“Well,” replied Slicker, “nobody’s goin’ to know who had a hand in it. We ain’t goin’ to hire no brass band an’ go around shoutin’ what we done. Are we, Hal?” “No,” said Hal soberly. “This is secret business. No boy’s got a right to tell on anybody but himself, not even if they skin him alive. I won’t.” “Nor I,” “Nor I.” The response was unanimous and whole-hearted. “I don’t know about this Barriscale business, though,” added Hal. “If Mr. Barriscale should get mad about it, he’d scour the city to find out who did it, and then he’d have us all put in jail. Young Ben isn’t any easy proposition to butt up against, either.” “Oh, you’re chicken-hearted!” exclaimed Slicker. “It’s no fun to swipe things if you don’t put ’em where folks don’t like it. I say hang the puppy sign on the king’s gate-post an’ let the consekences take care o’ theirselves. Am I right?” “Right you are!” responded one member of the group after another. But Hal said: “Well, whatever you fellows say, goes. I’m game if you are. Where’s your sign? Let me have it!” He took the oblong board and concealed it under the capacious folds of his rain-coat. “Now,” he added, “come on!” So they started, heading again toward the main street of the city. Two blocks up that street they once more passed the loitering policeman on duty. If he had any suspicion that the outer garment of the leader of the group hid contraband property from his sight he did not mention it. But when they were well by he turned and called to them. “You boys,” he said, “have no business on the street this time o’ night. I want you to go home, every one o’ you.” “That’s where we’re headed for,” replied Slicker; and with that the incident was closed. Benjamin Barriscale, toward whose private property the boys were moving, was at the head of the principal industry of the city, operated by a corporation known as the Barriscale Manufacturing Company. He was reputed to be a man of great wealth, of unbending will, generous or domineering as best suited his purpose. To invade his premises at midnight, on a mischief-making errand, was therefore an adventure which called for both courage and caution. His mansion was a full half mile from the center of the city; a square, stately house set well back from the street in the midst of a spacious lawn. Two massive, ornamental gate-posts guarded the entrance to the grounds, but the gates that swung between them were rarely closed. When the boys reached the place it was well past midnight and the lights in the electric lamps at the porch entrance had been extinguished. A single gleam showed faintly at an upper window; for the rest the darkness was complete save that a street lamp, a block away, endeavored, quite ineffectually, to send its rays into the thick mist overhanging the Barriscale grounds. For the perpetration of undiscoverable mischief the night was ideal.