We certainly had our hands full. Plainly, there would be no more soap peddling for the present. I was kind of disappointed in that, for we had earned several dollars as assistant beautifiers. And it is always pleasing to a boy to earn money.

I found my big chum on his stomach in the mill-yard weeds. The spy was in the mill he told me.

“You can hear him if you sharpen your ears. He’s been thumping on the mill wall all morning.”

“Queer,” I reflected, “that he should steal the talking frog before he had located the hidden fortune.”

“He probably had his orders to steal it to-day.” [[169]]

“Orders from young Gennor?”

“Of course.”

“Then why doesn’t he deliver the stolen frog at the hotel?”

“Give him time. The day’s young.”

I told the other about my bell-boy job.