"When we get home, let no one know that I have a hundred thousand dollars," said Toney.
"Why not?" asked Tom.
"I wish the Widow Wild to suppose that I have come home as poor as I was when I left," said Toney. "I will explain my reasons hereafter, and may need your assistance."
"Can't I tell Ida?" asked Tom.
"Rosabel and Ida must be informed; but with the injunction of secrecy. Do you promise to conceal my good fortune?"
"I do; I will say nothing, except by your permission."
On the following day they arrived at Chagres, and took passage for New York, which city they reached after a pleasant voyage, and on the next day were in Baltimore. Here the Professor left them, and accompanied Dora to her home in Virginia. Toney and his friends arrived in Mapleton at night. They urged Clarence and Harry to remain here until morning; but the two young men were impatient to reach Bella Vista, and, taking leave of Toney and Tom, were wafted away in the direction of the homes from which they had been absent during five long years.
When Clarence Hastings and Harry Vincent approached Bella Vista it was midnight. In their impatience, each young man had put his head out the window of a car.
"Good heavens! what means that light?" cried Clarence.
"The town's on fire!" exclaimed Harry.