“Why, yes, don’t you remember my giving them to you?  They were in a large yellow envelope.  I think you placed them away with your traction company bonds.”

“Why—­er—­so I did,” stammered Randolph Rover.  “But I—­er—­I don’t quite remember what I did with them.”  He scratched his head.  “I’ll go and get my tin box.”

He left the sitting room, and after being gone fully ten minutes returned with a flat tin box, in which he kept some papers of value.

“The envelope doesn’t seem to be here,” he said, turning over the contents of the box.

“Don’t you remember it?” asked his brother, anxiously.

“Oh, yes, I remember it very well now.  I saw it only a couple of days before I went to Carwell with my bonds.”

“Did you take that tin box to Carwell?” asked Tom.

“Yes.”

“Was the envelope in it then?”

“I—­er—­I really don’t know, Thomas.  You see I was much upset, thinking my bonds were no good.  Perhaps the yellow envelope was in the box, under the bonds.”

“And did Sid Merrick have hold of the box?” demanded Anderson Rover.

“He may have had.  The box was on a side table, and he walked around the room and over to it several times.”

“Then, unless you have the envelope now, Sid Merrick stole it,” said Anderson Rover, somewhat bitterly.

This announcement filled Randolph Rover with increased anxiety and as a result he looked over all his private papers and ransacked his safe and his desk from end to end.  But the precious yellow envelope and its contents were not brought to light.

“Merrick must have gotten hold of that envelope at the time he stole the bonds,” said Dick.  “Maybe that is what made him trace up this story of the treasure.”

“That may be true, Dick,” answered his parent.

Randolph Rover was greatly distressed over the disappearance of the maps and drawings and upbraided himself roundly for not having been more careful.

“Now that they are in this Merrick’s hands he may make use of them,” he said dolefully.

“Undoubtedly he will,” answered Anderson Rover.

“If he has those papers and maps why did he send Cuffer and Shelley here?” asked Tom.

“Most likely he thought he could get additional information.”

“It seems to me the best thing we can do is to get after that treasure without delay,” said Dick.  “If we don’t, Merrick may form some kind of a party, locate the island, and steal the gold and jewels from under our very noses!”

“Oh, such things are not done in a day, Dick,” said his father, with a faint smile.  “But I agree with you, the quicker we get after the treasure the better.”

After that a discussion lasting well after the dinner hour followed, and was only ended when Mrs. Rover fairly drove them into the dining room for the midday repast.  It was resolved that the party to go in search of the treasure should be made up of Anderson Rover and his three sons, Mrs. Stanhope and Dora, the Lannings, and also Fred Garrison, Songbird Powell and Hans Mueller.  During the afternoon a number of telegrams and letters were written, and the boys send these off before nightfall.