"Ah donno abo't de inflammation an' de oder misery, sah. Am itso bad as all dat, sah?"

"I mean that he did it on his own account, and not because ofanything that you may have told him."

"All reckon so, sah," exclaimed Bucephalus, greatly relieved. "Ahdone told him nothin', an' Ah don' guess nobody else told him."

Percival went away laughing, but tossed the coin he held inside his handto Bucephalus, whom caught it deftly and grinned.

"The doctor either found it out himself or some one has told him,"he exclaimed to himself, "but it is clear that he knows about it. Hewould not set a guard on the camp unless he had a good reason, forstrangers do not visit us, and the Riverton police probably haveorders to keep their eyes on the place."

Seeing Jack shortly afterward, Dick told his friend what he hadlearned and added:

"The Riverton police would simply keep a watch against strangers, butthe physician evidently thinks that some of our own Hilltoppers needwatching, and he has, therefore, taken this means of doing it.