e to us," put in
Sam grandiloquently.

"All right; I'll go on the hunt alone."

"No, Dick, of course we'll go," said Tom hastily. "When do you want to
start?"

"As soon as Mr. Barrow can get off."

But, in spite of Dick's anxiety to get off, the start was delayed for a
whole day, much to Tom and Sam's secret joy. John Barrow had to go to
Timber Run for things needed in the house by his wife and daughter.

When he returned there was a broad grin on his face.

"I've got news for you," he said to Dick, who had followed him down to
the barn. "There's another party arrived at Timber Run on the hunt fer
that treasure of old Goupert's."

"Another party. Who is it?"

"Didn't hear their names. There are two men and a young fellow o'
nineteen or twenty. They have hired Bill Harney fer a guide, and are
goin' to strike out fer the Pond to-morrow."

"Two men and a young fellow," mused Dick. "I'd like to know who they
are."

"One o' the men looked like a preacher or schoolmaster. He called the
young feller Thacher, or something like that."

"It wasn't Baxter?" queried Dick, struck by a sudden idea.

"That's the name--now I remember."

"And the man, did they call him Grinder--Jasper Grinder?" went on Dick
excitedly.

"If it wasn't Grinder, it was something like it. The party came east
from Ithaca."

"It's Dan Baxter and Jasper Grinder sure!" burst out Dick. "Well, this
beats the nation."

"Then you know the crowd?"

"I do--to my sorrow, Mr. Barrow. That Dan Baxter is the good-for-nothing
young fellow I told you of this morning, and Jasper Grinder was a
teacher at the Hall. We had a big row with him and he was kicked out in
a hurry by Captain Putnam. They are our enemies."

"Humph! That promises to make it interesting for you. But it's queer
they should come up at the same time you're here," went on the lumberman
thoughtfully.

"I might as well let you into a secret, Mr. Barrow. Will you promise to
keep it entirely to yourself?"

"Certainly, lad, if it's an honest secret."

"It is honest," answered Dick, and thereupon told of the adventure on
Needle Point Island and of the map on the table, and how it had
disappeared, and of the finding of the second map in the brass-lined
money casket later on.

"I am sure Dan Baxter has that other map," he concluded. "He wants that
treasure as badly as we do."

"Then I allow as how it will be a nip-an'-tuck race between you,"
returned John Barrow. "The fust to get the