A talk in a lower tone followed, and then more rustling of papers.

"I will call to-morrow with the cash," said Maurice Vane, as he prepared
to leave. "In the meantime, you promise to keep these shares for me?"

"I'll keep them until noon. I've got another offer," said the man in
bed.

"We'll be back," put in the man called Anderson. "So don't you sell to
anybody else."

Then the two visitors left and went downstairs. Five minutes later they
were driving away in the direction of the railroad station.

"This certainly beats anything I ever met before," said Joe, to himself
as he watched them go. "I'll wager all I am worth that I've met that
Anderson before, and that he is a bad man. I do wish I could get at the
bottom of what is going on."

In the evening he had occasion to go upstairs in the hotel once more.
To his surprise he saw Mr. David Ball sitting in a rocking-chair, calmly
smoking a cigar and reading a paper.

"He isn't as sick as he was this morning," he mused. "In fact, I don't
think he is sick at all."

He wished to be on hand the following morning, when the strangers came
back, but an errand took him up the lake. He had to stop at several
places, and did not start on the return until four in the afternoon.