y the singular conduct
of old Spooner.

Between the two rooms there was a door, one panel of which was cracked.
No longer bent and shaking, the man in the adjoining room was standing
with one ear pressed close to the split panel. In spite of the fact that
he had seemed quite deaf while talking with the Mexican lad, his
appearance just now was that of one listening intently.

Shortly after Hagan left, Felipe heard the door of old Spooner's room
open and close, following which there was a faltering, shuffling step on
the stairs and the thump, thump, thump of a cane, growing fainter until
it could be heard no longer.

"The old man has gone out to beg," thought Jalisco.

After leaving the house, old Spooner faltered along the street, turned
several corners, and finally arrived at another house, which he entered.

Ascending one flight of stairs, he unlocked a door and disappeared into
a hall room, closing and locking the door behind him.

Fully thirty minutes passed before that door was unlocked and opened
again.

Out of that room stepped a tall, straight, clear-eyed, manly looking
youth, who bore not the remotest resemblance to the tottering old man
who had entered.

This youth ran down the stairs, left the house, and turned westward,
swinging away with long strides.

"Merriwell," he muttered, as he walked, "I almost believe you could have
been a successful detective had you chosen that profession."

Some time later he arrived at a Broadway hotel and found assembled in a
suite of rooms several persons, who greeted his appearance with
exclamations of great satisfaction.

"We were getting worried about you, Frank," declared Inza, hurrying to
meet him and giving him both her hands. "We had almost decided that
something serious had happened to you."

"Didn't know but this new freak with the snowy hair had gobbled you up,"
said Bart Hodge.

"Told you he was all right," grunted Bruce Browning, who was lounging on
the most comfortable chair in the place.

"You were so weary you didn't want to bother about going to make
inquiries for him," said Elsie Bellwood. "Mrs. Medford was on the point
of applying to the police."

"According to all the stories I hear," put in Mrs. Medford, "I believe
it best for you to get out of this wicked city just as soon as possible,
Frank."

Frank laughed.

"If everything goes well," he declared, "we'll be ready to start by day
after to-morrow."

"Tell us just where you have been