es on the bridge, Ralph would have continued
his search still farther. But already several persons had passed over and
dropped their pennies on the counter of the little office, and now a horn
was blowing from the deck of the little schooner sailing up Silver Lake.

So telling his mother that he would be back as soon as possible, he hurried
to the bridge. Half-a-dozen boats wished to go through the draw, including
a string of canal boats, and it was nearly noon before he could leave the
spot.

Then Bob Sanderson came around the cove in the sloop _Magic_. Beside him
sat Horace Kelsey. The repairs to the _Magic_ were now completed, and the
little craft was practically as good as new.

"Hallo, Bob, come up here and tend for me, will you?" shouted Ralph, as
soon as he caught sight of the old man.

"All right, Ralph! What's up?"

"I must go home," returned the young bridge tender, and when the sloop was
tied up near by, he told the two occupants of what had occurred.

"I never heard the like!" burst out Bob Sanderson. "If it was really that
Paget boy, he ought to have a whip across his back!"

Horace Kelsey accompanied Ralph to the cottage to see the extent of the
damage done. The young man from New York was also of the opinion that the
guilty party ought to be brought to swift justice.

"But no one saw Percy, and we cannot prove anything," said Mrs. Nelson.

"Perhaps we can," said Ralph. "I'm going to hunt him up, if that is
possible."

Horace Kelsey did not feel able to remain longer at Westville, and so he
left when Ralph did. Before he went, however, he insisted on presenting
Ralph with another twenty-dollar bill, to replace the one lost.

"Here is my card," he said, on leaving. "If you ever come to New York, drop
in and see me."

"Thank you; I shall be very much pleased to," replied Ralph.

He noted that Horace Kelsey was in the insurance business, with an office
on Broadway, and then he placed the address carefully away in a drawer of
the old-fashioned desk in the sitting-room.

"Who knows, but if I am discharged here I may some day go to New York,"
thought the young bridge tender.

After taking another look about the cottage and through the wood, Ralph
started up the road leading to the center of the village. Presently he came
across a young man named Edgar Steiner, who was one of Percy Paget's
intimate friends.

"Steiner, do you know where Percy Paget is?" he asked.

"Percy has gone to Silver Cove