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Rh mining shares owned by a rich old man, and said the shares would surely go up to double value in side of a month.

"I can't leave the old man," came over the wire. "Is Mr. Barker there?"

The man in the office had said he was Mr. Barker, and then the man on the wire had vouchsafed the additional information to Mrs. Stanhope that he was an old friend and perfectly trustworthy. Then Mrs. Stanhope had been requested to turn the fortune over to Mr. Barker, who would deliver it to Mr. Rover without delay.

Thinking that all was fair and square, Mrs. Stanhope had delivered the valise to the man, who had gone off with it immediately. He had told her to go home and Mr. Rover would send her word before night about what he had done.

She had returned to Cedarville and to her home and there she had waited patiently to hear from Anderson Rover. No message coming for her, she had at last grown suspicious and sent word to the hotel at which the Rover boys' father was supposed to be stopping. On receiving a reply that he was not there, and had not been there, she grew more alarmed than ever, and then sent the message to Oak Run which so mystified all of the Rovers.