out that he's doomed to go to prison, and drag the family name in the
dust if she refuses. But she told me she was resolved not to take a
single step until she had my report."

"Then it's goodbye to all those castles in Spain that Maurice has been
building on the strength of deceiving his rich aunt," chuckled Steve, as
though highly amused at the way things were turning out, and proud of
the part he and his chums had taken in the game.

"Are you satisfied with what you've learned so far, Jack?" Toby wanted
to know with an anxious look on his face. "I certainly do hope you won't
be wanting to skip out of this the very first thing, and breaking up our
vacation camp before we've gotten settled down and hardly more than
started enjoying it."

Jack smiled at the earnest manner of the other.

"That would be too cruel, Toby," he assured him. "If I thought it
necessary that Miss Haydock should know what we've learned, why, I'd go
myself and tell her, leaving you fellows here to keep camp while I was
gone."

Thereupon the cloud gathering on Toby's face was suddenly dissipated,
and he grinned happily again.

"Oh! I hope you won't even have to think of doing that, Jack," Steve
remarked.

"I don't see any necessity just yet," Jack decided, "and unless some new
and very important developments come along I think I can hold off until
we all go back home. Besides, I hope to do a little more looking around,
and perhaps take more pictures while I'm up here."

"I get you, Jack!" cried the alert Toby. "Chances are that you're making
up your mind to drop in and see what they're doing over where those
blasts came from. How about that for a guess, Jack?"

"You hit the bull's-eye plum centre that time, Steve," laughed Jack;
"because while my plans are not exactly complete, I have that in mind.
But we'll talk it over again. There's no particular hurry, you see, if
we expect to stay here ten or twelve days longer. The more time we take
to enjoy ourselves the better it would look, in case a spy was hovering
about, trying to learn just what we wanted up here."

"One thing sure, Jack, I hardly think we'll be able to do much tomorrow,
because all the signs point to our having wet weather," Steve went on to
say, with the air of a prophet who could read the signs about as well as
the head of the weather bureau at Washington.

"There is a feeling in the air that way," admitted Jack. "I've noticed
it myself even if I didn't say anything a