I'll have all my men alert to-night, and well to do people will do well to be on the lookout, too.
As soon as this 'Mr.Fits' gets loot enough he'll probably leave Gridley." That same forenoon Dick, Dave and Tom, acting as a self-appointed committee, called on Lawyer Ripley at that gentleman's office.

They thanked the lawyer for the use of the camp, and mentioned the burning down of the cook shack.
Hardly had they begun to speak when Fred Ripley sauntered into his father's office.

Silently Fred stepped over to a part of the office that lay behind his father's back.
"How did the fire happen ?" inquired the lawyer.

"Some of you young men just a bit frisky and careless ?" Fred, from behind his father, scowled at the three Grammar School boys.
It was plain enough that he dreaded having his father told the truth.
Nor did Dick and his chums want to tell if it could be avoided.

They had all of a schoolboy's aversion to carrying tales.
"No, sir; it wasn't carelessness on the part of any of our party," Prescott answered truthfully.
"Oh, well, it doesn't matter, at any rate," the lawyer assured them.
"The whole camp is worth nothing in these days, and the shack was the least valuable part of all.