h what has been taken from my house?" demanded Mr. Rollins,
acting as though half tempted to immediately pounce upon the treasure,
and take possession, depending on Paul and his scouts to back him up if
Jo showed fight.

"I sure do; and I know what I know, Mr. Rollins!" declared the farmhand,
with flashing eyes, as he pushed between the table and the irate farmer;
while his little mother wrung her clasped hands, and moaned pitifully to
see the strange thing that was happening there under her own roof.

It looked for a moment as though there might be some sort of a rumpus;
and Seth even began to clench his hands as if ready to take a prominent
part in the same; but as had happened more than a few times before when
the storm clouds gathered over the scouts, Paul's wise counsel
intervened to prevent actual hostilities.

"Wait a minute, Mr. Rollins," he called out. "This thing ought to be
easily settled, one way or another. You understand that queer things may
happen sometimes, and there is a chance that two sums of money may be
almost exactly alike. Now, if Jo here has inherited a nice little
fortune, he ought to be able to prove that to us by showing letters, or
some sort of documents. How about that, Jo?"

To the surprise, and pleasure as well, of the scoutmaster, Jo's face
immediately expanded into a wide grin, and he nodded his head eagerly.

"Say, maw, what did you do with that letter we had from the law firm
over in Indianapolis, tellin' me to come and claim my property, and to
bring along something to prove that I was the said Jo Albion Davies
mentioned in Aunt Selina's last will and testament? In the drawer, you
mean? All right, I'll get it; and let these gentlemen read the same. And
there's Squire McGregor as went up with me to identify me to the
lawyers, he'll tell you he saw me get this money from the bank, just
before they closed this arternoon. There she is; now read her out loud,
young feller."

CHAPTER VIII

"WELL, OF ALL THINGS!"

"All right; I'll be only too glad to do the same," said Paul, as he
accepted what appeared to be a well thumbed letter from Jo.

One glance he gave at the same, and then a load seemed to have been
lifted somehow from his boyish heart; because, after he had seen how Jo
Davies loved that dear little white-haired mother, he would have felt it
keenly did the circumstances make it appear that the young farmhand were
guilty of robbing the man who trusted him so fully.