pressive face of their new friend clouded immediately.

"I'm sorry to say that it's so, Max," he admitted. "Those envelopes of
the letters I found in his coat gave it away. The temptation was too
great for Robert, who always showed considerable jealousy, because our
uncle rather favored me. And so when he learned in some fashion, I'm
sure I don't know how, that I was in a fair way of carrying out the
provisions of uncle's will, he must have determined to try and spoil my
plans."

"Oh! the cur!" snapped the indignant Steve, now seeing the depravity of
the miserable plotter in full. "I'm glad that some of you managed to
give him a few good licks before he broke away. And I'll regret it to
the last day of my life that I didn't get a chance to show him."

"And b-b-believe me!" exclaimed Toby, with a violent effort, "he's going
to carry the scratches I g-g-gave him on his f-f-face for a w-w-while.
If I'd known that he was Roland's c-c-cousin I'd have dug a h-h-heap
d-d-deeper, too!"

"I'm only hoping," Roland, as we must call him after this, since he
dropped the Grimes family when he admitted his identity, said, "this
will teach him a lesson, and that he'll leave me alone from now on. But
Robert is a terribly persistent fellow, and I'm afraid his failure may
only spur him on to trying again."

"Never mind, Roland," said Steve, dwelling almost affectionately on the
name, now that he knew the one who claimed it, "we're going to stand
back of you through thick and thin. If those fox pups don't eventually
get to their prospective purchaser, we'll have to know the reason why.
Isn't that so, fellows?"

"My sentiments exactly," said Max, promptly.

"Me, too!" exclaimed Toby.

"Ditto here!" added Bandy-legs.

"I want to say this," observed Roland with a suspicious moisture in his
fine eyes, "it was the luckiest hour of my life when I ran across this
bunch of royal good fellows. Why, only for you I'd as like as not have
been _ruined_; because alone and single-handed I never could have stood
out against two clever and unscrupulous schemers. And I'll never forget
it as long as I draw breath."

"There'll be some people mighty sorry, though, I bet you," Bandy-legs
hastened to add, as he looked roguishly at Roland; "by which I mean
those poor Grimeses, who have lost tonight the brightest star in the
whole big Grimes constellation. Why, I can just picture how they'll all
mourn--Uncle Hiram, Uncle Silas, Uncle Nicodemus, and all