Crackey! I wonder if folks will think I'm low enough down to steal a fellow's watch ?" If Teall was rough, he was none the less honest, and had all of an honest boy's sensitive horror of being thought guilty of theft.
"Yet the matter stands just this way," Ted reflected as he moped along.

"The watch must have been in the trousers when I snatched 'em up, and the watch wasn't there when I returned the trousers.
What will folks naturally think?
Oh, I wonder if there ever was as unlucky a fellow in the world before ?" A great lump formed in Ted's throat as he puzzled over this problem.
"Hello, Teall!" called a hearty voice.

"Was Hi much obliged when you gave him back his duds this afternoon ?" Dick Prescott was the speaker, and with him were his five chums.
"Nothing like it," muttered Ted, turning as the boys came up.
"Say, something awful happened to-day, and I'm in a peck of trouble!" "Tell us about it," urged Tom Reade.
Ted started to tell them, mournfully.
"I don't believe a word of that, Ted," Dick broke in energetically.
"I'm telling you just as it happened," Teall protested.
"Oh, I guess you are, all right.

But I don't believe Hi had his watch with him.

If he had had it, he would have worn a chain or a fob, and I didn't see any, did you, fellows ?" "If I thought he had fooled me-----" muttered Ted vengefully.
Then, with a change of feeling, he continued: "But I don't believe he was fooling me.