ike to see his face when he reads it," chuckled Teddy. "By the
way, Fred, who shall write it, you or I?"

"You do it," said Fred. "He's always been sorer at you than he has at
me, and this will help square you with him. While you're doing that,
I'll write a line to mother."

"Think of me writing a letter to him that really pleases him!" laughed
Teddy. "It will be the first time in my life."

"We really have an awful lot to thank Uncle Aaron for, although he
didn't think he was doing us a favor," replied his brother. "If it
hadn't been for his insisting on it, we wouldn't have gone to Rally
Hall, we wouldn't have met Bill and Lester, and we wouldn't have had the
glorious times we've had so far this summer."

"And you wouldn't have thrashed Andy Shanks," grinned Teddy. "Don't
forget that when you're counting up the advantages."

"It was a satisfaction," grinned Fred. "But go ahead now with that
letter, or we won't get through by the time Bill and Lester come back."

Thus adjured, Teddy set to work. He wrote at first of ordinary matters,
keeping the tidbit till the last. When he came to that he wrote
exultingly, telling in glowing terms all they had found out and all that
they hoped to find in the future.

"Don't forget to tell him how Ross and his mother appreciate the way
he's acted toward them," suggested Fred, himself busy on the letter to
his mother.

"I'm glad you reminded me of that," said Teddy, making the addition. "I
was so wrapped up in the rest of it that I'd have surely forgotten
that."

At last both letters were finished and stamped ready for mailing.

"There!" remarked Teddy, with a sigh of relief, "I'll wager there'll be
some little excitement at home when they read that letter."

"If only we can follow it up with another one later on, telling that we
have actually found the chest of gold!" said Fred.

"If we do, you'll have the pleasure of writing it," declared Teddy.
"Turn about is fair play."

It was late on the following day when the letters reached the Rushton
home. The head of the house had not yet returned from his office in the
city, and the only people in the house, besides Martha, the colored
cook, were Mrs. Rushton and Mr. Aaron Rushton.

The latter had been detained at home by an attack of neuralgia, and was
in a bad temper. At his best, he could never be called a congenial
companion, but when to his naturally surly disposition neuralgia was
added, he became simply intolerable.