We sprang up with a cheer, forgetting how tired we were, those of us who had just come home from the long walk. "Everybody scatter and look for signs." "Wait a minute, boys," said Ma. "It's almost dinner time. You must not start without something to eat. There is no telling when you will get back. Let me give you a bite in the kitchen first." That was just like Ma. We saw in a minute it was the thing to do and hurried in for a quick lunch. "The boy is right," we heard Pa saying. "They'll find him, depend upon it. I never knew those boys to get into a scrape yet that they couldn't pull out of. But it won't hurt if the rest of us look around a little, too." "Who saw him last?" asked Skinny, after we had started. "I did," said Wallie. "We walked together until I turned off to take the east road. He kept straight on toward the Gingham Ground and I heard him yell some time afterward." "You don't suppose that the Gang got after him, do you, and locked him up or something?" "I'll bet that's what they did," said Benny. "That is just what happened. They got after me, too. I was scared half to death and didn't want to go through the Grounds, but it was getting late and I knew that Ma would be worried, so I braced up and started through on a run. In a minute two of them ran out and grabbed me by the collar." "'It's one of them village kids,' said one of them. 'Let's call the Gang and duck him. He needs it to cool off.' "Then he whistled and a lot of the others came and they hustled me down to the river. Gee, I was mad and I was scared. Then, just as I had about given up, another boy came chasing after us. "'Is this Benny Wade?' said he. "'It's all that is left of me,' I told him. "With that he jumped in and took hold of me. "'Youse ain't a goin' to duck this kid,' said he, 'unless you duck me along with him. His partner came through here this morning and fixed my dog's broken leg and he told me to watch out for Benny Wade and have him look at the bandage, to see if it was all right. Now, kid, you come along with me and look at my dog.' "'Duck 'em both,' said some one. "I guess maybe they would have done it, too, if Jim Donavan hadn't come along just in time." "Maybe it was Bill who fixed up the dog," said Hank. "No, I did it," I told them. We had been walking along while Benny was talking. What he said surprised us some and would have made us mad at any other time. Benny had been so worried about Bill that he hadn't said anything about himself before, and neither had any of us. "The first thing to do," said Skinny, "is to go to Jim's house and start from there. If Bill went through the Gingham Ground I'll bet that some of the Gang saw him."