We looked behind, but the Ford wasn’t in sight.

“The papers are stolen! The papers are stolen!” Pee-wee kept shouting, “There’s a plot! Hurry up, drive faster! I bet it was that soda clerk in Bennett’s.”

“The papers aren’t so necessary,” Grove said.

“Sure they’re necessary,” Pee-wee screamed; “that letter reveals the secret. Drive faster!”

Brent didn’t drive any faster, he just laughed; and all the while the rest of us were rooting around, trying to find the papers.

“Look under the seat,” Grove said.

We got up from the back seat and lifted it and Pee-wee poked his head around underneath and groped with his hands.

“Is he there?” Brent asked him.

“Who?” Pee-wee hollered.

“The soda clerk from Bennett’s,” Brent said.

“No, but the mystery grows deeper,” Pee-wee shouted. “Give me the flashlight—quick. There’s some buried treasure here! Look! Here are some spoons. Here’s a silver thing like they have hot chocolate in! He put them here—look! I knew he was a villain!”

Grove and I, who were in the back part of the machine, looked into the space under the seat, and good night, as sure as anything, there was a silver bowl and some spoons in a box all lined with plush. The flashlight made them all bright Just as I was looking, Pee-wee opened a big plush box and there was a gold watch and a dandy long pearl necklace and a lot of other things.

good night

“Now, what have you got to say?” he shouted in my face.

Now

Brent looked around, kind of laughing, but he didn’t bother to stop the car. I guess he was too anxious to get to Utica.

“What do you think it means?” Pee-wee said, in a kind of whisper. “We’d better wait for them to catch up, hey?”

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