CHAPTER VI

AN ASTONISHING CLUE


"But I don't know," declared Frank forcibly, "and as I have _not_
earned any five dollars, of course I can't take it."

"Sho!" chuckled old Dobbins, dancing about Frank, as spry as a schoolboy
and poking him playfully in the ribs. Frank had to smile.

"See here, Mr. Dobbins," he observed, "it appears to me that you feel
pretty lively for a man who has just had his house all smashed to pieces."

"That's just it--that's just it," retorted Dobbins in a tone almost
jubilant. "Where would I be if it hadn't happened? Why, boy, when I think
of what you've done, I--I almost would adopt you--that is, if you weren't
too big an eater."

There was some mystery under all this, Frank discerned. He wanted to get at
the plain facts of the case.

"I'm afraid I don't entirely understand," he began when his eccentric
visitor interrupted him.

"Ho! ho!" he guffawed. "You will be _sharp_, you young _blade_,
won't you? Got some _temper_--hey? True as _steel_--hi! When the