“Yes, sir.”

“Very well; then you shall know all about it in a very little while.”

Uncle Ellis looked much relieved.  A bit of color was coming back to his cheek, and he rose to his feet with a little more steadiness.

“I shall rely on you both to protect my good name,” he said, in parting.  “Good-night.”  And he walked from the room.

Ray drew a long sigh when he had gone.

“Clyde, is it true,” he asked, “that uncle has lost ten thousand dollars?”

“Yes, Ray.  I wouldn’t have believed it had I not heard him confess it with his own lips.  He took it from the money that father left us and sunk it in speculating.”

“One more thing, Clyde.  Why did you want to count the money we have?  You said it was for something very important.”

“And so it is.  Ray, you and I have got lots of work ahead of us.  But I mustn’t stop to tell you about it now.  Uncle is not telling the truth, and is up to something, I am sure.  I must find out what it is.  He won’t let the night pass without hatching up some scheme to pull the wool over my eyes.  You stay around here and keep watch, and if he leaves the house I will follow him.”

CHAPTER V.

Uncle Ellis Seeks Advice.

Clyde stole down the stairs carefully and listened at the head of the flight leading from the hall.  As he had suspected, Uncle Ellis was going out.  He had just taken his hat from the rack and was walking toward the door.

Clyde waited until his uncle had reached the street, and then followed.  The bright moon had gone behind a bank of clouds, but from the piazza he could make out his uncle’s form moving slowly up the street.

The house faced on the avenue running at right angles to the water.  It was situated midway between two streets which crossed it and ran through the heart of the town, but a short distance away.

One of these streets Mr. Ellis turned into, and Clyde quickly took the other one.  He could move faster than his uncle, and by hurrying he could reach the main street ahead of him.

This he did, and was awaiting his uncle behind a door not far from the post office.

The post office was in a small building and occupied the lower floor.  A stairway next to the office ran to the second floor, and opening from the hallway above was a small room, in which Mr. Lycurgus Sharp had his office.  There was a balcony in front of the lawyer’s office.

Mr. Lycurgus Sharp was hanging about the post office, talking politics, when Mr. Ellis reached that point.

Clyde was firmly convinced that his worthy uncle and the lawyer would be in consultation before long, and he was also convinced that the topic of conversation would be the ten thousand dollars.  He was even more firmly convinced that he was right when the two men came out of the post office and walked up the stairs to the lawyer’s room above.