c Apgar's hidden wealth?" he asked.

"Yes--but what is that to you?" inquired the Squire.

"A lot to me. The game is up now, and I'll confess everything. I've
been keeping still, hoping I could get out and find that box myself.
That's what my object has been in hanging around your farm," he went
on. "I was looking for that box myself. I--I thought maybe I might
get a reward if I located it."

This statement might be doubtful, but there was no way of disproving
it. The man might have been hoping only for a reward; but, on the
other hand, if he had found the wealth he might have kept it all for
himself.

"How did you come to know about this?" asked Squire Blasdell,
curiously. "Did you ever know Isaac Apgar?"

"Well, I don't know as you could exactly call it 'knowing' him," was
the slow answer, "seeing that he didn't know anybody himself, of
late years. I may as well tell you the whole story. My name is Monk
Freck, and I used to be a keeper in the state lunatic asylum where
Isaac Apgar was confined. That's how I knew him. I was his keeper!"

This was strange and startling news, but it explained many things.

"Go on," urged the Squire. "What about looking for his money?"

"That's it," added Sandy.

"I'll come to that. Though few folks knew it, Mr. Apgar had some
lucid moments during his insanity. He was as right as anyone at
times, but maybe only for a half hour or so at a stretch. And it was
in those times that he'd talk about the wealth he had hidden.

"I tried to get him to tell me just where it was, for I had heard
rumors that he had hidden quite a pile before he went crazy. But he
was either too cunning to tell me, or his mind failed him at the
critical moment. All I could learn was that it was hidden somewhere
about the corner of the old barn on the Apgar place.

"Well, he kept on getting worse until he died, and I made up my mind
to have a try for the money box. I gave up my job in the asylum, and
came here. And since then I've been looking around, trying to make
the discovery, and claim a reward.

"I spent a good deal of time in the barn, but I never thought there
could be a secret room. I thought it might be buried somewhere around
the place. I didn't have much chance to hunt, though, after the
moving picture people got here," he added.

"And was it you who made the queer noises in the barn, and scared the
girls?" asked Sandy.

"It was. I didn't mean to scare 'em, though. I was trying to crawl up