Ned Wilding's Disappearance Part 35

"Oh, that!" cried Mr. Wilding. "I guess I forgot to tell you about that, I was so busy thinking of Ned. That's all cleared up!"

"How?" asked Bart.

"They found out it was done by a wicked boy named Peter Sanderson. He thought it was a joke to set off a dynamite cartridge, but he found out it wasn't. He's been sent to the reform school and his father has to pay a big bill for damages. I got a letter from Fenn's father this morning, telling me all about it. So you boys can go home with everything cleared up."

"And we'll take William with us," said Bart.

"Yes, of course. I guess William's troubles are over too. We need a boy in the bank, and I think he will fill the bill," and Mr. Wilding laughed.

They were all so excited that none of them slept well that night, but they were up early and started back for Darewell.

Ned rather expected his father would express regret at the loss of the hundred dollars, for Detective Reilly said there was little chance of the money ever being recovered. Mr. Wilding, however, did not refer to it, until Ned, anxious to know how his parent felt, remarked:

"I guess I'm not much of a business man, dad."

"Why so?" inquired Mr. Wilding with a smile.

"Why, I lost my hundred dollars the first thing."

"Not exactly lost it, Ned, though you haven't got it. You can consider that you bought a hundred dollars worth of experience, and I think you got quite a lot for your money."

"I certainly did," replied Ned with conviction.

"By the way," his father went on. "I got a telegram from your aunt. Her niece in Chicago is not as ill as was at first believed, and Mrs.

Kenfield is coming home soon. She wants you boys to stay and visit her.

Your uncle will be home from Europe in another week."

"I think I'd rather go home for a while," answered Ned.

"Well, everything came out all right," remarked Bart as he and Fenn sat together looking from the car windows as they approached their destination.

"Yes, everything is right but Frank," replied Fenn. "He's been acting strangely lately," and he nodded toward his chum who sat alone in a seat on the other side of the car.

"I wonder what ails him?" Bart remarked.

"I'd like to find out. It certainly is something strange," went on Fenn.

What the mystery was will be told in the third volume of this series, to be called, "Frank Roscoe's Secret."

A little later the train drew into the Darewell depot. There was quite a crowd to welcome the boys, for their story was partly known. Mr. Wilding had telegraphed to the families of Ned's chums, that the mystery was solved and the trouble at last ended.

"Did you see any great actors, Fenn?" asked Jennie as she greeted the boys. "Tell me all about them."

"The only actor we saw was John Newton, the 'Marvelous Bird Warbler,'"

replied Fenn, "and we left him there. He certainly can whistle."

"Oh, tell us all about it!" begged Alice. "Did you see any accidents?"

"Didn't have time," her brother replied. "But come on home. I want to see the folks."

There we will take leave of the boys and girls, as they trooped up the platform, talking, laughing, and asking and answering scores of questions. Only two in the crowd were rather silent. Frank, who seemed gloomy and depressed, and William. But William was only quiet because of the great happiness he felt in knowing he would soon see his mother and sisters, from whom he had been so long separated. Two hours later he was with them, telling all about the way the chums found him, and of Ned's disappearance so strangely solved with his aid.

THE END