"His family know it, of course?" queried Dick.

"No; not a word. Chief Coy kept it quiet, and asked me to do
the same. He didn't want the Dodge family all stirred up by false
hopes in case you had made a mistake. The silence will keep 'The
Evening Mail' from learning the news for a while. And I've had
our forms left standing. We're all ready to run out an extra
---in case you haven't made a mistake, Prescott," added Mr. Pollock
quizzically.

Dick smiled resignedly at this implied doubt. But the autos were
making fast time, and soon the machines had gone as far on the
way as they could be used.

"Now we'll have to get out and strike across country, through
the woods," Prescott called.

So far Dick had resolutely tried to keep out of his mind any thought
of that thousand-dollar reward. It sounded too much like "Blood
money" to take pay for helping any afflicted family out of its
troubles. Besides, it had been the glory of doing a piece of
bright newspaper work that had allured the two High School boys
at the outset.

"Yet a thousand dollars is---a thousand dollars!" Dick couldn't
help feeling, wistfully, as he piloted his party across fields
and through the woods. "A thousand dollars! Five hundred apiece
for Dave and me! What a fearful big lot of money! What we could
do with it, If we had it! I wonder whether it would be right