Walter offered to ride in on the little man's pony to get the check cashed and the money placed to their credit in the bank. Charley would have liked to have made the trip himself, but his arm was paining him so intensely that he decided to remain behind. Soon after breakfast Walter rode away on his errand. "I am thoroughly bewildered," Charley said to Mr. Bruce. "I don't see how you forced Jones to buy us out at such an enormous price, and I do not see any solution of our mystery. It is still a mystery." "Same here," agreed Captain Westfield. "I must own up, I am as curious as a woman about it." "I am willing to explain now," said Mr. Bruce, with a smile. "It's a very simple affair, after all." CHAPTER XXXII. THE MYSTERY SOLVED. MR. BRUCE paused before beginning his story. "I take it that you are well satisfied with the settlement you have made with Jones?" he asked. "More than satisfied--delighted," said Charley, at which sentiment Captain Westfield nodded his head vigorously. "Very well," said the lawyer. "I am glad of that, for I must confess I have carried things with a pretty high hand in this matter. I am almost afraid to tell you the whole truth now, for you may condemn me for the settlement I have made of your affairs after I tell you everything, but I have acted for what I thought was your best interests all the way through." "We believe that," said Charley simply. "But for you we would have lost out completely. We would not ask for particulars if it were not that the mystery of the whole business still puzzles us." "And yet it's a simple thing," said the lawyer. "You gave me nearly all the clews to it that day you called at my office in Palm Beach. You told me of all the efforts that had been made to hold up your work. You told me about the man Jones, and what the agent at Jupiter had told you about his getting cipher telegrams from the state capital and New York, and you also showed me a newspaper clipping, telling of the efforts of a big company to get free from the State of Florida a big grant of land between Indiantown and the jungle. Why, your mystery was nearly all solved in just what you told me that day." "I don't see how," said Charley bewildered.