TOM did not report to Nick's for work the next day.

Stunned by Tolliver's decision, with the lanky major's words still ringing in his ears, he found himself without the courage to face any of his friends. He knew that the squadron commander was forced to take action of some sort in view of the information he had received; yet he could not bring himself to believe that the charges against him were so black and so fully proved as to warrant his suspension from the outfit. At the same time, he was not overly critical of his commanding officer, for he well knew that the latter was in as much of a quandary as was he himself. Tolliver simply had to act, had to do something. It was logical, he confessed unhappily to himself, for the C.O. to have made his first move against the individual who, in the light of the revealed evidence, was most culpable. He, Tom Carroll, was that individual.

But he did not want to see Nick, Red, or anyone else. Right now that would be too much. Still vivid was the disbelief in the face of Ellis as he had listened to the explanation Tom had given. The pained expressions of Jane and Ralph, doubting the scene they had witnessed in front of the garage yet unable to cast aside blindly the proof of his guilt, were imprinted in his mind. To face them now, or to attempt to explain the situation to any other friends, was more than he could bring himself to bear.

He squirmed at the thought of Ed Dawson, who must be feeling very proud of himself at this moment. The plot that he had so skillfully worked out, the ease with which Tom had been entrapped, the airtight case that had been fabricated-all this must be giving the son of Big Ed Dawson a great deal of satisfaction, Tom told himself bitterly. But Ed Dawson, he vowed, would not get away with his plan. Somehow the whole malicious scheme would be uncovered and the real culprit exposed.

Wearily, Tom tried to figure out just how he could prove his innocence and put the blame where it belonged. A score of times he reviewed his own actions, as well as everything else that he knew about the missing property. Added up, it all came down to the fact that Ed Dawson had simply removed the equipment from the supply room, cached it in the woodbin and waited for Tolliver to indicate what action he was going to take. Then he must have written the note to lure Tom or Nick or both of them to the garage, and then arranged for Ellis and the others to catch the "thief" in the act of moving the materials. But no matter how obvious the plot was, there still remained the question of how to thwart it. Try as he might, Tom could not find the answer.

At midmorning, he was interrupted in his misery-laden reflections by the arrival of Nick Crynes. He was tempted to hide, but decided to face the little ex-sergeant when the latter called to him from the front of the house.

"I've got Red filling in for you, but he's got to leave about noon. Think you can come down to the shop and help me?" Nick wanted to know.

"Haven't you . . . that is, didn't anyone tell you about me?" Tom asked dully.

"You mean about last night? Sure. Sam Tolliver was down at headquarters this morning, looking around, and he stopped by and told me all about it. But what's that got to do with you coming down to the shop?"

"You . . . you mean you don't believe . . ."

"That stuff about you stealing the equipment?" Nick laughed. "Thank I'm crazy or somethin'?"

"You mean it?" Tom asked unbelievingly. "You're sure you don't think I took those things and put them in your garage?"

"Of course I don't believe it," Nick protested. "No one in his right mind would believe it. It was all a put-up job and you were just sandbagged."

"Okay, Nick," Tom said, his voice firm. "I'll be with you in a minute, soon as I tell Ma where I'm going."

Down at the garage, he sat with Nick and Red and told them the whole story. Both his friends listened carefully, from time to time breaking in to ask a question. Finally, after laying in front of them his reasons for believing Ed Dawson responsible for the whole mess, he said, "That's about it. Now you know why Major Tolliver has suspended me."

"Gee, Tom, it sure does look bad," Red sympathized.

"Do you think I did it?" Tom asked sourly.

"What do you take me for? Red protested. "'Course I don't think you did. I'm just saying that it looks bad."

"That's what everyone'Il say," Tom observed, discouragement in every word.

"Look, Tom," Nick said gently. "Forget about what everyone will say. In the first place, Sam Tolliver isn't going to let this thing get out of hand. He was down here first thing this morning .... "

"Did he find the note?" Tom interrupted hopefully. Nick shook his head. "No, but he did find an envelope. Anyway, after telling me about it, he went and called on everyone who knows anything about last night ¾Ralph, Ed, Jane and Jim Ellis¾and he made them promise to keep quiet about this whole thing until it's been thoroughly investigated. In fact, he threatened disciplinary action for anyone who lets out a word about it."

"That's decent of him, all right," Tom said quietly.

"In the second place," Nick continued, "you can be sure that he won't miss a thing. He'll work on this till he's dead certain that he's right. Then he'll move, and move fast."

"But suppose he doesn't find out anything? Suppose there isn't any way to prove I'm not involved? What then?" Tom queried desperately.

Nick looked searchingly at his young companion. "Tom, you've got lots of friends, and none of us'll stop trying to clear you till it's done. Why, I'd bet my last dollar that Sam no more believes you're guilty than, well, than he is himself."

"Do you really think so, Nick? Do you?"

"I'm sure of it," Nick replied.

"But why'd he suspend me? Did he have to do that?" Tom wanted to know.

"Sure he did, Tom. Look at it from his point of view. He's the C.O. One of his officers and some of the cadets come and tell him that they've caught you with the missing property. You tell your story to him, but you've got to admit it's kind of a wild one. All he really has to go on is the fact that you were caught with the swag. So he says right away that there'Il be an investigation. And while the investigation is going on, since you're the candidate to be investigated, you've got to be suspended. That's normal in any military organization."

"I guess so," Tom said despondently, "but it sure is rough."

"Well, it'll come out okay," Red stated with assurance.

"That's right," Nick added sincerely. "It's all going to work out in the end. You just wait and see."

The "waiting and seeing" was not easy during the next few days. Except for his work at Nick's shop, Tom remained close to home. But in spite of his intentions to shun his usual associates, he had some interruptions.

Early in the week Major Tolliver called both Tom and Ed Dawson down to the squadron headquarters. In measured tones he recounted all that had happened, including the evidence tending to implicate Tom in the disappearance of the organization property. In an equally calm voice, he repeated to Ed Dawson the charge that Tom had made against him.

"That's a lie!" Dawson shot back. "Carroll's just trying to pin the blame on someone else. Why, he didn't even think of this yarn that he's telling until he got to your house, sir. He couldn't think of anything to say when we caught him with the goods."

"You're the only one that could have dreamed up anything like this and carried it out," Tom claimed. "You were in and out of the supply room all the time .... "

"So what," Dawson drawled. "A lot of others were, too."

"And you were the one that led Lieutenant Ellis back to the headquarters that night .... "

"I forgot my wallet. Didn't anyone tell you?"

"And you're the only one that'd try and get me blamed for anything like this," Tom declared.

Dawson laughed. "Look, Carroll. Why don't you give up. It won't do you any good to try and . . ."

Tom jumped to his feet. "You're the one that's caused all this!" he cried. "I ought to punch you in the . . ."

"Cut it," Tolliver ordered. "You two have been at each other's throats long enough, and it's got to stop. Now, I don't know how this business is going to turn out, but I promise you I'm going to see it through to the end. I hope both of you will get some sense in your heads. That's all for now."

The session with Tolliver and Dawson did not leave Tom feeling any better about the prospects of being cleared. Moreover, the major's manner had been sharper than he had ever seen it before. He realized that the officer was worried about the entire affair and had probably been irritated by the flare-up between Ed and himself. Also, he knew that he had not shown himself in a very good light and he felt uneasy about his performance.

He was heartened, though, a short while later when he had a phone call from Jane Dawson. She told him that her brother had repeated the charges that Tom had made, and that she had begged him to tell all he knew about the missing property. Ed had been adamant in sticking to his story, she declared, and she was sure that he would never have done anything like what Tom had accused him of. Nonetheless, she admitted that Ed had not been himself since the night of the incident at the garage. Most important of all, Jane told Tom that she, for one, did not believe that he had had anything to do with the thefts and that she knew that it would all be cleared up some day.

Ralph Cross, too, came around to the house to talk to Tom about the affair. He assured Tom that he could not believe what he had seen the other night. He knew that there was some explanation for it, and he was willing to believe the one that Tom had given to Tolliver. The trouble was, he said, that while he could not believe Tom guilty, he would not admit that his friend Ed would ever try and pull anything like the trick Tom had charged him with.

The week dragged on slowly, with no developments of any significance coming to Tom's attention. Tolliver did tell him that he had found the envelope in which the message had come, and to that extent Tom's story was verified. That bit of evidence was trifling, however. Despite the scarcity of new information, however, Tolliver told Tom that he was far from convinced that the real culprit had been uncovered and he promised that he would not stop trying to unravel the mystery until every possibility had been exhausted.

Near the end of the week Tom was summoned to Mr. Corwin's home. He had thought that nothing could depress him more than he already was, but the news that the old man gave him managed to lower his spirits even further. Big Ed Dawson, Corwin said, was exerting pressure on the council to award the printing contract to a firm in another town.

"He's got those clowns completely hornswoggled," the old man fumed. "I don't think there's a thing I can do to block it, because the council is claiming that this other company will do the job for less than the Ledger will charge."

"Well, that's business, I guess," Tom commented in a flat voice.

"That's not the worst of it, young fella. From all that I can find out, Dawson is real serious about starting this other paper. I've had a few inquiries made, and it seems as if he hasn't definitely made up his mind yet, but he is going at it as if he means business. He's had some estimates made, and he's even looked into the cost of a building for his newspaper plant."

Tom sighed in discouragement. "I guess there isn't much we can do about it, but I'll tell my dad anyway."

"You just remember what I said about keeping your chin up," Corwin growled. "The only way you can be licked is if you stop fighting. So you tell your father not to let me hear anything about his giving up."

"You don't know my dad," Tom said, smiling in spite of himself. "He'll never give up."

"And you'd better not either," the old man barked, beetling his eyebrows fiercely.

Tom had said nothing at home about the difficulties at the squadron, for he felt that he should not add to his parent's worries about business. Loath to bother his father about his own troubles, he nevertheless went directly to him and told him about the unpleasant information that Nathaniel Corwin had given him. Mr. Carroll took the news philosophically, observing that the game had just started and was a long way from being ended. He admitted his concern over the new developments, however, and agreed that it looked as if Big Ed Dawson was out for blood.

"That," Tom breathed to himself, "makes two of them."

On the evening of the regular squadron meeting, Tom said nothing to his parents; but, instead of going to the headquarters, he went to a movie. He paid little attention to the film, however, for he was blue over his first absence from the scheduled session. Restive and wondering what had taken place at the meeting, he ambled over to Red Martin's home and was there when his friend arrived.

"Anything interesting happen?" Tom asked after greeting Red.

"Not a thing. Everyone wanted to know where you were but I told 'em that you had a little indigestion."

"You can say that again," Tom remarked. "I'm having a hard time stomaching the Dawsons."

"Except one member of the family, I hope," Red said with a grin.

"How was Jane? Did she have anything to say?" Tom wanted to know.

"Nobody had anything to say, because nobody knows anything about anything. Jane wasn't there, though, 'cause the Dawsons have all gone to Chineewincook Mountain for the long week end."

"Chineewincook? I think Jane pointed it out to me one time when I took her for a ride in Nick's plane. It's south of the mountain, isn't it?"

"That's right," Red answered. "The Dawsons have a hunting lodge there, and it's really up in the wilds."

"How was the major?" Tom asked quietly.

"A little grim. He and most of the officers are going up to Wing Headquarters tomorrow to attend a conference. From what he said, it looks like the CAP may hook up with the State Forestry Service to patrol for fires. You know there're a lot of them all over the state, and things'Il get worse if we don't have some rain soon."

"Are they flying?"

"Major Tolliver is flying there with Nick. The rest are going by car," Red answered.

Tom parted from the friendly redhead, grateful for the news that had been given him. He was pleased, too, that there had been no gossip going about concerning the discovery of the missing equipment; Tolliver's strict orders, he figured, had been responsible for that. Yet the bits of information that he had received did not count for much. The questions that he really wanted to know about were still unanswered.

He was up early the next morning and hurried out to Nick's shop. The ex-Army pilot had left a message telling Tom to take charge of things until the CAP group returned from the state capital that evening. Red joined him at the garage and when Tom had finished his work they sat down in Nick's office.

"The paper says the fires are a lot worse," Red observed as he sipped a coke.

"Turn on the radio. It's about time for the news," Tom suggested.

A few moments later they heard a commentator begin a news roundup. After first mentioning the national and international items, the announcer discussed the wave of forest fires that was sweeping the state. In several areas, he stated, everything was under control. In other parts, gangs of workers and National Guardsmen, under the direction of the Forestry Service, were having a difficult time coping with the spreading flames. New fires, he declared, had been reported in some regions of the state, including one in the vicinity of Chineewincook Mountain.

"Did you hear that?" Tom asked.

"I sure did. I wonder how bad it is," Red replied.

"I guess the Dawsons know about it, so there's probably no reason to worry," Tom commented.

The two boys sat about for a while longer, as usual discussing the problem of how Tom might try to clear himself. But despite his deep personal interest in the matter, Tom found his mind wandering from the subject. Instead, his thoughts turned to the radio announcement concerning the fires, and he wondered if the Dawsons were aware of the danger. Finally, breaking into one of Red's remarks, he asked, "Do the Dawsons have a telephone at their lodge?"

"I'm sure they do. Jane asked me to call her there if anything new came up in this business," Red answered.

"Then let's try and call them. They may not know about those fires."

Red went to the telephone and asked to be connected with the Dawson lodge. For what seemed like an endless time he held the receiver and talked with the operator. At length, with a disturbed expression on his face, he hung up and turned to Tom.

"The operator says that the line must be down. She can't get through to the lodge," Red said.

"Are any of the squadron officers still in town?" Tom wanted to know.

"Lieutenant Ellis is, but I don't know of any of the others."

"Call him up, Red, and tell him about the fires," Tom directed. "I'm going to gas up Nick's ship. If he'll okay it, I'll fly up to the lodge and make sure that everything is all right."