"I might get track of him in North Adams," said Mr. Norton, after a little. "You see, I gave him a message to deliver to a friend of mine there. He surely will know something about him, but he hasn't a telephone and I think is out of town to-day, anyhow. Maybe I'd better drive up. The boy probably will get back before I do, but it will make me feel better to be doing something." By that time everybody was getting scared. I mean all our folks were. Mrs. Wade was sure that Benny never would come home again, although it wasn't quite nine o'clock, the time when he said he would come. Mrs. Wade is all right most of the time, only she can think of more trouble for Benny to get into than he could find in a week, if he looked for it. Mothers are often that way. I guess it is because they like us so well. * * * * * "He said he would come back, if he lived. Those were his last words. And he hasn't come." She told that to Ma, over and over again. "He'll come back all right," said Ma, "and so will John, when the time comes." But she was worried about me, just the same, all on account of Bill. Of course, I didn't know about it at the time. I found out afterward. No one ever made better time driving the six miles to North Adams than Mr. Norton did that night. Just outside the village he met Benny, coming on a run, and stopped long enough to ask him if he had seen Bill. "No," said he. "I missed him. The Gang held me up at the Gingham Ground and almost made me late. I told Ma that I would be home by nine o'clock if I lived. I'm 'most dead, but guess I can hold out until I get there. She'll be having a fit pretty soon if I don't hurry. What time is it, anyhow?" Mr. Norton whipped up his horse before Benny finished. "William hasn't come back!" he shouted over his shoulder, just as Benny called to me in almost the same place. Then he tore down the road toward the Gingham Ground. It was after midnight when he came back. There was a light burning in our house and he stopped. "He has not been there!" was all that he could say, when Pa met him at the door. "Hasn't been there!" "No, I found Jenks, to whom I had sent the message, and he said that he had seen nothing of him, although he had been expecting him. You see, I told him that the boy was coming. The message has not been delivered." "Mr. Smith," he went on, after a moment, "I can't face Mrs. Wilson with that news. You go to her, while I get the marshal started and see if something cannot be done. I tell you something has happened. I am convinced of that. Young Wilson would have delivered that message if he possibly could have reached the place, and it would have taken a great deal to stop him. There isn't a yellow streak in that boy anywhere." "Did you make any inquiries?"