“Connecting somebody else with the case?” queried Sam incredulously. “Yep.” “But who----” “Don’t ask me that, Sam, till I’ve looked around a bit. If I’m right--well, you’ll say it’s the queerest piece of business you ever heard tell of.” “Oh, don’t stop there!” “Got to. It’s kinder shapin’ up promisin’, but I ain’t sure. And in a matter like this it’s better to be safe than sorry.” There was a wry smile on Sam’s face. “Safety First!” he said in a tone which made Lon gaze at him curiously. “Jest what do you mean?” he asked. But Sam turned away without answering. Indeed, to make full explanation would have been difficult; for he could have said little more than that he was experiencing a peculiar sensation, to be likened to that of one rudely awakened from a complacent dream. CHAPTER XVII MORE SURPRISES Sam walked out of the barn without any clear notion of what he ought to do; but when he reached the gate his step quickened. It was Saturday; the morning was his own. It had flashed upon him that he could not do better than investigate the matters which had first seemed to be so conclusive of Orkney’s guilt. Granting that Tom probably had had nothing to do with the damage to the harness, he would attempt to remove all doubt from the value of the best piece of evidence for the prosecution, so to speak. This was the cap found by Step near the club-house. When Master Jones had snatched the cap from Orkney’s head, and thrown it over a fence, it had dropped upon the dead turf in old Mrs. Benton’s yard. The club’s theory was that the owner had recovered it subsequently and secretly. It remained for Sam to try to discover what really had happened. Mrs. Benton, if advanced in years, was active and alert. She answered her door-bell in person, and led Sam into her spotlessly neat sitting-room. The boy plunged at once into his errand. Had she chanced to see a cap lying on her lawn, and did she know what had become of it? Mrs. Benton nodded vivaciously. A cap--a boy’s cap? Of course, she remembered. “When I looked out of my window that morning, there it was in plain sight,” she said. “And I must say it looked awfully careless and shiftless--I don’t know what strangers would have thought of the folks living in this house. So I went right out and brought the cap in.” “And--and--and that was in the morning?” Sam faltered. “In the morning--early.” “Somebody came to claim it?” “Nobody came. I declare! I don’t see how young folks get so regardless of things these days! And that was a perfectly good cap--that is, it would have been perfectly good if it hadn’t been left out in the damp all night.” “Is it still here, ma’am?” “Bless you, no, child! It’s gone.” Sam leaned forward in his eagerness. “Gone where, ma’am?” “Into the rubbish can, of course.” “Oh!” said Sam, and sank back in his chair.