a meeting of a board of
directors. He appeared to be perfectly sane and responsible for his acts
at the meeting of the board, and when he left in his machine there were
no indications that he had suffered more than a slight bruise from his
fall. He was not seen at home again for two weeks."

"Now you begin to get interesting!" declared Will.

"Where did he go?" asked Sandy.

"That is what his friends don't know," replied Elmer.

"But he must have been seen somewhere!" insisted Sandy.

"He was!" answered Elmer. "He was seen in the vicinity of this mine!"

"Wow, wow, wow!" exclaimed Sandy.

"What was he doing here?" asked Will.

"Wandering about the premises."

"Now I can tell you the rest," Will said with a chuckle.

"Go on, then," advised Elmer.

"From the meeting of the board of directors that night," Will went on,
whimsically, "this man Stephen Carson went directly to a safety deposit
vault where three or four hundred thousand dollars' in the way of cash
and jewelry, were hidden. He took the whole bundle and disappeared. Is
that anywhere near right, Elmer?"

"Go on!" Elmer replied.

"Then in two weeks time he comes back and says that he don't know where
he put the jewelry, but that he thinks he hid it in this mine. And, as
they can't find any place where he hocked the jewelry, or put it up to
carry out some gigantic Wall street plan, they are forced to believe
that he really did mislay the jewelry while temporarily out of his head.
Is that anywhere near right?"

"If you'll amend your report so as to show that he went to the Night and
Day bank and drew out something over two hundred thousand dollars which
he had on deposit there, and disappeared with the entire sum, you'll
come nearer to the truth."

Will gave a long whistle of amazement.

"Two hundred thousand dollars in real money!" exclaimed George.

"Yes, he took two hundred thousand dollars in real money away with him
that night," Elmer went on, "and when he returned to his home again, he
was penniless and in rags."

"Was he in his right mind?" asked Will.

"He seemed to be."

"Has he now recovered from the injury he received that night?"

"So the doctors say."

"Then why doesn't he tell what he did with the money?"

"That part of his life is blank. He was seen in the vicinity of this
mine, yet denies it. He was seen loitering in the woods not far away,
but insists that he never visited this mine except to attend meetings of
the board