"Perhaps I can explain some things, Miss Wenrich. But I would like to talk with your father first."
"Very well. But my father is quite sick, and I would not like to have you excite him."
"I will be careful. But I hope he didn't let them have the map."
"No, he is holding that. They made a proposition to him and he said he would think it over."
Nettie Wenrich led the way to the second story of the cottage, and to the front bedchamber. Here, on a snowy couch lay Herman Wenrich, feeble with age and a malady that had attacked his digestive organs.
"I do not wish to disturb you, Mr. Wenrich," said Robert, after introducing himself and shaking hands. "But I think it very strange that I should come here right after those two men I met outside."
"It is strange, lad," responded Herman Wenrich feebly. "I cannot understand it."
"I think I can safely say that Mr. Amberton never sent them and that he knows nothing of their coming," continued our hero.
"That makes the whole thing even more strange."