“Oh, the mischief!” fairly shouted Pep, glancing into it to find that all it contained was a collection of pennies, nickels and dimes. “I’ve been fooled, after all. These fellows rifled the box in some way----” “Not at all,” answered Frank, with a reassuring smile. “It is my turn to explain, Pep. When the fire broke out I thought instantly of the cash box and the treasure it contained, so I took out the bills and the necklace. Here they are,” and Frank produced them from an inside pocket of his coat. “Then--then----” stammered Pep, taken aback. “Then you are just as much a hero as if you had saved a whole bank of money!” cried Frank, giving Pep a commending slap on the shoulder. “It was a big thing you did, Pep,” declared Randy enthusiastically. Ben Jolly and Vincent added more approving words, and Pep warmed up to his usual self at the praise of his friends. “There’s the fellows outside to settle with,” he suggested. “Glad to do it,” said Frank. “There must be at least thirty dollars in the box, so you have saved us a good deal, Pep.” “Didn’t catch a weasel asleep when they came in here!” chuckled Jolly in Pep’s ear. “You taught them something this time.” The farmer was very modest in his charges. “Two dollars covered the damages,” he remarked, “and seeing the fire was worth half of that.” It was getting well on to morning by the time all hands were settled down. Vincent was the last to go to bed. He had got a card out of his pocket and said he had some business down town. “It’s to send a message to the city officer who took those two prisoners to New York on the last train,” he explained to Frank. “Of course there is no doubt that the necklace was part of the proceeds of the burglary he arrested them for.” “I think you are right,” agreed Frank. A quiet day in reading and rest did wonders in refreshing the tired out motion picture friends after a week of unusual activity and excitement. All were up bright and early Monday morning. “I tell you, this is genuine office business,” said Frank, as he rested at noon from continuous labors at his desk. “You take to it like a duck to water,” declared Ben Jolly. “Who wouldn’t, with the able corps of assistants at my command?” challenged Frank. “Mr. Vincent took Mr. Booth off my hands. He knows the man much better than I do and, as he expresses it, understands how to keep that visionary individual in the traces. Pep and Randy seem to have just the ability to get our new programme into the very places we want them. Mr. Vincent has sifted out the supply men as they came along, and those letters you got off for me took a big load off my shoulders, Mr. Jolly.” “It all amounts to having a good machine and starting it right,” insisted Jolly. The boys felt a trifle anxious as it began to cloud up about one o’clock. A few drops of rain fell. It almost broke Pep’s heart, Randy declared, to see people begin to scatter along the beach and made their way to shelters, and the hotels.