"I shall take it as a very great favor," the note ran on, "and, from what I know of you, I feel certain that you will be glad to aid me in a matter that is of vast importance to me." "What on earth is coming?" wondered Dick. But he made up his mind to comply with the request. Promptly to the minute Dick reached the street door of the office building. Here he encountered Dave Darrin and Dalzell. "You, too?" asked Dick. "It looks as though all of Dick & Co. had been summoned," replied Dave Darrin. On entering the lawyer's office they found their other three chums there ahead of them. Tip Scammon was there, also, looking far from downcast. Lawyer Ripley looked very grave. He looked, too, like a man who had a serious task to perform, and who meant to go about it courageously. "Young gentlemen, I thank you all," said the lawyer slowly. "I am pursuing a matter in which I feel certain that I need your help. There has been some evil connection between Scammon and my son. What it is Scammon has refused to tell me. I will first of all tell you what I _do_ know. I am telling you, of course, on the assumption that you are all young men of honor, and that you will treat a father's confidence as men of honor should do." The boys bowed, wondering what was coming. Lawyer Ripley thereupon plunged into a narration of the happenings of the day before, telling it all with a lawyer's exactness of statement. "And now I will ask you," wound up Mr. Ripley, "whether you can tell me anything about the hold that Scammon seems to have exercised over my son?" "That's an embarrassing question, sir," Dick replied, after there had been a long pause. "Do you know the nature of that hold?" "Yes, sir." "May I ask how you know?" "I overheard a conversation, one night, between your son and Tip Scammon." "What was the substance of that conversation?" pressed the lawyer. "I don't quite see how I can tell you, sir," Dick responded slowly and painfully. "I'm not a tale bearer. I don't want to come here and play the tittle-tattle on your son." "I respect your reluctance," nodded Lawyer Ripley. "But let me put it to you another way. I am the boy's father. I am responsible for his career in this world, as far as anyone but himself can be responsible. I am also seeking what is for the boy's best good. I cannot act intelligently unless I have exact facts. Both my son and Scammon are too stubborn to tell me anything. In the cause of justice, Prescott, will you answer me frankly?" "That word, 'justice,' has an ominous sound, sir," Prescott answered. "It is generally connected with the word punishment, instead of with the word mercy." "I suspect that my son has been your very bitter enemy, Prescott," said the lawyer keenly. "I suspect that he has plotted against you and all your chums. Would you now try to shield him from the consequences of such acts?" "Why, sir, I think any boy of seventeen is young enough to have another chance."