" confessed the old man, frowning. "I
found myself wishing my nephew would hasten his return, and take
possession of his prized cup. Then last night I had a bad dream in
which it seemed to me that thieves entered my house, and among other
things took away Gilbert's loving cup."

"Last night, you say, sir, this happened?" questioned Frank.

"Yes, and it gave me such a shock that when I awoke and remembered the
dream, the first thing I did was to hurry to the closet where two days
previously I had placed the gold cup. It was gone!"

"Of course you questioned your servants, sir, to learn if any one had
misplaced it?" asked Frank, bent on understanding everything.

"They were filled with consternation," continued Mr. Dennison. "I have
a housekeeper, a nurse, and two men employed on the place, no more.
One of them suggested that I send to the village and have Mr. Jeems
come to the house. While waiting for the constable I suddenly
remembered about meeting you boys yesterday, and like a flash it
struck me that you were guilty."

"That is a hard thing to say about us, Mr. Dennison," urged Will.
"What object could we have in taking your gold cup? We have plenty of
money, as you can discover by telegraphing to Centerville; and our
neighbors will vouch for our honesty."

"I do not know," said the old man, rubbing his forehead as though
puzzled. "Boys have always been a deep mystery to me. I never had one
to raise, for as a baby he was taken away from me; and I have always
felt it was that loss which unsettled--but it does not matter. I
believe you might have carried off the gold prize cup won by Gilbert
in the golf tournament last year, perhaps thinking it a lark. So I am
prepared to say to you here and now, if such was the case, and you
will immediately restore my property to me, I will say nothing about
it. If you refuse, it will go hard with you."

"But Mr. Dennison!" expostulated Frank, "we have never so much as set
eyes on any sort of a gold loving cup, so you can see how impossible
it would be for us to hand it over to you."

"And what is more," burst from the indignant Bluff, unable to hold
back any longer, "we insist on your searching all our duffle to see
whether we've got that cup hidden away."

"Yes," added Jerry, "I'm sure none of us would feel right if you
didn't examine every bit of our possessions. We're in just the same
position as Joseph's brethren when they were leaving Egypt, and
overtaken by a messen