"You mean that you were walking from Boston?" asked the professor.
"That's right," was the reply. "Landed there on ship from round the Horn last week. Got paid off but some sneak thief in the boarding house I was stopping at got my roll. So I had to hoof it."
"But what did you want with me?" asked the professor.
"I wanted you ter tell me ef that thar stuff in the glass tube is worth anything or nothing," was the reply.
"Why, do you know where there is more of it?" asked the professor, and the boys could see that he was oddly excited, although preserving an appearance of outward calm.
"Yes, siree," was the emphatic reply. "I know whar thar's enough of it to load a freight train."
"Shades of Huxley!" gasped the professor, actually turning pale. "Do you mean that?"
"I sure do, Professor. It's all down on a map what Blue Nose Sanchez give me afore he passed in his checks."