was a small room, in which Mr. Lycurgus Sharp had his
office. There was a balcony in front of the lawyer's office.

Mr. Lycurgus Sharp was hanging about the post office, talking politics,
when Mr. Ellis reached that point.

Clyde was firmly convinced that his worthy uncle and the lawyer would be
in consultation before long, and he was also convinced that the topic of
conversation would be the ten thousand dollars. He was even more firmly
convinced that he was right when the two men came out of the post office
and walked up the stairs to the lawyer's room above.

Clyde did not like the idea of playing the spy, but if his uncle was
engaged in a scheme to rob him, he certainly had a right to know it,
and, with no twinges of conscience, he stole up the stairs, and when all
was quiet he crawled out upon the balcony.

The night was hot, and Mr. Sharp's window was partially raised, but
protected by a blind.

"Those confounded boys have discovered everything," Clyde heard his
uncle say. "I would like to know how they did it. You haven't been
talking, have you?"

"What! _Me_ talk? _Me_, did you say?" exclaimed Mr. Lycurgus Sharp,
dramatically.

"Then how did they find out that I have been speculating?" demanded the
other, sharply.

The lawyer shrugged his shoulders.

"That's your lookout," he said, carelessly. "Perhaps they overheard us
talking this afternoon."

"Great Scott! I hope not," cried Mr. Ellis, excitedly. "No, I don't
believe that! No one was around at the time. I think they must have
heard a rumor somewhere--where, I don't know, but would give a heap to
find out. If those boys get a notion like that they will spread it
everywhere, and I shall be ruined. What can I do to stop them off?"

The lawyer shrugged his shoulders again.

"I have promised to show them the will and explain where all the money
is," added Mr. Ellis.

"Which you can't do," broke in the lawyer, abruptly.

"Which is only a blind to gain time," the other frowned. "I am sorry I
ever got into this speculation now; but I am in it, and I have got to
make that money good, somehow. I can do it in time, I am sure; but if
these boys get to talking, I can't tell what will happen."

"Well," said Mr. Sharp, "I suppose you must get rid of them for a time.
That is about what you are driving at, I apprehend?"

"That's about the size of it, but how?"

Mr. Sharp picked up a newspaper that was lying on his table and turned
to the shipping adverti