we must take leave of our motor boat chums, in
the belief that the record of their adventurous dash for the Dixie cup
may have proved pleasant reading to our boys, who will be only too glad
to meet them once again in the succeeding volume of this series, now
published under the name of "The Motor Boat Boys on the St. Lawrence;
or, Solving a Mystery of the Thousand Islands."

Shortly after the return of the club from their Mississippi cruise Jack
and Jimmie had the pleasure of being invited over to take dinner with
Mr. Gregory, the president of the Waverly bank. He gave them a copy of
a resolution of thanks passed by the board of directors after his
return with all the missing funds and securities that had been stolen.

There were also two checks, each of twenty-five hundred dollars, for
the boys, Jack having insisted that it must be share and share alike
between himself and Jimmie.

The boys deposited their money in a savings bank, where it would lie at
compound interest, and be handy in case they were in need of funds at
any future time.

THE END.

AN AWAKENING AT ALVIN.

Alvin is a small town in eastern Illinois, a short distance north of
Danville, and is a junction of a branch of the Wabash system with the
Chicago & Eastern Illinois railroad. The place is large enough to
stand the racket of a small brass band, but not of sufficient
consequence to support a hotel or bakery. It was evident that either
the postal clerk running on the Wabash branch or some person in the
Alvin post-office was stealing ordinary letters and rifling registers.

After a two-hours' consultation on the case by a committee of three,
Henshaw, "Judge" Bedell, and myself, it was unanimously decided that
the work was not being done by the postal clerk. It was too well
performed. No living being on a railroad train, by any known or
unknown art, could cut and reseal a registered package envelope as
artistically as these had been cut and resealed. There was no record
of any work of the kind that approached it.

Could it be the postmaster at Alvin? It certainly had that appearance,
but he was a man who seemed as far above a crime of this kind as
conception could conceive. He had not been disturbed. No one had
written to him and nobody had called. His suspicions, if he had any,
had never been aroused. But there was certain information about the
office we must possess, and we must know more about him and his
methods.