dull moment.

Moments later, Biff returned.

“Well?” The big grin was still on Uncle Charlie’s face. It disappeared instantly on Biff’s report.

“There is no one in the room next door,” Biff said in a quiet, steady voice.

“Stay here!” Charles Keene leaped for the door. Biff, standing in the doorway, saw him dash into the adjoining room. He was back out in a flash. No longer did he wear a grin. His expression was as serious as Biff had ever seen it.

Charles Keene walked back to Biff, his brows knitted in worry and anger.

“I guess I outsmarted myself,” he said.

“Who was I supposed to find in the next room?” Biff whispered. “Derek?”

“Yes. It was he who knocked just before I came in. It was this way. We couldn’t be sure how many people might have been in this room. We knew you were. We followed you to the hotel—”

“But how did you know what room I’d be in?”

“Oh, that was easy. I’m well known here at the Del Mar. The clerk told me Dietz’s room number. I took the room next to it.”

“You know Dietz, then?” Biff cut in, glancing sidewise to make sure Specks could not overhear them.

“Do I? He’s a bad one. Getting more and more desperate, too. There’s a pot of gold that he’s afraid we’re going to get to first.”

“Pot of gold?”

“Well, not literally; not actually gold. But it’s worth many pots of gold—big ones.”

“Go on, Uncle Charlie,” Biff whispered. “How did you get over to this balcony?”

“There’s a ledge, not a very wide one, that joins the balconies....”

Biff remembered the ledge now. It wasn’t more than ten inches wide. His uncle had taken a dangerous chance in crossing on that narrow ledge from his room to this one.

“The boy, by knocking on the door, was to cause enough distraction to give me time to cross the ledge to this room. I was counting on the element of surprise if I found you being held by more than two men. Remember, surprise can add the 

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