“We ought to make it by three o’clock,” Bob replied to Jack’s guess. But it was nearer four when finally they drove into the yard.
“We were about to send out a relief expedition for you,” Mr. Golden laughed, as he welcomed them home.
CHAPTER II.
THE LOST DEED.
“Yes, it is a serious matter.”
It was two days after Christmas and Mr. Golden was talking to his two boys in the library.
“You see,” he continued, “there’s over four hundred acres of the finest timber in the state in that tract. I bought it of Amos Town just ten years ago, and he died about a year after. I had made all arrangements to cut on it this winter and you can imagine my surprise when, about a week ago, Ben Donahue came into my office and told me that he owned the tract. Said he had bought it of Town about a month before he died.”
“But how about your deed?” Bob interrupted.
“That’s the strange part of it,” Mr. Golden said. “Of course I went at once to the bank to get my deed from my deposit box but to my great surprise it was not there. Ben was with me when I opened the box, and from the expression on his face when I failed to find it, I was certain that he knew all the time that it was not there, but of course I couldn’t prove anything.”
“How about the records in the Register of Deeds’ office?” Bob asked.
“That’s another mystery. Of course that was my next move, but when we looked it up, no record of it could be found.”