"That's a question we can settle later," said Mr. Wilding sternly. "Come, boys, let's get away from here. We will go to my hotel, and then I'll send a telegram to our friends in Darewell. They are very anxious to hear from me." "Will you arrest Mike and get my money back, Reilly?" asked Cassidy. "Maybe, later," the detective replied. "You don't deserve it, for the trouble you caused," and he followed Mr. Wilding and the boys to the street. "But, Ned, it wasn't that accusation that kept you in hiding, was it?" asked his father as they walked along. "No--no--" Ned answered with a look at the detective. "I guess I'm wanted on another charge?" "Wanted on another charge? What in the world do you mean?" "Why I bought some stock in the Mt. Olive Oil Well Company," Ned explained, still eyeing the detective. "I got it from the brokers, Skem & Skim. I went back to have a mistake in the figures corrected and I found the firm had fled and the postal authorities were in charge of the offices. I overheard the inspector say they wanted a young fellow who had bought two hundred shares of the stock and I knew it was me, so I ran away. I didn't want to be arrested. "But I don't mind, now!" he went on, as he drew the stock certificate from his pocket and handed it to his father. "You can lock me up, if you want to," turning to the detective. "I'm tired of dodging around." "Let's see that paper?" asked the officer, and he took it to a light where he could read it. As he looked it over a smile came to his face. "Well, well, you certainly had a big scare for nothing," he remarked to Ned. "How?" "I know all about the case. I helped work on it. We located Skem & Skim in Boston and they're under arrest." "But about me? About the two hundred shares of stock that the inspector was talking about?" asked Ned anxiously. "Two thousand shares was what he said I guess, but you probably misunderstood him," Mr. Reilly went on. "Yes, there was a young fellow who was mixed up in the transactions. He was a holder of two thousand shares of the stock. All there was in fact, and he was one of the main ones in working the swindle. We're looking for him still. Why, my boy, this paper isn't worth anything. They cheated you. There isn't any stock in the Mt. Olive Oil Well Company except the fake two thousand shares issued to John Denton, which is the name of the other swindler we want. And so you thought the inspector meant you?" "I did, and that's why I ran away. I didn't want to be arrested and bring disgrace on my father." "You poor boy!" exclaimed Mr. Wilding. "But it's all over now, Ned. How in the world did you manage to live in the meanwhile?" Ned told them part of the story as they walked to his father's hotel, and the remainder of it he related inside, from the time of his aunt's departure until they found him scrubbing the lodging-house floor, including his escape down the rope. "And we have your valise!" exclaimed Fenn. "It's at our hotel."