"Plumb lazy, I call it," grumbled Jack, "to cart away the worms a fellow breaks his back digging. Some worthless tramp is catching fish with my worms and I intend to catch him." His wails had reached the ears of Doctor Hugh, himself an ardent fisherman when time permitted and his sympathies were entirely with the defrauded one. "Sit up some night and watch," he advised the lad. "Put the can in the usual place--where do you keep it--on the back step?--all right, put it there, and then hide back of the willow tree. You say it is done sometime between ten and twelve, for you go to bed at ten and your father comes home at midnight and finds the can empty? That ought to make it easy for you, for you know when to watch for the thief." Jack's father was engaged in some delicate electrical experiments that were conducted in his factory at night to escape the vibration caused by the heavy machines. Coming home from the Jordan office a little after then the next night after he had given Jack his advice, Doctor Hugh remembered what he had said and wondered if the boy had been successful in detecting the thief. As he neared the Welles house he heard loud and angry voices. CHAPTER IX WHEN PATIENCE SLIPS "If I ever catch you touching my can of worms again, I'll--I'll--" words apparently failed Jack and he began to sputter. "Got him, Jack?" the doctor leaped the hedge lightly and ran diagonally across the lawn to the back of the Welles's house. "Him?" growled Jack in disgust. "Him! Look at this--" and he flashed a pocket light that revealed to the astonished Doctor Hugh the tear-streaked face of Sarah. "For the love of Mike!" gasped her brother. "Have you been taking Jack's worms?" "Yes she has," Jack answered for her. "She's been dumping the can out every night. And if she does it again I'll shake her if she is a girl." "Hold on, hold on," said Doctor Hugh pacifically. "Let's get the hang of this; why did you empty Jack's can of worms, Sarah?" "It--it hurts them to be jabbed with a hook," wept Sarah. "Like fun it does," retorted Jack scornfully. "Worms haven't any feelings, hardly." "Well fishes have and if you haven't any worms you can't catch fishes," stormed Sarah. "I will too throw away your worms." "You will not!" flashed Jack, taking a step toward her. Sarah, the defiant, turned and fled toward her brother. He put his arm about her and found that she was shaking with nervous sobbing. "I'll see you to-morrow, Jack," he said quietly. "There is no use in rousing the whole neighborhood. Come on, Sarah, we're going home." He lifted the little girl in his arms and strode across the grass, entering the door of the house noiselessly and depositing her in a large arm chair in the office. Then he went into the kitchen, warmed a glass of milk and made her drink it.