was timid about being here alone?" asked Nestor, ignoring
the question.

"Yes, I think so. He was always nervous when dealing with the Tolford
heirs. I believe they threatened him. He brought his gun with him
to-night. You will find it in a drawer of the desk if the assassin did
not take it."

"Where were the Tolford papers usually kept?"

"At the deposit vaults. I brought them over this afternoon."

"See if you can find them now."

Fremont went to the safe and then to the desk, from which he took the
packet of papers he had previously seen Nestor examining. It was a
sheet from this packet that the Wolf Patrol leader had copied. He
passed the large envelope containing the papers over to the other.

"What occurred when these papers were last left in this office over
night?" Nestor asked, and Fremont, a sudden recollection stirred by the
question, replied that there had been an attempt at burglary the last
time the Tolford estate papers were left there at night.

Nestor smiled at the startled face of the boy as he related the
occurrence, but made no comment. He was examining a bundle of letters
at the time, and ended by putting them into a pocket as if to carry
them away with him.

"They concern a proposed transaction in firearms and ammunition," the
patrol leader said, in answer to Fremont's inquiring look.

"Now, it appears to me," Nestor said, after concluding his examination
of the suite, "that you ought to keep out of the hands of the police
until this affair can be thoroughly looked into. Nothing can prevent
your arrest if you remain here. What about the proposed Black Bear
Patrol trip down the Rio Grande and over into Mexico?"

"I wouldn't like to run away," Fremont replied. "That would show guilt
and cowardice. I'd much rather remain here and take what comes."

"If you are arrested," the patrol leader went on, "the police, instead
of doing honest work in unraveling the mystery, will bend every effort
to convict you. They will not consider any theory other than your
guilt. Every scrap of evidence will be twisted and turned into proof
against you, and in the meantime the real criminal may escape. It is a
way the police have."

"It seems like a confession of guilt to run away," Fremont said.

"Another thing," Nestor went on, "is this. I have made a discovery
here--a very startling discovery--which points to Mexico as my field of
operations. I cannot tell you now anything more about this