It was about one o’clock in the morning when they finally reached headquarters. Hardly a word had been spoken since the argument in the swamp. Scott opened the door and struck a light while Murphy guarded the prisoner. Scarcely was the lamp lighted than Mr. Graham appeared in the doorway in his pajamas.

“Well, by George!” he exclaimed, as he grasped Scott’s hand, “here you are at last. I have scoured the woods from Dan to Beersheba and was just about to order out a searching party to-morrow. Where under the sun have you been?”

“Scouring the woods same as you have,” Scott laughed, “but I guess Murphy can tell you better where we have been than I can. I did not know where we were most of the time. Come on in, Murphy, and bring your friend with you.”

The screen door opened and Qualley walked in closely followed by Murphy. He may have been very much humiliated, but it did not show in his face. He seemed to be the coolest one in the bunch.

“Why, hello, Qualley!” Mr. Graham exclaimed cordially. “I did not know that you were with the boys. Mrs. Murphy told me that you had gone with Burton,” he continued, shaking Murphy by the hand, “but she did not say anything about Qualley.”

“Guess she did not know about him,” Scott grinned, “he joined us later.”

“Well, let’s hear about it. Did you find any clue?”

“This one,” Scott answered, motioning toward Qualley; and at the same time Mr. Graham noticed the pistol in Murphy’s hand.

“What!” he cried in astonishment, “do you mean to say that this man is connected with the robbery?”

“Funny, isn’t it?” Murphy remarked. “First time I ever heard of a fellow robbing himself, informing on himself, and then helping to catch himself.”

Mr. Graham was too much astonished to say a word. He simply stared at Qualley open-mouthed. At last he recovered sufficiently to repeat his request to Scott to tell him about it.

Scott told the whole story of the long search through the swamp, the trip to the mill, the disappearance of the logs from the raft, the discovery of the canal, the elaborate plan that had been developed to manufacture the logs and dispose of the lumber, and all the wild adventures they had after they met the strangers at old St. Joseph’s.

Mr. Graham listened quietly, commenting or asking a question now and then when some point was not quite clear. He had heard of the mill which was shipping from the old port at St. Joseph’s but he had never dreamed of connecting it in any way with the disappearance of the logs from his own forest. He seemed rather amused and very much elated over the whole thing till Scott described Qualley’s attempt to murder them in the swamp on the way over from the station. Then his face suddenly hardened and he glared at Qualley with anything but a pleasant expression.

“So you would be a murderer as well as a thief,” he exclaimed contemptuously.

Qualley did not seem to be in the least abashed. “Now let me explain a few things to you, Mr. Graham, before you get a wrong impression of this thing. The story which these boys tell sounds reasonable enough and I have no doubt they think it is true, but they are altogether mistaken.”

Murphy gave a contemptuous grunt and Scott looked his indignation, but Qualley ignored them completely.

“First, in regard to this ridiculous story of my attempting to murder them. I might rather say that they attempted to murder me. I happened to remember that Murphy had been examining my revolver on the train; I had seen him load it and unload it once or twice and I thought that I better make sure that it was in working order. I took it out to examine it and just then Murphy whirled around and knocked me down without the slightest warning. When I came to he had my gun and made me come along here with him.”

“Sure I whirled and knocked ye down,” Murphy commented with an air of comfortable satisfaction. “I’d been listening for that same little click ever since I heard you talking over your murderous plans down there on the beach.”

“For that I don’t blame them,” Qualley went on plausibly. “I admit that I had a knowledge of what was going on over there at that mill all the time, but my connection with them was not criminal. Roberts was very bitter against them because he knew that his sh............