fit to be a member the corps
of United States Military Academy cadets. Will you come with
me and look for the proof?"

"I suhtinly will, suh," replied the Virginian promptly.

"If Anstey will go on a job like that," muttered Dunstan, "then
I guess it's a proper undertaking for gentlemen."

"I thank you, suh," nodded the Virginian gravely.

"Then come along, all hands," begged Greg. "If we find anything
of the sort that I expect to, then there will be witnesses enough
to prove the find to the satisfaction of the class and of the
corps."

Feeling like so many conspirators, this committee of five moved
along to Dodge's room. Greg went a little ahead and tapped.
Had Dodge been there it would not have interfered seriously with
his plans. But there was no answer, so Holmes pushed open the
door, turning the gas half on and lighting it.

"This afternoon," declared Greg, "I dropped a stub of a pencil
in our room. It fell on the bricks of the floor of the fireplace,
and rolled into the space between two of the bricks. In getting
that pencil out I got on the back of my hand the smear that you
all saw.

"Fellows, I've been thinking for weeks and months about that smear
on the back of Mr. Dodge's hand. When I saw the one on the back
of my own hand it occurred to me at once how Mr. Dodge might have
got that black spot on his hand. It came over me, all in a flash.
I knew that Brayton and Mr. Dodge would be out of the way this
evening at the hop. Dodge has a hiding place somewhere in this
room. From the past history of the Academy we know that favorite
hiding places have always been under the bricks of the fireplaces.
For use in the winter time the hiding place must be in the outer
edge of the brick flooring, close up to where it joins the boards.
In such a hiding place the fire wouldn't harm the hidden objects.
Now, some of you might help me to see what we can find."

Anstey, with a gravely judicial air, knelt beside Holmes. Together
they tapped back and forth over the bricks with rulers taken from
the study tables.

"This is the brick that hides the place, I reckon, suh," announced
the Virginian rather deliberately.

"Let's pry it up, then," suggested Greg.

But the brick resisted rather strenuous efforts.

"That's odd, in itself," muttered Holmes. "Almost of the bricks in
these fireplaces come up as easily as a naval apprentice's dinner.
Anse, we've got to work at this brick until we have loose. It
su