"That's it! By the Great Horn Spoon, but that's it! No wonder they want to keep it secret."

"What?" asked Roger, Mr. Vanter's excitement infecting him. "What is it?"

"Well," began the surveyor, cautiously, "I wouldn't want to raise any false hopes, but, Roger, my boy, I think you have stumbled across a big discovery, or, rather, you have probably done so at the same time these two men did. And it's a mighty good thing for you and your uncle. You say he is greatly in need of money to pay off this mortgage. Does Mr.

Ranquist or Mr. Dudley know about that?"

"I'm afraid they do," said Roger, thinking of how Adrian had incautiously told something of his father's affairs to the engineers that day.

"That's bad, that's bad," went on Mr. Vanter, half to himself. "Now, since they know you are on the track of their secret, they'll act promptly. Every minute is valuable. They may get your uncle to sign an agreement to-day promising to sell his land to them, and if he does so, it's as binding as if he deeded it away, if they choose to make him fulfil the contract, as, no doubt, they would do. If I had only known of this yesterday. But perhaps we can catch them yet." He looked quickly at his watch.

"But what's it all about?" asked Roger, who did not yet understand what made Mr. Vanter so excited, all over a little salt.

"It's this," replied the surveyor. "Unless I 'm very much mistaken, those men have discovered on your uncle's farm a valuable deposit of rock salt. Of its extent and worth I can only guess, but, from the actions of Mr. Ranquist, the mine must be a rich one. His object will be to secure Mr. Kimball's land, or that part of it in the spring-glade, before the fact becomes known that there is salt under the surface. Thus he can obtain, for the price of ordinary farming real estate, property that may be worth thousands and thousands of dollars."

Roger felt his breath come with a gasp.

"And it's our business to prevent this," said Mr. Vanter. "Now," he went on, "I'll tell you what we'll do."

He seemed to be thinking out a plan, and Roger waited, all impatience.

"You take the stage back to Cardiff," continued the surveyor. "I'll come on after you with Mr. Took, and that will give me time to make some arrangements here. Now be careful what you do. Don't tell any one you have seen me, and, when I arrive in Cardiff, don't recognize me if you meet me in the road. Above all, hurry. You have only just time to catch the stage. When you get home, say to your uncle the first thing: 'Don't sign any papers to sell the spring-glade land for at least a week.' If he wants to know why, tell him, and say you have seen me. But, if he hasn't signed, don't let him. Now hurry, and good luck go with you."

With wildly beating heart, thinking of what might happen in the next few hours, Roger made his way to the Candee House, where he found the stage just pulling out.

"Hi there! Mr. Amidown! Please take me along!" shouted the boy.

"Oh! Eh! Changed yer mind, did ye?" said Porter, as he pulled up his team and helped Roger to climb on the high seat. "Wa'al, I'm glad t' hev ye come along. I didn't hev no one t' ride 'ith me. Nothin' but a lot a'

weemin pa.s.sengers this trip. G'lang, Pete 'n' Jim," and he nicked the horses lightly.

Roger thought the ride to Cardiff would never come to an end. But, at last, he came in sight of the white church. He jumped off the stage at the post-office, and ran all the way to his uncle's house. He burst into the kitchen, where he saw Mr. Kimball looking at a paper.

"Fer th' land sakes," burst out Mrs. Kimball, "we thought a b'ar had carried ye off, Roger."

"Uncle Bert!" cried the boy, earnestly, "don't sign any papers, agreeing to sell the land near the spring!"

Mr. Kimball gazed slowly over the rims of his spectacles at his nephew.

"Wa'al," he began slowly, "I didn't know 's ye knew anythin' 'bout this transaction, but ye're a leetle too late. I signed an hour ago. Mr.

Ranquist brought th' agreement t' me, 'n' I must say I think I got a good price. Enough t' pay off th' mortgage, 'n' a leetle over."

"Then you have signed?" spoke the boy, waiting in fear for the answer.

"I hev."

"I'm too late," exclaimed Roger, bitterly. "They got ahead of me, after all."

CHAPTER XXII

A QUESTION OF LAW

The sudden entrance of Roger, his words and manner, and his earnestness, created no small excitement in the Kimball household. Adrian and Clara, who had been in the sitting-room, discussing the situation, and rejoicing over the sale of the land, by means of which the mortgage could be paid, came hurrying into the kitchen as they heard their cousin speak.

"h.e.l.lo, Roger!" exclaimed Adrian. "I was just going out to hunt you up.

Where were you?"

"Out to Syracuse," answered Roger, briefly.

Mr. Kimball folded up the agreement of sale he had been reading, and came over to where his nephew stood.

"Roger, my boy," he began, "what do ye mean? What is all this about, anyhow? Ain't I got a right t' sell my land ef I want t'? 'N' ain't two thousand dollars a good price fer th' spring-glade?"

"No, sir! It is not!" burst out the boy. "That's just it. You've gone and bargained away land worth probably twenty times what you have agreed to sell it for."

"What's that? I guess ye don't know what ye're talkin' about, Roger."

"I guess I do," said Roger, stoutly, but not forgetting the deference due his uncle. "Look here!" and he held out a few of the white crystals.

"What's them?" asked Mr. Kimball.

"Rock salt."

"Rock salt. Wa'al, what of it? There's lots of it, out t' Syracuse."

"And there's lots of it on that land you've agreed to sell," exclaimed Roger. "That's what I went to the city for. That's what I've been following Mr. Ranquist and Mr. Dudley for. Uncle Bert, your farm, or part of it, anyhow, is right over a salt mine. I know this, though I can't say how big the mine is. But a man who knows something about such things believes it will be worth lots of money. That's why I tried to hurry home, to prevent you from signing the property away."

"Oh! Why didn't ye wait, Bert?" said Mrs. Kimball, in a sorrowful voice.

"Wa'al," spoke Mr. Kimball, in rather a husky tone, "I s'pose I ought t'

hev, but how'd I know there was salt on my land? There ain't never been no evidences of it. How d'ye know there is?" turning suddenly to Roger.

"Because," answered the boy, earnestly, "I saw Mr. Ranquist and Mr.

Dudley drilling a hole near the spring. I saw them pull up something on the end of a rod, from deep down under the earth. This morning I lowered a weight on a string down the hole, and these white crystals stuck to the wax on the end of the lead. Mr. Ranquist saw me, and he chased me, but I beat him running. Then I went to a man in Syracuse. Enberry Took gave me a ride out. The man told me what this stuff was, and wanted me to warn you not to agree to sell."

Then Roger related the whole story to his uncle and the rest of the family, just as he had told Mr. Vanter. When he had finished a silence fell on the little group in the farmhouse kitchen.

"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Kimball, at length. "I guess th' boy's right. I wonder I didn't smell a rat when this feller Ranquist come so hot arter my land, when there's plenty other t' be hed in Cardiff. I never suspicioned nothin'. He offered me one thousand dollars, 'n' I says make it two thousand, so's I could pay off th' mortgage."

"Did he do it?" asked Roger.

"Never hesitated a minute," went on Mr. Kimball. "Agreed to it right away. 'N' then he hed me go up t' Squire Bimmer's office, 'n' sign th'

agreement. Paid me five hundred dollars down," and Mr. Kimball drew out a crisp bank-note, and gazed rather sorrowfully at it. "He said he'd pay th' balance 's soon 's we could draw th' deed, t'-morrow er next day, but he said th' agreement were's bindin' 's ef he hed a deed."

"I guess it is," said Roger, remembering what Mr. Vanter had told him.

"Plowshares 'n' hoe handles, but why didn't I wait!" lamented Mr.