"What we put in that box was your first watch, Dick.

A silver-cased watch and a very neat gold-plated chain." One look at his father and a swift glance at his mother convinced the boy that they had not been parties to any joke.

Yet where were the watch and chain?
"Who could have left this slip of paper here ?" asked Mrs.Prescott.
"Hardly any one outside of the family," replied Mr.Prescott.

"I don't understand this at all." "And mother's gift, too ?" pondered Dick aloud, growing more puzzled every instant.
"Well, certainly no one else has been in this flat," went on Mrs.
Prescott.
But Dick flew first to one parlor window, and then to the other.

Next he crossed the parlor in two bounds, dashing to his bedroom.