Edgar buys a badge and a book of instructions and starts to learn the detective business. When he and his chum accompany his uncle's hired hand and his girl to town on a load of hay, and learn that a stop at the minister's means a marriage and not a murder, the two boys are sadly disappointed.
The story of Edgar Pomeroy, the first in a series, in which the boy Edgar imagines himself the triumphant master of his fate, revenging himself on a scornful young female classmate. But then the real events are seen in contrast with the ones Edgar has created in his mind.