ith a
silly yarn. And yet there was Grandfather Crawford just as sober as you
ever saw anyone, and vouching for every word of it as true."

"Well, how on earth did the half of the map or the directions happen to
get in that field-glass case, without Steven Meredith, who carries the
same, knowing a thing about it?" asked Rob.

"This deposit was discovered by an old miner who never worked it, but
had samples of wonderfully rich ore, which he showed my grandfather at
the time he was rescued by my relative from being tortured by a couple
of halfbreeds who wanted to get the miner's secret. He gave grandfather
the half of the map, and directions he had on his person, and told him
where he would find the other half."

"Now it's beginning to look understandable," Tubby admitted. "The old
miner did that so if anybody got hold of him they wouldn't be able to
locate the secret mine--wasn't that it, Merritt?"

"Just what he had in mind," the other told him, "and of course the
injuries received in the fight carried the miner off eventually, leaving
my grandfather as his sole heir, if he could only lay hands on the other
half of that valuable little paper, for neither portion alone made any
sense.

"Gee! this is getting real interesting--if true!" ventured Tubby.

"Oh! it's a straight yarn, never fear," retorted Merritt without any
trace of ill feeling, however, for no one ever could quarrel with Tubby.
"And just about here is where this man Steven Meredith, as he calls
himself, breaks into the story. The old miner had told my grandfather
that for security he kept the other half of the chart, and the
directions how to find the treasure, hidden in the lining of the case
holding a pair of field-glasses that he had carried for years, as they
were of a special make and considered extra fine."

"And when your esteemed relative came to make a hunt for the said
glasses," remarked Tubby, anxious to show that he was following the
narrative closely, "why of course he found that Steve had got away with
them--is that the stuff, Merritt?"

"Great head, Tubby," chuckled the other, as if amused at this unexpected
smartness on the part of the stout boy. "You've said it, after a
fashion; for that was what really happened. The glasses were supposed,
along with other things owned by the old miner, to be in the charge of
an old and invalid sister in a small town. To that place my grandfather
went, armed with a paper which would give him possess