articularly safe.

"Yes, somebody got me to come down here and then locked that trap door
on me," grumbled the miser. He got up with difficulty and crawled
slowly to the kitchen, the boys coming after him to see that he did not
fall back. "Oh, dear, what a time I have had of it!" he whined.

"When was this?" asked Songbird.

"I don't know--that is, I can't tell how long it was until I know what
time it is now."

"It is half-past ten," answered Sam, consulting his watch.

"What! Do you mean half-past ten in the morning?" burst out Hiram
Duff. "If that's true then I've been down cellar all night--ever since
yesterday afternoon! No wonder I was hungry and thirsty. I've got to
have something to eat and drink soon, or I'll starve to death!" And he
walked to the kitchen cupboard and got out some bread and meat. There
was water in a pail on the bench and he took a long drink of this.

"Who was it locked you in the cellar?" asked Sam.

"Who be you boys?" asked the miser in return.

"We belong to Brill College. We were driving past and we heard you
yell," answered Songbird.

"Yes, I thought I heard a carriage on the road, so I called as loud as
I could. I did that ever since that fellow went away, but I guess
nobody heard me--leastwise, they didn't pay no attention."

"Will you tell us how it all happened?" asked Sam, and then he added
aside to Songbird. "Don't say anything about Tom." And the would-be
poet of Brill nodded to show he understood.

"It was this way," answered Hiram Duff, dropping down on the chair Sam
fixed for him. "I was sitting on the back porch mending my coat when
all of a sudden a fellow came around the corner of the house. He was a
strange looking young fellow and he wore a funny looking cap pulled
away down over his eyes. He asked me if I wasn't Hackler. I said I
wasn't, that my name was Hiram Duff. Then he says, 'I knew it, I knew
it! At last!' and sits down on the porch. I says, 'At last, what?'
and he says something about a nugget of gold. He acted awful
mysterious like, and finally he asks me if I'd like to own half of a
big nugget of gold. I told him I certainly would."

"And then?" asked Sam, as the old miser paused to take a bite of bread
and meat.

"Then he told a queer story about a nugget of gold brought down to this
place from Alaska. He was very mysterious, and at last he said the
nugget was right down in my cellar, and if I'd dig it up fer him he'd
give me