ed, holding up a curiously engraved gold watch.

"It looks like Dr. Bentley's," replied Dave Darrin, eying the timepiece.
"I saw it often enough when I had diphtheria and he was taking my
pulse."

"Yes; it's Dr. Bentley's," glowed Dick. "Won't he be the happy man,
though?"

"He will if we manage to get it back to him," assented Tom dryly.

Then a dozen rings, some of them set with gems, and all tied on a
string, came to light. There were half a dozen boxes containing jewelry;
these boxes undoubtedly had been stolen from women in stores or on the
street. A few more rather valuable articles came to light, and then
Dick, after opening one jeweler's box and looking inside, emitted a
whoop of wild joy.

"This must be the very watch that Fits stole from our parlor--the watch
intended for my Christmas present," Prescott cried. "Yes, sir; I'll
wager this is my watch."

But at last Dick put it aside with the other loot, and then applied
himself to emptying the hole of its few remaining treasures.

"There must be five or six hundred dollars' worth of stuff in the lot,"
guessed Tom.

"More than that," said Dave.

"So, now, of course, you fellows can guess who hid the stuff here," Dick
went on. "It was Mr. Fits who stole Dr. Bentley's watch, and who stole
mine, too. So Mr. Fits must have hidden here all this stuff, which
represents Mr. Fits's stealings."

"Then all I have to say," observed Tom, "is that if our friend Fits
would apply the same amount of industry to honest work he'd be a
successful man."

"Until the day before Christmas," Dick continued, "Fits had at least two
confederates, whom we helped to put in jail. Probably this stuff was
stolen by them all, and then hidden."

"And that was why Fits came back here, and was so anxious to get us
out," muttered Dave. "Now, I begin to understand why Fits wanted a
hiding place for his plunder even more than for himself. He wanted to
leave the stuff in this lonely cabin, and be sure it was safe, until he
could find a place where he could sell it. Naturally our coming here
upset Mr. Fits's plans, and so bothered him into the bargain."

While the other boys were busy with examining the other pieces of loot,
Dick took many an alternate glance at his mother's fan and his own
watch.

"I wish we could get this back to Gridley at once, and turn it over to
the rightful owners," sighed Greg.

"That wouldn't be the way to go about it, though," Dick responded.

"Why not?"