaps of times. So Coney
stands for wild animal trainin' to me. But that guess was away wide of
the mark. Forget it, fellows. Only whenever Jack here learns what was in
those boxes, he must let his chums know. It's little enough to pay for
draggin' a lame scout all the way out here tonight; think so, Jack?"

"I sure do, and you'll have it, if ever I find out," was the reply.
"Perhaps, after they've been taken away by the professor, my father
mightn't mind telling me what was in them. And we'll let it rest at
that, now."

"But you mark me, if Bobolink gets any peace of mind till he learns,"
warned Tom.

Chatting on various matters connected more or less with the doings of the
Boy Scout movement, and what a fine thing it was proving for the youth of
the whole land, Jack and his chums presently brought up at the church
which had the bell tower; and where a splendid meeting room had been
given over for their occupancy in the basement, in which a gymnasium was
fitted up for use in the fall and winter.

In that tower hung a big bell, whose brazen tongue had once upon a time
alarmed the good people of Stanhope by ding-donging at a most unusual
hour. It had come through a prank played upon the scouts by several tough