He seemed anxious to get the man away, and we gave them escort to the outer gate where a horse and buggy were waiting.

“Now, I’m in for it,” said Larry, as I locked the gate. “We’ve spiked one of his guns, but I’ve given him a new one to use against myself. But come, and I will show you the Door of Bewilderment before I skip.”

CHAPTER XXIV

A PROWLER OF THE NIGHT

Down we plunged into the cellar, through the trap and to the Door of Bewilderment.

“Don’t expect too much,” admonished Larry; “I can’t promise you a single Spanish coin .”

“Perish the ambition ! We have blocked Pickering’s game, and nothing else matters,” I said.

We crawled through the hole in the wall and lighted candles. The room was about seven feet square. At the farther end was an oblong wooden door, close to the ceiling, and Larry tugged at the fastening until it came down, bringing with it a mass of snow and leaves.

“Gentlemen,” he said, “we are at the edge of the ravine. Do you see the blue sky ? And yonder, if you will twist your necks a bit, is the boat-house.”

“Well, let the scenic effects go and show us where ” I urged. you found those papers,

“Speaking of mysteries, that is where I throw up my hands, lads. It’s quickly told. Here is a table, and here is a tin despatch box, which lies just where I found it. It was closed and the key was in the lock. I took out that packet—it wasn’t even sealed—saw the character of the contents, and couldn’t resist the temptation to try the effect of an announcement of its discovery on your friend Pickering. Now that is nearly all. I found this piece of paper under the tape with which the envelope was tied, and I don’t hesitate to say that when I read it I laughed until I thought I should shake down the cellar. Read it, John Glenarm !”

He handed me a sheet of legal-cap paper on which was written these words:

HE LAUGHS BEST WHO LAUGHS LAST

“What do you think is so funny in this ?” I demanded.

“Who wrote it, do you think ?” asked Stoddard.

“Who wrote it, do you ask ? Why, your grandfather wrote it ! John Marshall Glenarm, the cleverest, grandest !” declaimed Larry, old man that ever lived, wrote it his voice booming loudly in the room. “It’s all a great big game, fixed up to try you and Pickering,—but principally you, you blockhead ! Oh, it’s grand, perfectly, deliciously grand,—and to think it should be my good luck to share in it !”

“Humph ! I’m glad you’re amused, but it doesn’t strike me as being so awfully funny. Suppose those papers had fallen into Pickering’s hands; then where would the joke have been, I should like to know !”