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238 "Yes."

"What do you know of him? Is he alive?"

"I think he is—at least Gasper Pold said he was."

"Pold! What does he know about it? Where is my father?"

"As near as I know, your father is in Mexico, at a place called Troxapocca. He is somewhat out of his mind, and Pold told Sack Todd he was working around a hotel there, doing all sorts of odd jobs. He goes by the name of Bangs—why, I don't know."

"Is it possible! I must look into this without delay."

"And then there is something else I want to tell you. I heard Todd and Pold talking about it when they thought they were alone. Todd accused Pold of having killed an old man, a hunter, in the woods, because the old hunter had vowed to expose one of Pold's lottery swindles. It came out in the talk that Pold had really done the deed and had put the dead hunter on a rock, where he was shot at by your father. Your father didn't hit the body, but he thought he did, and thinking he had killed this old man was what made your father crazy."

"I know it! I know it!" cried Harold Bird. "What a vile deed to do! And did Pold admit his guilt?"