"Why, yes, don't you remember my giving them to you? They were in a
large yellow envelope. I think you placed them away with your traction
company bonds."

"Why--er--so I did," stammered Randolph Rover. "But I--er--I
don't quite remember what I did with them." He scratched his head.
"I'll go and get my tin box."

He left the sitting room, and after being gone fully ten minutes
returned with a flat tin box, in which he kept some papers of value.

"The envelope doesn't seem to be here," he said, turning over the
contents of the box.

"Don't you remember it?" asked his brother, anxiously.

"Oh, yes, I remember it very well now. I saw it only a couple of days
before I went to Carwell with my bonds."

"Did you take that tin box to Carwell?" asked Tom.

"Yes."

"Was the envelope in it then?"

"I--er--I really don't know, Thomas. You see I was much upset,
thinking my bonds were no good. Perhaps the yellow envelope was in the
box, under the bonds."

"And did Sid Merrick have hold of the box?" demanded Anderson Rover.

"He may have had. The box was on a side table, and he walked around
the room and over to it several times."

"Then, unless you have the envelope now, Sid Merrick stole it," said
Anderson Rover, somewhat bitterly.

This announcement filled Randolph Rover with increased anxiety and as
a result he looked over all his private papers and ransacked his safe
and his desk from end to end. But the precious yellow envelope and its
contents were not brought to light.

"Merrick must have gotten hold of that envelope at the time he stole
the bonds," said Dick. "Maybe that is what made him trace up this
story of the treasure."

"That may be true, Dick," answered his parent.

Randolph Rover was greatly distressed over the disappearance of the
maps and drawings and upbraided himself roundly for not having been
more careful.

"Now that they are in this Merrick's hands he may make use of them,"
he said dolefully.

"Undoubtedly he will," answered Anderson Rover.

"If he has those papers and maps why did he send Cuffer and Shelley
here?" asked Tom.

"Most likely he thought he could get additional information."

"It seems to me the best thing we can do is to get after that treasure
without delay," said Dick. "If we don't, Merrick may form some kind of
a party, locate the island, and steal the gold and jewels from under
our very noses!"

"Oh, such things are not done in a day, Dick," said his father, with