"Right you are," returned the sheriff, and gave orders to his men to that effect.
As silently as so many ghosts the posse and Dick and Sam hurried along the woodland trail in the direction of the old stone mansion. Soon they came in sight of the place. As they did so Tom came to meet them.
"Anything new?" questioned Dick, in a whisper.
"The men folks are in the sitting room of the place," answered Tom.
"In the sitting room? As late as this? Would't you think they'd retire," said Sam.
"They are quarrelling," went on Tom, and now he was chuckling.
"Quarrelling? Over what?"
"Over the way they are going to divide the money they squeeze out of dad and Mrs. Stanhope and Mrs. Laning. They've got it all cut and dried that they are going to get forty or fifty thousand dollars before they send Nellie and Dora back to school, and Crabtree and Sobber want the lion's share, while Koswell and Larkspur and that other chap, the doctor,—if he is one—want just as much. They are at it hot and heavy."
"What of the girls?"
"They must still be in the upper room, and the
