reet, and soon came to Mr. Bunker's real estate
office. He hurried inside, followed by the children.

Mr. Bunker looked behind the door in the little room where he had his
desk. The office was made up of three rooms, and in the large, outer one,
were several clerks, writing at desks. Some of them knew the two little
Bunker children and nodded and smiled at them.

"Where's that old coat of mine I sometimes wear?" asked Mr. Bunker of one
of his clerks, when the office door had been opened but no garment was
found hanging behind it.

"Do you mean that ragged one?" asked the clerk, whose name, by the way,
was Donlin--Mr. Donlin.

"That's the one I mean," said Mr. Bunker. "I stuck some real estate papers
in the pocket of that coat yesterday when I went out to the lumber pile
with Mr. Johnson, and now I want them. I must have left them in the pocket
of the old, ragged coat."

"If you did they're gone, I'm afraid," said Mr. Donlin.

"Gone? You mean those papers are gone?"

"Yes, and the old coat, too. They're both gone. If there were any papers
in the pocket of that old coat they're gone, Mr. Bunker."

"But who took them?" asked the real estate man, much worried.

"Why, it must have been that old tramp lumberman," answered the clerk.
"Don't you remember?"

"What tramp lumberman?" asked Mr. Bunker.

"It was this way," said Mr. Donlin. "After you went out to the lumber pile
with Mr. Johnson--and I saw you had on the old coat--you came back in here
and hung it up behind the door."

"And the valuable papers were in the pocket," said Mr. Bunker. "I remember
that."

"Well, perhaps they were," admitted the clerk. "Anyhow, you hung the
ragged coat behind the door. And just before you went home for the night
an old tramp came in. Don't you remember? He was red-haired."

"Yes, I remember that," said the children's father.

"Well, this tramp said he used to be a lumberman, but he got sick and had
to go to the hospital, and since coming out he couldn't find any work to
do. He said he was in need of a coat, and you called to me to give him
your old one, as you were going to get another. Do you remember that?"

"Oh, yes! I certainly do!" cried Mr. Bunker. "I'd forgotten all about the
tramp lumberman! And I did tell you to give him my old coat. I forgot all
about having left the papers in it. I was so busy talking to Mr. Johnson
that I never thought about them. And did the tramp take the coat?"

"He did, Mr. Bunker. And h