"What have you in your hand?" interrupted the engineer, looking at the fist which Roger unconsciously had closed over the white crystals. "And what are you doing with that string and weight," as he caught sight of the fishline and sinker. "Answer me!"

Mr. Ranquist darted suddenly at Roger, exclaiming:

"You have been trying to discover the secret of the hole we drilled!

Well I'll spoil that game for you, my young friend!"

With a violent spring the engineer was almost upon the boy, but Roger was too quick for him. He leaped to one side, his fist tightly clenched over the crystals, which now seemed of considerable value to him, when he saw what importance Mr. Ranquist attached to the matter. With a cry of astonishment and anger at the threatened attack, but showing no sign of fear, Roger bounded out of the glade and ran through the woods, and down the hill, with Mr. Ranquist crashing through the brush after him.

The chase was on.

After the first rush and surprise Roger collected his thoughts, and determined that Mr. Ranquist should not catch him. Or if the man outran him, he resolved he would not give up what he had without a fierce struggle. The excitement of the desperate race urged him on, and he felt he could run a mile or more. He knew he was in a better condition for sprinting than he had been in many months. So when he heard the engineer coming after him, he was almost pleased at the idea of the running contest. He believed he could win.

So he kept on, now stumbling over a low stump or a projecting root, now tripping on a fallen log, or sinking into a soft spot, but never slacking pace. The sounds made by his pursuer came more faintly to him.

Presently they died away altogether, and the boy felt he could safely stop. He listened intently, but there came not a noise from the woods behind him. Mr. Ranquist had given up.

"Well," thought Roger, defiantly, "he didn't make me give him these crystals, and he didn't catch me. Now I wonder what I had better do?"

He thought over the situation for a few minutes, while he rested from the chase, and then he decided on a plan.

"I'll bet Mr. Ranquist and Mr. Dudley will do something very soon now,"

he said to himself. "He thinks I have discovered his secret, and so I have, though I don't know exactly what it is. But as long as he thinks I have found him out, he'll be likely to get possession of Uncle Bert's land. And Uncle Bert will sell it to him because he needs the money so much, and he'll never know there's something valuable hidden under the surface until it is too late. I must hurry to Professor Bailey and see what he says. He ought to be able to tell what these crystals are."

With a heart that beat very hopefully Roger went down the path, and by a roundabout way to the professor's house. He did not want Mr. Kimball to see him. The boy knocked on the door, which was answered by Mrs. Bailey.

"Sorry," she said, in response to Roger's question, "but Professor Bailey is not home. He went away this morning, to be gone several weeks.

Can I do anything for you?"

"No," replied Roger, and his heart sank. It would be too late, unless he could soon find out what the white crystals were, for his uncle was not likely to delay in the sale of the land on merely a boy's suspicion.

What was he to do? Pondering on this problem, he left the front gate of the professor's house just as a wagon rattled up.

CHAPTER XXI

ROGER TAKES A JOURNEY

Roger was uncertain for a few minutes what to do. He heard the wagon rumbling past him, but gave no notice to the driver until the latter called out:

"h.e.l.lo, young man! Want a ride?"

Then the boy saw that the man was his uncle's neighbor, Enberry Took. Up to that minute Roger had not the remotest idea of taking a ride, but for some reason he could not explain, he resolved to get into the wagon. He wanted time to think of some new plan. So he nodded in answer to Mr.

Took's invitation.

"Whoa, Kate!" called Enberry to his mare, and pulled up opposite Professor Bailey's gate. Roger climbed to the seat, having first wrapped his precious crystals in a piece of paper before placing them in an inside pocket.

"G'lang!" shouted Mr. Took to Kate in a loud voice. "She's a little deef," the driver explained, indicating his mare. "Gittin' wuss, too.

Hev t' git her a ear trumpet soon, ef it keeps on. Look kinder queer, wouldn't it, a mare 'ith a ear trumpet?"

"I think it would," replied Roger, smiling at the idea.

"G'lang!" shouted Mr. Took again, and this time the mare started off at a slow pace.

The two rode for a few minutes in silence.

"Nice day," ventured Enberry at length.

"Fine," a.s.sented Roger.

"Goin' fer?" went on Mr. Took, flicking a fly from the mare's back.

"Why, yes--er--that is--I don't know. I mean I can't say."

"Wa'al, we'll git at it arter a while," laughed Enberry. "Which is it?"

"Where are you going?" asked Roger, a sudden thought coming to him.

"Syracuse. Why?"

"That's where I'm going then."

"Humph! Made up yer mind rather suddint," commented Enberry, with a grin. "But ye're welcome, all th' same. I won't be comin' back 'til rather late though, 'long about nine o'clock," he added.

"That will suit me good enough," said Roger. "I'll tell you what it is,"

growing confidential, and knowing he could trust Mr. Took. "I want to go to Syracuse to find a chemist. I have something, and I want to find out what it is. I was going to ask Professor Bailey, but he has gone away, and I'm in a hurry. I don't s'pose you know of a man out to the city who could tell all about minerals and such things, do you?"

"Ye say ye've got suthin' 'n' don't know what it is?" asked Mr. Took, with rather a puzzled look on his face.

Roger nodded.

"Then I know th' very place fer ye," said Enberry, suddenly. "Perfessor Bootsky 's th' man fer ye. He's a fortune teller. That's what ye want.

He'll reveal th' past, present, 'n' future. I went t' him onct. Told me I'd hev bad luck inside of a month, 'n' I'll be gol-swizzled ef one a'

my cows didn't up 'n' die on me. He's th' chap fer ye. Tell ye anythin'

'bout nothin' 'n' nothin' 'bout everythin', jest's ye like. I'll take ye t' him. G'lang, Kate!" and fired with sudden energy and enthusiasm, Mr.

Took sent the mare along at a flying pace.

"No! No!" exclaimed Roger, trying not to laugh.

"No?" with a puzzled air, from Enberry.

"I have something I want a.n.a.lyzed, to find out what sort of stuff it is," said Roger.

"Hain't n.o.body been tryin' t' pizen ye, hev they?" asked Enberry, with a startled look. "I read 'bout a case like thet in th' papers onct. Feller most died from drinkin' well water. Had a green sc.u.m on it. Took it t' a perfessor, 'n' what d' he s'pose he said?"

"What?"

"Paris Green! G'lang, Kate!"

"Oh, this is nothing like that," said Roger. "At least I do not believe what I have is poison."