"I'll tell you what you know about this particular case," replied Cal. "Sandy Podder and his bunch were in here about a week ago. I'd been having a bite here, and went out when I'd finished. But I had forgotten my cap, and when I came back for it Sandy and his pals were boasting about how they were going to plant hip flasks with liquor in them in the desks of Garry Grayson and his friends. You were sitting at the table with them and heard every word. Now wait a minute, Jake," as the man started to protest. "I see by your eyes that you're going to say you didn't hear them. Take a fool's advice and don't say it. I know you heard them." The little man sank back in his seat with a groan. "Vot you want me to do?" he asked. "Just this," replied Cal, bending forward and tapping the desk impressively. "I'm going with my friend here to Mr. Allen, the principal of the high school. I'm not going to tell him a single word about your selling liquor in this place. But I am going to tell him what I heard Sandy Podder and his pals say about framing Grayson and his friends. "Now, Mr. Allen may think that, since I'm a friend of Garry's, I'm getting up the whole thing to help him out of a mess. He may want some one else's word to back up mine. Yours is going to be the word to do that." "I vill be ruint!" groaned Jake. "Not at all," Cal reassured him. "The whole thing will be kept under our hats. I'll get Mr. Allen's word for that. Your talk with him will be in private. All he wants to know, all he cares to know just now, is the truth about this framing. Once he feels sure of this, he'll call Sandy Podder and his pals in and worm the truth out of them. They're yellow, and each will probably squeal on the other in the hope of being let down easy. But your name will be kept out of it. How about it, Jake? Is it a go?" Jake nodded his head. "You haf me by der neck," he said glumly. "I can nudding else do." "Atta boy!" said Cal rising. "Come along, Garry. We'll just be able to get back to town by dinner time. S'long, Jake." "Cal, you're a wonder," said Garry, when they were once more seated in the car. "The way you handled that fellow couldn't have been beaten." "Not so bad, not so bad," chuckled Cal, as he stepped on the gas. "I thought I could make Jake listen to reason. He isn't such a bad old skate at that." "Well, I can never thank you enough," declared Garry warmly. "You've lifted a thousand tons from my mind." "More than I ever lifted before," grinned Cal. "I must be a regular strong man. But I'm glad if I've been able to pay in a little way the debt I owe you on account of my father." "How's he getting along, by the way?" asked Garry, as they sped along at a rapid rate. "Fine as silk," replied Cal. "He's getting around all right now. Limps a little, but the doctor says that his leg will be just as good as the other one before long." "That's fine and dandy!" said Garry.