“Which proves there never were any,” retorted Jack sarcastically.

“Have you got any dues, Sherlock?” asked Rand laughingly.

“Not yet,” replied Jack seriously, “but I am looking for them.  They sometimes turn up in the most unexpected places.”

“Huh!” sniffed Donald, “your turnips run mostly to tops.”

While talking thus, the boys had been putting their supplies and tackle into the boat which they had run out into the river.

“Which way do you want to go?” asked Rand when they were ready to start.

“Up,” said Pepper.

“Down,” said Jack.

“What do you say, Don?” continued Rand.  “Either way,” replied Donald.  “Let them toss up for it.”

Taking the coin he had picked up in the road from his pocket Rand tossed it into the air.  “What do you say, Jack?” he asked.

“Heads!” responded Jack.

“Tails it is,” announced Rand as he picked it up.  “Pepper wins.  Up, we go.”

“What have you got there, Rand?” asked Jack, who had been eying the coin Rand had tossed; “something new?”

“It’s something that I found in the road this morning,” replied Rand, handing the coin over to Jack.  “Pepper found one, too.”

“Found it in the road!” cried Jack, instantly on the alert.  “That’s serious.  Tell me about it.”

“There isn’t much to tell,” replied Rand.  “Monkey Rae tried to run us down this morning and we had a near-fight and after he had gone we found them.”

“Well?” questioned Jack.

“That’s all,” replied Rand.

“Now I wonder,” mused Jack, when the story of the encounter with Monkey Rae and his companions had been gone over in detail for his benefit, “what Monkey Rae has to do with these things,” jingling the coins in his hand.

“Not as much as you or I have,” announced Donald.  “I can no see any connection between the two.”

“Of course you can’t, old wisdom,” returned Jack.  “You lack imagination, but I think it is there just the same.  Whose horse and wagon was it?”

“That’s another strange part of it,” replied Rand.  “I never saw them before.  I was wondering whose they were, and where he got them.”

“That’s so,” agreed Pepper.  “I never thought of that; the truth is, I was so busy with Monkey that I didn’t look at them.”

“Well,” broke in Don, “if you ask my opinion I think it would be more to the purpose if we went on our own business instead of wasting time in speculating on what is no concern of ours.”

“All right, Solomon-Donald,” said Rand; “it sounds wise.”

“Even if it is mostly sound,” growled Jack.

CHAPTER IV

UP THE RIVER

“Are you all ready?” called Rand, who was stroke.  “Pull!”

The boys bent to their work in earnest, and but few words were spoken while they sent the boat along, mile after mile, until they had gone some half dozen miles up the river.