of directors."

"Now I've got you!" laughed Will. "His friends think he hid the money in
this mine and we've been sent here to find it!"

"That's the idea," agreed Elmer.

"And this bum detective is here for the same purpose!"

"Yes, though where he received his information is more than I know. Upon
his return to his home, Mr. Carson immediately made good the two hundred
thousand dollars taken from the Night and Day bank and employed
detectives to look up the missing coin.

"Is Ventner one of them?" asked Will.

"I don't think so," replied Elmer. "We were sent here to look through
the mine, with the understanding that you were to come on from Chicago
in a few days. Mr. Horton recommended you to Mr. Burlingame and so you
were employed."

"Then this detective has no right here at all?"

"None whatever, so far as I can make out."

"Then why not fire him?"

"Because he may accidentally run across the money some day."

"If he does, he'll get away with it!" declared George.

"No, he won't," answered Elmer, "He'll be watched every minute from now
on. You may be sure of that!"

"But you didn't seem to know what he was doing tonight," laughed Will.

"But I knew enough to come to the right place for the information I
desired," replied Elmer.

"Strange thing Tommy and Dick don't come!" Sandy exclaimed, stepping to
the door of the old tool house and listening intently. "They should have
been here a long time ago!"

"Perhaps they've butted into Ventner," suggested Jimmie.

"They wouldn't do that," Elmer replied. "Every blow he strikes with his
pick saves us the trouble of making one."

"You don't think he had any directions from anyone, do you?" asked Will.
"You don't, think he knows where to look for the money any more than you
do?"

"No, I think he just heard of the loss of the money and came down here
on his own account."

"Well, if he's using dynamite in the mine," Will continued, "he ought to
be turned out of it. If Mr. Carson really hid two hundred thousand
dollars in currency in here, it's in some little pocket easy to find if
we get into the right chamber. The use of dynamite might bury it twenty
feet deep under a load of shale that would never be removed!"

"That's a fact!" cried Elmer.

The boys now stepped to the door and listened again, attracted by the
sound of running feet.

"There's something doing!" exclaimed Sandy. "When Tommy comes home on a
run, there's always something going on."