"Ha, what is this?" exclaimed the squire, who had wandered some little distance from the tree. Dean looked up eagerly. "Why, that is Uncle Adin's wallet," he said surprised. "Unfortunately it is empty!" said the squire, opening it. "Yes, so it seems. Where did you find it?" "Just here. It is clear that the thief took the money, and threw it away." "I suppose so," answered Dean, slowly. "You had better take charge of it. And now I think I must resume my journey to Rockmount." Dean sat down to think. He was puzzled by the discovery of the wallet, for he had looked in the very spot where it was found before the squire's arrival, and seen nothing. It looked as if the squire had produced it from an inner pocket, and thrown it down before picking it up, and announced its discovery. "There is something very queer about all this!" said Dean to himself, as he walked slowly homeward. CHAPTER IX. THE SQUIRE'S BOLD STROKE. "That boy evidently suspects me," thought Renwick Bates, contracting his forehead. "He is altogether too smart. With the help of his uncle, whose suspicions are already excited, he may make me trouble. I must take a bold course, and make the accusations look ridiculous." Squire Bates kept on his way till he reached Rockmount, and drove at once to the office of Thomas Marks. "How do you do, Squire Bates?" asked the agent politely. "Very well, thank you. I suppose you have heard of the robbery?" "To what do you allude?" "Adin Dunham was stopped on his way home yesterday, and robbed of a thousand dollars!" "You don't mean it?" returned the agent. "Why I paid him that money with my own hands." "So I supposed. Why didn't you give him a check?" "He preferred the bills. Besides, as you have no bank at Waterford, he could have done nothing with the check." "That is true; I didn't think of that. But it's a pity as it happened." "Can you tell me any of the details of the robbery?" "I talked with Dean Dunham, the nephew, only this morning. I have not seen Adin himself." "What does the boy say?" Squire Bates repeated what he had heard from Dean, though he might have gone more into details from his own knowledge. This, of course, he could not venture upon. "It seems extraordinary," said Thomas Marks, thoughtfully. "How could the robber have known that Adin Dunham had received any money?" "He might have seen him at your office." "I don't pay money to every one that calls upon me," said Marks, smiling. "No, or I should call for my installment," returned the squire jocosely. "Perhaps it might have been some one connected with the hotel company. I suppose they knew the money was to be called for to-day?" "Yes." "By the way, in what shape did you pay the money?" "You mean in bills of what denomination?" "Yes." "In fifty-dollar bills." "Twenty fifties then?" "Yes." "That information may prove important. Were the bills all on one bank?" "No, from several. Some, I think, were silver certificates."