on them around the house.

"I want to know that I'll not be disturbed," he said.

"Found somethin'?" asked Jimmie.

"Look at the books," Ned replied.

Jimmie read half a dozen titles and cast the volumes aside.

"They don't look good to me," he said. "All about international law and
treaties!"

"Exactly!" Ned said, and then Jimmie opened his eyes.

"I'll bet there's been some of them statesmen livin' here!" the little
fellow almost whispered. "Say, do you think you have run 'em down at
last?"

"I don't know, son," was the reply. "Look on that table and see what
you discover."

"Bits of torn paper an' some red wax."

"The paper," Ned explained, "is parchment, such as is used in important
official transactions, and the wax is of the kind used by lawyers and
diplomats. Here is a seal!"

Ned's face turned pale as he looked at the seal. Could it be possible
that the nation to which it belonged had been engaged in this
conspiracy? It did not seem possible.

Ned put the telltale seal away in his pocket without permitting Jimmie
to see it and picked up some loose pieces of sealing wax which lay on
the table near where the seal had been found.

"Do you see the fine work done with the seal which made this
impression?" Ned asked.

"Fine seal!" Jimmie replied. "Was that stamp made by the seal you just
hid away?"

"No," Ned replied, "thank God it was not!"

Wrapping the wax very carefully, so that it would not crumble, and
securing every bit of paper in sight, Ned made a little bundle and
stowed it away in a pocket. Then he began a search of the rug on the
floor.

Jimmie was on his knees, in a moment.

"Finders keepers?" he asked.

"That depends!" Ned said.

"Well, some one's been payin' out money here," the boy went on. "See
what I found!"

What he had found was a gold piece of the denomination of twenty
dollars. And it bore the stamp of the American eagle!

CHAPTER XVII

BOY SCOUTS IN A LIVELY MIXUP

Ned took the gold piece into his hand and examined it.

"It is American money, sure enough," he observed, "and was made at the
San Francisco mint."

Frank and Jack now joined the little group in the library and regarded
the piece with interest.

"What does it mean?" Frank asked.

"Why," Jack volunteered, "it means that some American man is mixed up in
this dirty affair."

"Perhaps that gold came out of the wreck," Jimmie suggested. "Say, are
we ever goin' back after that gold