Sandy found Squire Blasdell having an interview with the strange prisoner.

"I'm putting him on the grill, and trying to find out something about him, but it's hard work," the Squire said to the young farmer.

"Yes, you might as well save your time," spoke the man. "I'll tell you nothing!"

"I've got news for you, Squire," said Sandy, a little later when the constable had been called in to take the stranger back to his cell.

"Looks like good news, by your face, Sandy," the lawyer replied. "You haven't been finding money for the mortgage; have you?"

"That's just what I have, Squire!" Sandy cried. "We just found Uncle Isaac's money box!"

"You did! 'Gosh all Hemlock' as the boys used to say. How was it?"

"We found the money box—with a lot of cash and papers in a secret room in the old barn we're goin' to burn for movin' pictures. We found the money box, all right."

There was a sound from the room where the prisoner sat. He started to his feet, and stepped to the grating which separated the cell from the apartment in which Sandy and the Squire were.

"You say you found Isaac 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 hidde............