The grocer was behind the counter. "Have you any crackers?" asked Roy.
The grocer took down a package of Uneeda biscuits.
"You don't have any loose ones?" asked Roy.
"Guess I'll have to take 'em," said Roy. "Got any candy?"
Roy walked over to the show-case and began to examine the stock. Just then the errand boy came in.
"Here's the money for the sugar," he said, handing the grocer a silver dollar.
The grocer took the coin and carelessly dropped it into his pocket.
Roy continued his inspection of the stock of sweetmeats. "Give me five cents' worth of gum-drops," he said.
The grocer began to weigh them out. A tall man with gauntlets and with motor goggles on his forehead came in.
"Hello, Fritz," he said jovially. "Got that sugar for me yet?"
"Just sold my last ounce," said the grocer. "I haven't been able to get a bit for three days."
"Himmel!" said the customer. "How much longer have I got to go without sugar in my coffee?"
"Hello!" called the grocer. "Here's that dollar I owe you."
The man turned back, and the grocer pulled the coin from his pocket and dropped it into the man's gloved hand.
"Good luck to you," he said, then finished weighing out the gum-drops for Roy, and dropped the nickel in his cash drawer.
Slowly Roy retraced his steps. "Well, what happened?" asked Willie, as Roy rejoined him.
"Nothing," said Roy in disgust. "The errand boy came in and handed the grocer a dollar that he had collected for sugar. Pretty soon an automobile driver came in to get some sugar and the grocer said he hadn't any more, but he paid him a dollar he owed him."
Willie was silent, turning the matter over in his mind. "Then what?" he asked after a time.
"Nothing, except that I bought some candy and the grocer put the money in his cash drawer. Then I left."
"Where else would he put it?" asked Willie, abstractedly, as he tried to read some meaning into the grocer's apparently meaningless acts.
"Well," said Roy, "he didn't put the dollar the errand boy gave him into the drawer. He dropped that into his pocket."
"Why, that's exactly what happened when I was in there the other day," said Willie in surprise.
The daylight waned. Dusk came on. It grew too dark to see the spy's house from the pines. It was past time to relieve Henry at the wireless. The two scouts climbed to their own house for orders. As they came up the stairs they heard the voice of Henry.