n looked
gloomily at Phil. "Well, you got the best of me," he said, shortly.

"How the best of you?" demanded the shipowner's son.

"I understand you found out about that spread."

"I did."

"Well, I'll pay for the damage done--as soon as I get the money. I
haven't any now--Dad's got too much to pay on Uncle Wilbur's account."
Nat swallowed another lump in his throat. "I'm sorry I did it now,
Phil, honest I am," he went on, brokenly.

"Well, if that's the case, let us drop the matter, Nat," was the
instant reply. "I don't believe in hitting a fellow when he is down.
You haven't got to pay me anything. The whole thing is past and
gone,--and that ends it."

"Thank you." Nat wanted to say something more, but his voice suddenly
broke and he turned away to hide his emotion, and then walked away.

"He's hit and hit hard," said Roger, in a low voice.

"And you did well to drop that matter, Phil," added Dave. "Maybe Nat
has learned a lesson he won't easily forget."

Dave was right about the lesson Nat Poole had learned. He was deeply
humiliated, both by the exposure concerning the feast and by what had
been learned concerning his insane uncle, and for a long time was
quite another boy.

It may be added here that at a new sanitarium, and under first-class
medical treatment, a marked change came over Wilbur Poole, and in less
than a year he was completely cured of his weakmindedness. With a
nurse as a companion he went into the country to rest both body and
mind, and later on came out into the world again as well as anybody.
Strange to say, he remembered nothing of calling himself the King of
Sumatra, nor of blowing up Jason Sparr's hotel. But others did not
forget about the blowing up, and the damage done had to be settled for
by Mr. Aaron Poole, who was his brother's guardian and manager of his
estate for the time being.

CHAPTER XXIX

A BIT OF EVIDENCE

"Dave, what do you make of this?"

"Well, to tell the truth, Phil, I don't think much of it."

"You don't think it is a clew?"

"Do you?"

"It's rather faint, I must confess."

"Oh, I don't think there is anything to it," declared Ben.

"There is something, but not a great deal," came from Roger. "I don't
see how you are going to follow it up."

This talk between the boys occurred after Dave, Phil, Ben, Roger, and
Buster had called upon Jason Sparr and the justice and insisted on
seeing the letter the hotel man had received which stated that t