"Oh, let them stay," said the ranch foreman. "It isn't anything they shouldn't hear, and it may be a lesson to them. To go to the very bottom, Mr. Bobbsey, Dayton isn't our name at all."
"What is, then?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"Hickson," was the unexpected answer. "We are Bill and Charley Hickson. We took the name of Dayton when we ran away from home, as that was our mother's name before she was married. And we have been called Bill and Charley Dayton ever since. But Hickson is our real name."
Bert and Nan looked at one another. They felt that they were on the edge of a strange secret.
"Bill and Charley Hickson!" exclaimed Nan.
"Oh, is your father's name Hiram?" Bert asked excitedly.
"Hiram? Of course it is!" cried Bill. "Hiram Hickson is the name of our father!"
"Hurray!" shouted Bert.
"Oh, oh!" squealed Nan.
"Then we've found you!" yelled both together.