ound a
bit, though you owned it would be mean. And I also chance to know that
you've been around every hour since you came back from the village."

"I'm blessed if I can make head or tail out of the game," admitted
Jerry. "I never was a good hand at guessing answers to riddles; and
say, let me tell you this thing is the toughest nut to crack that ever
came our way, eh, Frank?"

"It's going to bother us a heap, that's right, Jerry."

"But somehow I've got my little hunch, Frank, that in the end you'll
hit on the answer. It may take a lot of time and figuring, but I sure
believe you can do it."

"It may be Gilbert can help us out," suggested Will, just then.

"But how would he know anything about the job," objected Bluff, "when
he just got back from that golf tournament?"

Frank bent down and looked closely into the hole.

"All we know for certain is that somebody put that gold trophy cup in
here," he observed reflectively.

"Yes, and if the old plank could talk it'd be easy for us to get at
the truth. But then of course that isn't possible," Jerry remarked,
with a sigh.

"Help me to put the plank back in place again," said Frank, and after
this had been done he commenced to work at it as if to see whether one
person could manage to raise the heavy board.

"It can be done, you see," was what Frank said, as, managing to get
his fingers underneath, he raised the plank a little.

"Now what's the line you're figuring on, Frank?" demanded Jerry;
"because it's as plain to me as the nose on my face that you've struck
a strong clue."

"Yes, tell us what it is, won't you, Frank?" urged Will.

"Well, listen," the other began to say, slowly, as with upraised
finger he marked off each point in his theory. "Look back a little,
Will, to when we got home here after our high jinks up in the woods.
Don't you remember what we discovered the first thing?"

Will thereupon uttered an exclamation, while his face lighted up with
eagerness.

"That's so, Frank!" he exclaimed; "we knew somebody had been in here
after we started out the afternoon before. The door wasn't shut close,
and a chair lay on its side on the floor. Besides that, a number of
little things showed they had been disturbed. Yes, somebody had been
in the cabin!"

Jerry gave a shrill cry in which delight could be traced.

"It was that person, then, who hid the pesky old cup under the loose
plank; that goes without saying, Frank!" he announced, as though his