tion to the
chauffeur.

"We didn't lose much time, did we?" hailed Mr. Pollock, as the
first auto slowed up "Jump in, quick! Show us the way."

"I suppose there's some excitement down in Gridley, about this
time?" laughed Dick, as the two autos raced along once more.

"Not a bit," replied the editor. "And for the very simple reason
that no one knows that Dodge has been found."

"His family know it, of course?" queried Dick.

"No; not a word. Chief Coy kept it quiet, and asked me to do
the same. He didn't want the Dodge family all stirred up by false
hopes in case you had made a mistake. The silence will keep 'The
Evening Mail' from learning the news for a while. And I've had
our forms left standing. We're all ready to run out an extra
---in case you haven't made a mistake, Prescott," added Mr. Pollock
quizzically.

Dick smiled resignedly at this implied doubt. But the autos were
making fast time, and soon the machines had gone as far on the
way as they could be used.

"Now we'll have to get out and strike across country, through
the woods," Prescott called.

So far Dick had resolutely tried to keep out of his mind any thought
of that thousand-dollar reward. It sounded too much like "Blood
money" to take pay for helping any afflicted family out of its
troubles. Besides, it had been the glory of doing a piece of
bright newspaper work that had allured the two High School boys
at the outset.

"Yet a thousand dollars is---a thousand dollars!" Dick couldn't
help feeling, wistfully, as he piloted his party across fields
and through the woods. "A thousand dollars! Five hundred apiece
for Dave and me! What a fearful big lot of money! What we could
do with it, If we had it! I wonder whether it would be right
and decent to take it?"

Then, as he neared the place where he had left his chum on post
Dick Prescott found other and anxious thoughts crowding into his
mind.

Was Dave Darrin, staunch and reliable Dave---still there, on
post, and unharmed?

Was Theodore Dodge there? Were his captors still with him?

CHAPTER VI

THE SMALL SOUL OF A GENTLEMAN

A few minutes later all fears and doubts were dispelled.

Dave Darrin rose to greet the newcomers informing them, in a whisper,
that all was still well in the old shanty below.

He of the brogans and club heard a slight noise outside. Swiftly
he rose and darted to the door, ready to pounce.

But he beheld the policemen, with the newspa