"You mean the young thief who called himself Briggs, and then
Gregg?"

"Exactly."

"Yes, Mr. King."

"And how he used some letters sent to your father from a great
friend of his?"

"Mr. Dale?" nodded Dave, wondering what all this had to do with the
giant airship scheme.

"Well, as you know, that young scamp, Gregg, had gone to Mr. Dale,
who had never seen you, and by means of the letters stolen from you
made him believe that he was the son of his old friend. So
delighted was Mr. Dale, that he practically adopted young Gregg. In
fact, he was on the point of making the pretended Dave Dashaway heir
to all his fortune."

"You told me about that," said Dave.

"When we left Dayton to come here, we had to make a hurried jump to
fill our contract, as you know. I let Gregg go, after recovering my
stolen property from him, but I got a written confession of his bold
imposture, first. You know my plan was for you and me to go where
Mr. Dale lives, and introduce him to the real Dave Dashaway. You
see, although I have managed to scare that old tyrant guardian of
yours, Silas Warner, into leaving you alone, I feared he might work