direction of his home.

But Ed found that he had made no mistake in the wallets. The empty
one was safely in his room, but the one containing the twenty
thousand dollars was--as he had feared--lost. He communicated this
fact to the police, and soon the chief had ordered some handbills
printed, describing the pocketbook and the contents, and offering a
reward of five hundred dollars for the cash and bonds, Ed having
agreed to pay this amount and ask no questions.

"Ha!" exclaimed Lem Gildy that night as one of the hastily printed
bills came into his possession, "so this is the wallet they are
lookin' for, eh? Twenty thousand dollars! But I knowed it all the
while. As if Jack Kimball an' his sister could fool me! But I'll
bleed him--that's what I'll do. I'll make him whack up--or--or
I'lltell!" and Lem chuckled to himself, while there was a dangerous
look on his mean face.

The search conducted by Cora and Walter was, as might be guessed, as
unsuccessful as the one undertaken by Jack and Lem. Cora and Walter
looked carefully over the whole length of the road to New City, but
saw nothing of the wallet, and came back disconsolate in the auto.

"Poor Ed!" remarked Walter. "It's tough luck!"

"Yes, I wish we could have found it for him," agreed Cora as she
skillfully drove the car through the Chelton streets at dusk. "I'm
beginning to believe that it was stolen."

"I think so myself," added Walter. "But if he had it when he was