“I preferred keeping in the background, for I did not care to have those Chinamen discover I was the real owner of the stick.”
“But you are not the real owner!” exclaimed Starbright. “It does not belong to you at all! You have acknowledged that!”
The stranger looked surprised, and then frowned darkly.
“If I am not the rightful owner, there is no rightful owner in this country. I am an American, and I lost that stick. I presume you will give it to me, Mr. Merriwell?”
“It seems to me that it is Frank’s duty to return it to the society from which it was stolen in the first place,” said Dick grimly.
The stranger looked startled, but there came to his face an expression of sudden savage determination.
“I hope Mr. Merriwell will not agree with you,” he said instantly. “I have proved that I lost it, and——”
“You have confessed that it was stolen, in the first place.”
“Well?”
“A receiver of stolen goods——”