ng it done, must have rifled his pockets and found one set. He
even had time to look through them and discover that that set was
incomplete. Then, on seeing Clodis's trunk go aboard the 'Restless'
with the injured man, Dalton guessed that the remaining papers might
be in the trunk. That was why Dalton decided to leave the 'Constant.'
But your flat refusal to let him go down into the cabin, where the
baggage had been taken, foiled the fellow at that point. Then, fearing
that he would run into me, and that I might even resort to violence,
Dalton hailed that schooner, the 'Black Betty,' and made his momentary
escape."

"No doubt," interposed Halstead, "Dalton has had plenty of chance to
put _his_ set of the stolen papers in safe hiding. But isn't it barely
likely that he had already engaged Captain Dave Lemly to be hanging
about in these waters with that little black schooner?"

"Wholly likely," nodded Mr. Seaton, thoughtfully. "However, boys, I
have trusted you with as much as my very life is worth in telling you
all this. I would rather lose my life than see my friends, as well as
myself, beaten in this great diamond game. As the matter now stands,
Dalton has won the first step, but he hasn't enough knowledge to
enable his employer, Terrero, to locate my precious find. I can
duplicate the missing papers, and the other set, which I have here
secure, I must also send to Rio Janeiro by some other most trusted
messenger, should Clodis, poor fellow, die, or prove unfit to make
another attempt."

"And do you think, sir, that there's only one honest man on earth?"
asked Tom Halstead, in considerable surprise.

"There are several men that I _believe_ to be honest," returned the
owner of the bungalow, "yet only one that I know to be _honest_, and
who possesses at the same time the judgment to undertake a mission
like the one I have been telling you about."

"Then it won't really do Dalton any good to start for Brazil unless he
can get hold of the contents of the other set of papers?" Halstead
asked, after a pause of a few moments.

"Not until the fellow can get his clutches on the papers that I have
secretly locked in that closet over there," confirmed Mr. Seaton. "And
I have told none but you trustworthy youngsters that the other set
_is_ hidden in such an easy place to get at."

Then, as though struck by a thought, Powell Seaton crossed the room,
drawing his key-ring from a pocket. He fitted the right key to the
door,