"I don't know what right he had to suspect anything," said Tom. "We never told him of our experience in the gorge."
"I know you didn't, and the reason was because you were afraid he would laugh at you. But he knew very well that you were keeping something from him. When the idea of playing game-wardens first took hold of you, you were very enthusiastic over it; but when you returned from your trip down the gorge, and learned that Mr. Emerson had given Bob permission to stay in the woods with you during the winter, you didn't dance about and go into ecstasies, as you ought to have done. That's why your Uncle suspects something; but, I declare, he didn't look for anything like this," exclaimed Mr. Warren, gazing in surprise at the contents of the valise, which he had turned out upon the carpet. "You have done a good piece of detective work, for these things were stolen, beyond a doubt, and if they came from the place I think they did, you are entitled to a reward of ten thousand dollars."
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Tom and Bob, while Joe Morgan fairly gasped for breath, and his mind suddenly became so confused that he could not calculate how much his share of that reward would amount to. But he had a dim idea that it would be something over three thousand dollars; and wouldn't that place his mother above want for a good many years to come?
The young game-warden never once thought of himself, until his father's scowling visage and Dan's arose before his mental vision, and then he wondered what tactics they would resort to, and what new system of persecution they would adopt, in order to squeeze the last cent of those three thousand dollars out of him.
While he was thinking about it, he sat down on the floor beside Tom and Bob, who were kneeling in front of Mr. Warren. When the latter laid one of the watches aside, with the remark that it was a valuable timepiece, and no doubt the rightful owner would be glad to get it back, Bob picked it up and opened it. An inscription on the inside of the back part of the case caught his eye, and he read it aloud as follows:
"Geo. Y. Seely, Esq. With the regards of his grateful friend, Joel Burnett."
"What's that?" cried Mr. Warren. "Read that again, please."
Bob complied, and then handed over the watch, so that Joe's employer could read it for himself.
"I know both those men," said the latter, at length. "I went to school with them in the old academy at Bellville, and so did your father and uncle," nodding at Tom and Bob. "Seely helped Burnett out of a tight place, when his business was about to go to ruin, and Burnett gave him this watch to show his gratitude."
"Then those things must have some from Hammondsport," exclaimed Tom. "Say, Bob, don't you remember reading an account of the disappearance of a lot of securities from the county treasurer's office in Hammondsport, on the same night that several burglaries were committed there?"