uh mean apushin' in on me thetaways?"

"You're my prisoner, Silas Westover. Don't try to run, or it will be the
worse for you. I have plenty of help and your place is surrounded. Wash
and Brad are already in irons. Hold up your hands!" came in the stern
voice of Mr. Pender.

Of course the man who had called himself Solus Smithers did not offer any
resistance, and he was quickly made a prisoner. When he found later that
one man, assisted by a parcel of Boy Scouts, had captured three desperate
characters, he was about as mad as a hornet; but it was too late then
to remedy matters.

Paul and Jack immediately started a search for the missing Willie Boggs.
The youngster was discovered fast asleep on a cot, just as the man who
had found him in the woods had lain him down.

And when Mr. Pender saw this he nodded his head, and declared that
because Solus had shown that he possessed a tender heart, for all his
assumed fierceness, he would make it as easy for him when the case to
trial, as he could.

After Mr. Pender had searched the place, and accumulated what evidence
he needed, all of them got into the car, Willie still sound asleep. Then
they started over the road for Stanhope.

The town was reached at just one o'clock. At police headquarters Mr.
Pender delivered his three prisoners for safe keeping. After that Paul
again took the red car out to bring in the remainder of the patrol, for
they were miles away from home.

CHAPTER XXX

FOUND OUT AT LAST

"Why, hello! Paul! I didn't hear you ring. Did you fly in through the
window?"

Jack sprang up from the easy chair he had been occupying in the library
of his own home, when his chum suddenly appeared before him.

It was about ten o'clock on the morning following the hunt for the lost
boy; and the remarkable occurrences that had accompanied it up in the
woods above Stanhope.

"Oh! you know I told you I might slip in by the back door this time; and
that is just what I did," replied Paul, speaking in an unusually guarded
tone.

"That's a fact!" exclaimed Jack, beginning to show signs of excitement;
"and I remember that at the same time you promised--"

"I'd try my best to solve the puzzle about those disappearing old coins,
and tell you to-day," said his chum, breaking in. "Well, perhaps I may,
though my most promising clue has turned out a bit of a fizzle."

"But you have another up your sleeve, you said?" continued Jack, eagerly.

"Yes, I believe I ha