“Do so, or there is no knowing when we shall get back, or whether we shall get back at all. I once lost my way in a wood, and was wandering about four good hours, and all within a radius of two miles, before I got out. It is difficult to keep your direction in a forest, unless you have a compass.” So Harry, who had expected it, served as a guide on the return, and conducted them safely to the wagon. Reuben was paid for his service with a dollar bill, which he declared he should have considered satisfactory for a whole day’s labor. Harry was about to say good-by to his companions, but they advised him to ride back with them to a point on the road where he could make his way to Waybridge without the trouble of passing through the wood, besides having a less distance to go. “What time is it?” he asked. “Two o’clock,” answered one of the detectives, consulting his watch. “Only two o’clock!” Harry could scarcely believe it, so much had happened since he got up in the morning, yet it was even so. It had taken very little time to do his business in the city, as we know, and almost half the day still lay before him. Harry thought of what he had accomplished with pardonable pride and satisfaction. He had frustrated the plans of two daring thieves, caused the arrest of one of them, and the probable speedy arrest of the other, arranged for the restoration to the owner of a valuable property, and earned for himself the munificent sum of two hundred and fifty dollars. Nothing particular happened on his homeward walk. “Got home so soon, Harry?” asked Uncle Obed, as our hero entered the little cottage. “Yes, sir; and here’s the money for your coupons.” “How about that other matter, Harry?” “It came out all right. Where’s mother?” “Gone to call on one of the neighbors.” “Then I’ll tell you about it; but I don’t want to say a word to mother till the whole thing is settled.” CHAPTER XXIV — PHILIP IN A TIGHT PLACE Ralph Temple was still at his cottage, or, more properly, hut, waiting impatiently for Vernon to reappear, that he might obtain his share of the contents of the tin box. He had led a lawless life, and more than once been engaged in dishonest transactions, but never in one of such magnitude as the present. He calculated that, even if they surrendered the box in consideration of a reward, he would not receive less than a thousand dollars, and he was planning how he would dispose of this sum. This was the project which he fixed upon: For years he had been desirous of visiting California, in the hope that chances of getting rich, honestly or dishonestly, might be met with in a State whose very name was suggestive of gold. With a thousand dollars he would feel justified in going. Moreover, there would be an advantage in leaving a part of the country where he was an object of suspicion to the authorities, and was liable at any time to be arrested for complicity in more than one questionable transaction.