"Dannie," said Silas, slowly, "I'll bet you have hit centre the first time trying. But it 'pears to me that if he wanted to keep the secret of that cave hid from everybody, he ought by rights to have scared me away when he saw me taking the letter out of my wood-pile."
"You can't never get the money, and that's all there is about it," said Dan, confidently.
"Yes, we can!" exclaimed Silas, jumping up to put his gun back in its place. "I've just thought of something, and I want you to tell me if you don't think it about the cutest trick that was ever played on a hant or anything else. He'll stay around where that letter is till some one finds it, won't he?"
Dan thought it very likely.
"Then he'll go with the feller, to keep track of the letter, won't he?"
Dan was sure he would.
"And if it ain't found right away, he'll hang around so's to keep an eye on it and see where it goes to. Don't you think he will?"
Dan replied that he did.
"Well, now, that's what I am going to work on," continued Silas, gleefully. "The hant is out of the cave now—we're sure of that, for we both seen him when he went into them bushes—and we must work things so's to keep him out."