“Jacob Hockley,” cried the professor. “Where have you been? We have been hunting everywhere for you.” “It’s a long story, sir,” answered Hockley, meekly. “And if you please, I’d like to get breakfast before I tell it.” “So you have had nothing to eat? Then come to the hotel by all means. But where have you been?” “Out of town, a good many miles, I guess.” “Out of town?” “Yes, sir. And I’ve lost the most of my money,” went on the lank youth, desperately. “How did you lose that?” And now Professor Strong’s face grew stern. Hockley felt a certain quaking within him. It would never do to say that he had been playing cards--worse, that he had been gambling. Professor Strong had read the young travelers more than one lecture on evils of this sort. “I--I got in a crowd and somehow I either lost the money or it was taken from me,” stammered the bully. “But please don’t tell the others,” he went on. “They’ll only have the laugh on me.” “Just give me the details,” said Professor Strong, briefly, and then Hockley had to invent a long tale of how he had gone carriage riding down to the seashore and how, while he was getting a lunch at a restaurant, there had been a horse runaway and he had gone out to see the excitement. “There was more of a crowd than I thought,” he continued. “I was shoved around by a policeman and a number of natives. I had been counting my money and when the excitement began I rammed it in my hip pocket. When I went back to the eating place the money was gone.” “And what made you remain away all night?” “It was growing dark when the runaway happened and I thought I could find the money this morning. But I didn’t find anything.” “Humph! How about your watch and that ring you are in the habit of wearing?” Hockley felt a certain cold chill steal over him. In his haste to smooth matters over he had forgotten about the watch and the ring. “They--er--they got lost too,” he said, lamely, his face growing very red. “Quite likely,” was Professor Strong’s comment. “Come with me. We will get to the bottom of this later on--after you have had something to eat.” Hockley was hungry, but eating breakfast came very hard to him that morning. As soon as he had finished Professor Strong plied him with questions, and at last he broke down and confessed all--how he had received the money order from home and how he had started out to have a little quiet fun, as he called it. And then, when the professor insisted that he take him to the spot where the runaway had occurred, he had to admit that there had been no runaway but that he had fallen into the hands of a sharper, and that the sharper now had all the money excepting ten dollars and the amount spent for the dinner. “I am sure he drugged me,” said Hockley, weakly. “He wouldn’t have gotten the money from me if he hadn’t.” “I will see the man,” returned Professor Strong, shortly, and insisted that the youth show the way to where J. Rutherford Brown might be found.