s only taking an inventory of his surroundings, so that if there
should happen to come a sudden midnight alarm he at least would know
what to do in order to lead the way out of the barn by a rear exit.

"Smart boy, Tubby," Merritt told him, when he heard him say this; and it
always pleased the fat scout to receive a word of praise, possibly
because the occasions when he deserved any were few and far between.

They lay in the sweet hay, and talked in low tones. No one else seemed
to be pushed so hard for a place to sleep as to come to the barn, for
which all of the chums professed to be very grateful.

In the course of the conversation, which had more or less bearing on
their strange mission abroad, the subject of the precious paper came to
the front. Perhaps it was Merritt himself who mentioned it, because the
matter was frequently in his thoughts, and he seemed to be growing more
and more anxious, the nearer they drew to the place where he anticipated
finding Steven Meredith.

"You've never really told us who this man is, Merritt, and how he comes
to be wandering around the world with a paper belonging to your
grandfather hidden away under the lining of the case containing his
field-glasses," Rob remarked while Tubby, who had just been yawning, sat
up and seemed to be wide awake again.

"That's a fact, Merritt," he chimed in. "If you don't object, why, we'd
like to be told."

"The fact of the matter is," replied Merritt, "I don't know a great deal
more than you do, come to think of it. Grandfather Crawford comes from
old Scotch stock, so he's a canny sort of an old gentleman. No use of my
telling you about the way he treated my father when he was a young man
and married against the wishes of his parents, because that you already
know. It's about the paper, also of Steven Meredith you're curious to
hear?"

"Yes, go along, please," begged Tubby.

"The paper is a little scrap, he told me, on which are marked certain
directions as how to find a certain rich gold mine out in our Southwest
country. Grandfather has one-half his paper, and the other half is
lodged in the cover of that field-glass case--if the man is still
carrying it with him."

"That gets more and more queer, I must say," grumbled Tubby, looking as
though he could not untangle the knot that was presented to him.

"Yes, if anybody had told it to me," admitted Merritt, "I'd have made up
my mind right away he was trying to pull the wool over my eyes w