Mr. Gibson finished the letter at last, and then turned and gave the boys a good looking over. He evidently was not thinking about them at all, but about some point of law that had just occurred to him.

Finally he said,

"I want you to understand that I believe your story, but in order to be all right in everything, and leave nothing for anybody to pick a flaw with, I would like to know what you did to look up this man Haberstro."

"If I were in your place, Gibson," said Mr. Fay, "I would write to Mr.

Wiggins and the president of that bank, and get a full history of the boys. They will tell the truth."

"Let me suggest to you, also, the name of Mr. Dawson," said Jack. "I used to work for him, and he knows all about me."

The lawyer took down the three addresses of the men he wanted to write to.

"Have you young fellows any money?" asked the lawyer.

"Yes, sir, a little."

"Will it last you two weeks?"

The two friends were sure it would last them as long as that.

"Where are you stopping?"

Julian replied that they were stopping at some hotel, but they did not know which one.

"Well, Fay will no doubt direct you to a cheaper boarding-house than that. What are you boys going to do with this?" said Mr. Gibson, placing his hand upon the box.

"We want to put it somewhere so it will be safe," said Julian.

"Shall I take charge of it for you? I will put it in the bank. It is most too valuable for me to carry around."

"Yes, sir."

After a little more conversation his two clients went out. The lawyer sat for a long time thinking the matter over, and at last he got up, took the box under his arm and started for the bank. He had decided that he would go to St. Louis that very night.

CHAPTER XII.

CASPER NEVINS, THE SPY.

"No, sir," said Casper, leaning over and placing his elbows on his knees, his eyes gazing thoughtfully at the floor; "you don't get any more five cents out of me, yet awhile, to pay for cigars. I have got only ten dollars, and I am anxious to make that do. Now, what shall I go at next?"

Casper Nevins was in a predicament the first thing he knew. He claimed to be an orphan, the same as Julian was; but those who were well acquainted with his history knew that he had a mother in a Western village who was a dressmaker, and who would have been glad to get every cent he could send her. But Casper never sent her any money. On the contrary, he often appealed to her to forward him a few dimes, to pay his debts for pool and cigars. Claus often got into him a dollar or two on the games he lost, and his mother was the only person he had to call on. Now he had lost his position, and the next thing was to find something else to do. He was really afraid he would have to go to work with his hands. He thought of Jack Sheldon, dirty and begrimed as he was when he came from the shop, and wondered how he would look in that fix. And, another thing, he wasn't satisfied that he could get as good a position as Jack held. Aside from being acquainted with the city and carrying the telegraphic dispatches, there was nothing else that he could do.

"I tell you I am up a stump," said Casper to himself; "I shall soon be sweeping out saloons, as Julian did, to pay for my breakfast. I would rather die than do that."

When he had reached this point in his meditations the door opened, and Claus came in with a couple of cigars in his hand. He did not seem to be at all worried over his failure to get his hands upon that box, but he was whistling a jig as he closed the door and offered a cigar to Casper.

"What is the matter with you, any way?" he asked, when he saw the gloomy look on Casper's face. "You act as though you had lost your last friend."

"What am I going to do now?" asked Casper. "I have no trade, no profession, and I must do something to keep myself in grub. There is no pool or cigars for me from this time on."

"Well, let that thing go until I tell you my story," said Claus, who did not like to hear a man talk in this way. He knew that he was to blame for Casper's shortness of funds--a good deal of his hard earnings was located in Claus's own pockets--and he wanted to make him look on the bright side of things while he was in his presence. When he got away where he could not see him, then he could indulge in moody thoughts as often as he pleased.

"I wish I had not played pool with you as often as I have," said Casper, showing a little spirit. "Every time I have crossed cues with you I have always been out three or four dollars. Why don't you play with somebody else?"

"Well, if you are going to talk that way I'll go on," said Claus, getting up from his chair. "What I was going to say was that I don't believe that box is gone yet. I have tried twice to get it and have failed; but there is a charm in everything. Three times and out is what I go by; but if you don't want to hear what I have to say, why, good-night."

"Well, sit down," said Casper, who couldn't bear to let Claus go away if he had anything to say concerning that box; "but you yourself would be angry if you were in my fix."

"Oh, I have been that way lots of times. I have been so I didn't know where my next meal was coming from."

"I have been that way, too," said Casper. "The other night you got ten cents of me, and it was the last cent I had in the world; I had to get my next meal at the free-lunch saloons."

"I didn't know you were as hard up as that," said Casper, with surprise. "Have you money with which to get breakfast to-morrow?"

"Not a cent."

"Then here are twenty cents," said Claus, putting his hand into his pocket. "Two meals will do you. In the meantime, if you get hard up for something to eat, go to the saloons; that's the way I do."

"Yes, but you always get something else. If I go in there and dabble with their lunch, the barkeeper will want to know why I don't get something to drink."

"Then walk out and go to another saloon. You ain't posted. Now, I want to tell you my story. It isn't long, and I want to ask you a question before I get through."

When Claus said this, Casper settled back in his chair and tried to look interested; but the trouble was, he only succeeded in looking guilty.

"I have just come from Julian's room," continued Claus, "and I threatened him with the police. He called me by my own name, or Jack did, and I want to know who has been telling him that. Did you?"

"I never said a word to him about you or anybody else," said Casper, looking Claus squarely in the eye.

"Did you say anything to Mr. Wiggins about it?"

"Never a word. There might have been a detective in the office while you were there."

"A detective? Who was it?"

"I am sure I don't know. But if he knew your name, there was where he got it. You went up to the pool-room after you got through there?

Well, did anybody follow you up to see what your name was?"

"There was n.o.body up there that I saw, and I took mighty good care to watch out. I threatened him with the police for addressing me by that name, and he just as good as told me to go and get them."

"What made you say police at all? What had he done?"

"I wanted him to get the box and let me read the papers in it, because I wanted to be sure that they were intended for me; but he would not do it."

"Of course he would not!" exclaimed Casper, in disgust. "That was a pretty way to do business, wasn't it?"