er for you," promised Danny Grin lightly.

"And is Mr. Hibbert a detective, too?" asked Tom Reade.

"No," replied Colquitt, with great promptness, while Mr. Hibbert,
grinning sheepishly, added:

"I haven't brains enough for that, I guess. But, Master Holmes,
please tell me, to satisfy my last doubt. Have you any such marks
as Mr. Colquitt has described?"

"I never noticed such marks on myself," Greg replied.

"He hasn't them," Dave interjected, "or the rest of us would have
noticed the marks when we've been in swimming."

"Then your last idea that Gregory Holmes is the missing young
man must vanish now, my dear Mr. Hibbert," smiled Mr. Colquitt.

"I'm vanquished," confessed Alonzo Hibbert, with a sigh. "I'm
no good at anything. I wouldn't even make a detective."

"I must leave you now," suggested Mr. Colquitt, rising. "I must
wire to---er---to my client. Poor man, he will be greatly disappointed."

As the detective rose and passed outside Hazelton leaned over
to murmur to young Holmes:

"Don't you wish it had turned out that you were the million-dollar
kid?"

"Not if I had to give up my father and mother," Greg replied,
with great promptness.

"I seem to be a fool at everything," sighed Alonzo Hibbert in
disgust.

"No; I would say, sir," suggested Tom Reade, "that you made the
mistake of proceeding on one sign, instead of looking for all three."

"Have another ice!" urged Mr. Hibbert, brightening at once. "You
have set me straight. I wasn't a fool, after all---merely too
swift"

But the boys shook their heads as they murmured their thanks.

So they were about to rise when a voice called cheerily behind
them:

"Stay where you are, fellows. We'll have an ice cream all around."

"Dick!" cried five eager voices at once, as Prescott came smilingly
to join them. Then their eyes all framed the same question, which
their lips refused to utter.

"Did you sell the canoe?"

As Dick glanced inquiringly at young Mr. Hibbert, Dave Darrin
presented him. Dick also learned that Hibbert had been a willing
host to five of the chums.

"Now, you'll turn about and eat an ice cream with us, won't you,
Mr. Hibbert?" urged young Prescott.

This the young man consented to do, though, as soon as the dainty
had been disposed of, he begged to be excused that he might go
and have further talk with Tom Colquitt.

"You sold the canoe, I think, Dick?" said Tom, as soon as their
late host had left them.

"Yes