“Paul, I want you to go down to the Building and Loan with this money to-night,” said Mrs. Brown, as she came into the room where her son was seated, reading a book. “I’d go myself, but I expect Mrs. Carson here to see me, and must be on hand when she comes. I guess you can attend to it all right enough, don’t you think so?”
“Sure,” said the youth, laying aside his book; “I’ll start at once.”
He secured his hat, and prepared to leave.
“Look out you don’t lose the money,” cautioned his mother. “There are some fifty dollars in the roll.”
“No fear,” answered Paul; and a moment later he was on his way down the road.
The place where the Building and Loan Association met was at a small village, some two miles from Mrs. Brown’s farm, and it was necessary for Paul to pass through a lonely woods on the way.
This he did not mind, however, for he was used to the road, and had often gone through the woods at night. It was just turning dusk when he left the house, but before he reached the forest, darkness had fallen in full.
The moon did not rise till late, and he could not see far ahead when he passed in under the trees. But he pressed on, the money tucked safely away in the inside of his vest, and had just reached the end of the woods, when the sudden glimmer of a light in the edge of the trees attracted his attention.
“Why, that’s near the old cave,” muttered the boy, stopping and looking toward the gleam. “Wonder what it means?”
He was about passing on, when the impulse to go forward and investigate seized upon him, and he turned toward the cave.