today,"
Walter Crocker said firmly.

"I'll pay it only on one condition," replied the old man with rising
spirit. "You must deliver to me the packet of letters. Otherwise I'd
be blackmailed out of every penny I own."

"You'll get the letters all right."

"Show them to me now."

"I can't do that," Walter Crocker replied, and Penny thought she
detected a trace of uneasiness in his voice.

"Perhaps you haven't the letters at all," Herman Crocker said quickly.

"Oh, yes, I have. But I don't carry them around with me. I'll bring
them a week from today."

"All right, but remember, no letters, no money. And another thing, I
can't have you coming here. Already folks are talking about your car
being in my barn. I shouldn't have towed it here for you."

"Would you have wanted me to take it to a Kendon garage?"

"No," answered Herman Crocker shortly.

"I thought not. Well, where shall I meet you if you don't want me
coming here?"

"At the footbridge by the ravine."

"Where is that?" Walter Crocker asked.

"A quarter of a mile below my cottage. Be there next Thursday night at
ten o'clock."

"I'll be waiting," returned the young man. He started to walk away.

"Are you taking your car?" Herman Crocker called after him. "I fixed
the wheel."

"Yes, I'll get it now," the young man replied.

As the girls saw Old Herman walk toward the house alone they felt a
trifle sorry for him. There was no question as to his misdeeds, yet
their sympathies went out to him rather than to Walter Crocker who
evidently had been deprived of his rightful inheritance.

Penny and Susan heard the barn doors open and knew that the young man
was getting out his car. As he remained in the building longer than
seemed necessary, they moved around to a dust covered window and peered
curiously inside.

"Why, he's searching for something!" Penny whispered.

Walter Crocker had removed the seat cushions and was examining every
inch of the automobile. His face was twisted with worry. The girls
could hear him muttering angrily to himself.

"What do you imagine he has lost?" Susan asked in an undertone. "You
can tell by the way he acts that it's something important."

"I don't know, of course," Penny replied with a chuckle. "But I have a
sneaking idea it may be Herman Crocker's packet of letters!"

CHAPTER XV

The Missing Letters

"What makes you think he has lost the letters?" Susan whispered to her
chum. "Didn't he