ns in the journey to the Rio Grande. Three times Fremont was left alone at junction towns while Nestor took short trips on cros

ed by them. Still, one delay seemed to lead to another, as if new conditions were developing. The movements of the boys, too, were carefully guarded, s

mingly useless journeys back and forth. At various times during the journey he secured newspapers containing wild and improbable theories of the crime which had been committed i

ty looking like a military encampment. Soldiers wearing the khaki uniforms of Uncle Sam were everywhere, martial music fil

of it all forced Fremont's troubles from his mind. The boys dined at a restaurant and then Fremont went to a comfortable room wh

w complication which the patrol leader was having a hard time puzzling out. It may well be imagined

is that we've got to lose ourselves in the mountains across the river as soon as we can do so. We can g

visions into the mountains

ooking and eating them. The Sierra del Fierro mountains, where we are goi

ollowed. Anyway," he continued, more cheerfully, "I shall enjoy the sight of a mountain campfire again. We don't have to take any match

the latter are out for the $10,000 reward. As you suspected, we have been shadowed from New York. More than once I threw the shadows off the track, but

eeting a different sort of danger. I can't stand this lurking peril-this obsession that some one may spring out upon m

silence, and the

now. The police over there are said to be in close touch with those here, and to be brutal in their han

about the three now, but one is to get you out of the way until the real criminal is discove

Mexican mine-a very valuable mine which has been lost for any number of years. I remember of hearing Mr. Cameron discuss the matter with one of the heirs. The lost mine seems to be the most va

ing after the lost m

why did you copy

that I copied t

pied so

mine. I thought it might be of use to us, a

d the crime to get the description? That he copied it, and left the original paper there to throw off suspicion? That the man we are in quest of will

Tolford estate, if you must know, but I may be entirely mistaken. Still, we must remember that on the occasion when the Tolford

looking into. Now I begin to see what you mean by coming this way, and why y

d I never form theories. One thing I know, and that is that we shall find f

was the che

tor, "you might take the sugge

sight, and a lost mine to

in to bring to punis

iled Fremont. "I wish I knew about that third motive. I u

ver, the secret is not mine. Important issues are at stake, and I must

worry about me. I'll get it out of

s he left the little hotel he imagined that he saw men bearing unmistakable stamp of plain-clothes policemen han

ns, for he had indeed been tracked from the hotel, and had been obliged to do a great deal of walking in order to leav

lips, for the place was dark and silent. When he turned on the lights, however,

r near the head of the bed. Those were not the clothes Fremont had worn. These

f Fremont, but of Jimmie McGraw. Nestor started back in wonder. How had the boy come there, and where was Fremont? Had he b