test crooks in all America.
Men of genius in the field of felony, and a few of them talented in
other lines. One chap a navigator, able to sail a ship round the Horn,
and yet he prefers to play the shell game at rural fairs. And Perky's on
board with old Eliphalet Congdon! Yes, sir; the old boy is right there
as safe as King Arthur when the dark barge bore him away to the sound of
wailing. Perky sent me a wire from Mackinac this morning saying that all
is well on our frigate. They have orders to hang around out there till I
signal them to come in. But, my dear Archie--"

He refilled his pipe and when he had it going to his satisfaction waved
his arm toward the camp.

"There's a queer business going on over there. Ruth told me at Rochester
that when I brought Edith up here I'd better leave the train at
Calderville, the first station south of Huddleston, and drive to Heart
o' Dreams Camp through the woods. Well, the road over there was only a
trail and I had a hard job getting through, but made it all right. Ruth
and Isabel were delighted with our success. That's all easy. But those
girls are in trouble."

"Well, hurry on!" said Archie, sitting up straight.

"Oh, that cousin of Isabel's is not a myth at all as I rather thought he
might be; and that money may be buried over there somewhere, you know.
And the cousin's laying himself out to annoy the camp in every way
possible, even going the length of trying to starve 'em out. There's a
stack of supplies at the Huddleston station that they can't move."

"You forget," cried Archie excitedly, "that there are laws even in the
wilderness! If that fellow's looking for trouble all we've got to do is
to telephone for the sheriff and land him in jail. The jails up in this
neck of woods are probably highly uncomfortable."

"I grant all that," said the Governor sprawling at ease. "But the
notoriety of the thing would kill the camp. Once it got into the
newspapers every father and mother who has a child out yonder would go
right up in the air. It would make a great first page story--buried
treasure--a war for hidden gold centered about a girls' camp. That whole
yarn about the haughty southerner planting his money in safe territory
till he saw which way the cat jumped is fruity stuff for our special
correspondent on the spot. No, Archie; ladies of quality like our Ruth
and Isabel must be protected from vulgar publicity, and we don't want
any sheriffs or newspaper reporters nosing