change his tune after a bit. Lock
him up," he ordered the constable in charge, and the mysterious man,
as mysterious as ever, was led away.

"I'd like to ask one favor," he declared, halting a minute.

"You can ask, but I don't know as we'll grant it," spoke the squire.

"I've left a dog up in the old cabin," the man went on. "I guess you
know the place," he said to Sandy. "It's the cabin where the girls
took shelter from the rain. There's a dog tied there and he might
starve to death. I wish you'd feed him."

"I'll do that," responded Sandy, quickly. "I'll look after him, too.
He's entitled to some consideration, even if you ain't."

The man said nothing.

"Is it your dog?" asked the squire.

"I--I found him," answered the man, hesitatingly, "and he likes me. I
wouldn't want to see him starve."

"He shan't!" promised Sandy.

Then, as the queer character was locked up, Sandy started back for
Oak Farm, puzzling over the mysterious man and his object.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE MONEY BOX

"What did he say?"

"Who was he?"

"What was his object?"

These, and a dozen other questions like them, were showered on Sandy
Apgar when he arrived at the farm, some little time later, after
having seen the mysterious man safely locked up in the town jail.

"Now there's no use askin' me who he is, or what he wants," declared
the young farmer. "All I know is that I caught him. He won't talk."

"You did a good piece of work," declared Mr. Pertell, "and a day or
so of jail food may make the fellow change his mind. Well, it's too
late to do any moving pictures to-day. We'll put off the barn-burning
until to-morrow."

"Well, there's one thing we can't put off until to-morrow and that is
looking after that dog," remarked Sandy. "The poor fellow may be
frantic by now."

"May we go with you?" asked Alice.

"Surely," answered Sandy.

"Come along, Ruth--and anybody else who wants to," she added.

"Count me in!" exclaimed Paul.

"The same here," laughed Russ.

So the five set off for the lonely cabin.

"I can't understand how the dog came to be there, though," mused
Russ, as they walked on through the woods. "That fellow wasn't at the
cabin the last time we looked."

"But that was several days ago," Paul reminded him. "He may have been
staying there ever since, thinking we had given up going there.
That's very likely it."

And this proved to be the case. The man had apparently moved back
into the cabin. The