The little party entered the main room of the lodging house. Mr. Wilding pressed forward, close behind the detective. Through the office window he caught sight of a boy scrubbing the floor. There was something dejected in the lad's appearance. Mr. Wilding looked a second time. Then he called out:

"Ned! My boy!"

"Father!" cried Ned, and an instant later he was locked in Mr. Wilding's embrace, while the tears, which he did not try to conceal, streamed down his face.

"Hurrah!" fairly yelled William. "We've found him!" and he began dancing around the room.

At the sound of William's cry Ned looked up and saw his chums.

"Why--why--where did you all come from?" he asked.

"We came after you," replied Bart, "and a fine chase you led us. Where in the world have you been, Ned?"

"Here! What's all this row about in my place?" asked Ca.s.sidy, hurrying up from the rear of the resort. "You people have no right in here."

"Easy, Ca.s.sidy," advised the detective. "What about that boy?" and he pointed to Ned.

"Oh, it's you, Reilly," said Ca.s.sidy, as he recognized the officer.

"Well, he robbed me!"

"No, I didn't!" retorted Ned, hotly.

"That's right, you didn't kid!" exclaimed a husky voice, and a man, in ragged clothing, shuffled into the light. "He didn't take your money, Ca.s.sidy."

"Who did then?" asked the lodging-house keeper.

"It was Mike Jimson. I met him down the street a while ago, and he told me. Thought it was a good joke. He had a room next to you that night and he slipped in while you were asleep. He heard you accuse the kid here, but when the lad got away he thought it was all right, and the next day Mike lit out."

"Are you sure?" asked the detective.

"Sure! Didn't Mike tell me? He showed me some of the money. He's spent the rest."

"Then I'll have him locked up!" Ca.s.sidy exclaimed. "I wonder how I could have made that mistake? I thought sure it was you who took my money,"

and he looked at Ned. "I'm sorry for what I did."

Ned was too happy over the outcome to reply. He held his father's hand and his chums crowded around him.

"Here," said Ca.s.sidy suddenly, holding out five one dollar bills to Ned.

"What are they for?" asked Mr. Wilding.

"Guess they're his. Anyhow four and a half belongs to him. The rest is interest. I took 'em from under his pillow thinking they were mine. I hope you'll let this thing drop."

"You've made a serious mistake, Ca.s.sidy," Detective Reilly said. "You are liable to be sued for damages."

"I hope you'll not prosecute me," whined the lodging house keeper.

"That's a question we can settle later," said Mr. Wilding sternly. "Come, boys, let's get away from here. We will go to my hotel, and then I'll send a telegram to our friends in Darewell. They are very anxious to hear from me."

"Will you arrest Mike and get my money back, Reilly?" asked Ca.s.sidy.

"Maybe, later," the detective replied. "You don't deserve it, for the trouble you caused," and he followed Mr. Wilding and the boys to the street.

"But, Ned, it wasn't that accusation that kept you in hiding, was it?"

asked his father as they walked along.

"No--no--" Ned answered with a look at the detective. "I guess I'm wanted on another charge?"

"Wanted on another charge? What in the world do you mean?"

"Why I bought some stock in the Mt. Olive Oil Well Company," Ned explained, still eyeing the detective. "I got it from the brokers, Skem & Skim. I went back to have a mistake in the figures corrected and I found the firm had fled and the postal authorities were in charge of the offices. I overheard the inspector say they wanted a young fellow who had bought two hundred shares of the stock and I knew it was me, so I ran away. I didn't want to be arrested.

"But I don't mind, now!" he went on, as he drew the stock certificate from his pocket and handed it to his father. "You can lock me up, if you want to," turning to the detective. "I'm tired of dodging around."

"Let's see that paper?" asked the officer, and he took it to a light where he could read it. As he looked it over a smile came to his face.

"Well, well, you certainly had a big scare for nothing," he remarked to Ned.

"How?"

"I know all about the case. I helped work on it. We located Skem & Skim in Boston and they're under arrest."

"But about me? About the two hundred shares of stock that the inspector was talking about?" asked Ned anxiously.

"Two thousand shares was what he said I guess, but you probably misunderstood him," Mr. Reilly went on. "Yes, there was a young fellow who was mixed up in the transactions. He was a holder of two thousand shares of the stock. All there was in fact, and he was one of the main ones in working the swindle. We're looking for him still. Why, my boy, this paper isn't worth anything. They cheated you. There isn't any stock in the Mt. Olive Oil Well Company except the fake two thousand shares issued to John Denton, which is the name of the other swindler we want.

And so you thought the inspector meant you?"

"I did, and that's why I ran away. I didn't want to be arrested and bring disgrace on my father."

"You poor boy!" exclaimed Mr. Wilding. "But it's all over now, Ned. How in the world did you manage to live in the meanwhile?"

Ned told them part of the story as they walked to his father's hotel, and the remainder of it he related inside, from the time of his aunt's departure until they found him scrubbing the lodging-house floor, including his escape down the rope.

"And we have your valise!" exclaimed Fenn. "It's at our hotel."

"I thought some one came along and stole it," Ned replied. "I was afraid to ask about it for fear I'd be arrested. I didn't even dare go for my trunk."

"That's safe at the depot," said Bart, "but you'll have to pay storage charges on it. Well, well, how this thing has worked out!"

"We've solved two mysteries instead of one," Frank remarked. "Here's William ready to go back to his mother," and he told Ned who William was.

"So you're the boy who was watching me this afternoon when Ca.s.sidy came for me?" Ned asked. "I was afraid you might be a detective, and so I wouldn't admit who I was."

"We'll start for home in the morning," declared Mr. Wilding.

"And maybe get into more trouble there," put in Fenn.

"How?" asked Ned. "If there's any more trouble I want to get it all over with at once."

"They suspect us of blowing up the school tower!" exclaimed Frank.