the three boys stood for a moment looking after the rapidly disappearing wagon, then, stooping down, rand picked up something from the road.

"it isn't worth trying, rand," advised donald. "you couldn't hit him if you wanted to, and you wouldn't want to if you could. you can get even with him some better way."

"right as usual, donald," laughed rand, "but i wasn't looking for anything to throw at him. i just happened to see this lying on the ground and picked it up." holding out a coin he had found, he added: "what do you make of it?"

"w-w-what is it?" stammered pepper, all excitement. "it l-looks like an old-fashioned cent."

"you have got me," replied donald. "i never saw any money like that."

"let's have a close look at it," put in pepper.

the boys studied over the coin, which was of the size of the early copper cent, for some time without being much the wiser.

"see, there is a representation of a ship under full sail," remarked rand, "with the name constitution on it. i wonder what it means?"

"and it has the words 'webster credit current' around it," added pepper.

"and on the other side is shown the ship wrecked on some rocks. something about wrecking the constitution, i suppose," added rand. "this side says, 'van buren metallic current,' with the date '1837'," put in donald.

"i have it!" suddenly ejaculated rand.

"of course you have," admitted donald, "but do you know what it is?"

"i see i must speak by the book, as hamlet says," laughed rand. "i mean i know what it is."

"what is it, then?" demanded donald.

"it is some kind of a token, i think," replied rand, "but i will ask uncle floyd about it. he will sure know."

"i w-w-wonder if there are any more of them," stammered pepper, looking along the road. "yes, here is another one."

"is it like this?" asked rand.

"it looks very similar," replied pepper, still hunting about.

"find any more?" called donald.

"not yet."

nor were there any more found, although they looked long and carefully up and down the road for some time.

"what is the difference between them?" questioned pepper, when they had finally given up the hunt and sat down by the side of the road to compare the two coins.

"why, instead of a ship this one shows, on the one side, a man in a chest with a sword in one hand and a bag of money in the other, and around the edge are the words, 'i take the responsibility.' the other side has the wreck like the first one," concluded rand after he had examined them.

"it's a very curious thing," he continued, handing the one coin back to pepper.

"i don't see anything very curious about them," demurred donald.

"i mean it is very curious how they got here," explained rand.

"i don't see anything very curious about that, either," went on donald. "why shouldn't they be here as well as anywhere?"

"i don't know, i am sure," laughed rand, "only i don't see why they should be here, or anywhere, for that matter."

"oh, i don't know," replied donald. "somebody probably dropped them as they were going along."

"undoubtedly," agreed rand. "i don't believe that they grew here. but who dropped them and how did they happen along here?"

"ask jack," suggested donald, "he'll make a whole story out of it."

"they certainly are not common," went on rand, "and people don't usually carry them in their pockets. i'd like to know the history of these and how they came here, but i don't suppose i ever shall. but, speaking of curious things, what do you suppose monkey rae was doing with that horse and wagon?"

"driving them," drawled pepper. "what do you think he was doing with them, using them for an aeroplane?"

"no," returned rand, "i thought maybe he was using them to dredge for clams. but, speaking of clams, which would you sooner do or go a-fishing?"

"go a-fishing!" cried donald and pepper, starting off on a run down the hill to the boat-house.

"well," began pepper as soon as they were fairly inside the house, "didn't i hear somebody say breakfast?" at the same time starting to get out of the locker the various utensils that the boys kept at the house to cook with on their fishing trips.

"hold on there, pepper," remonstrated donald, as pepper continued to pull out one pan after another. "we don't need ail that stuff. what do you think you are going to do, get up a banquet? if you are going to use ail those pots and pans, son, you will have to wash them by your lonesome."

"huh!" replied pepper, "there wouldn't be any novelty about that. the dish-washing seems to gravitate my way anyhow."

"that's because you use so many more of them than the rest of us," explained donald.

"why, i don't use any more of them than you do," expostulated pepper. "well, maybe you don't use any more," admitted don with a judicial air, "but you use them more."

pepper was about to retort in kind when there was a quick step outside the door and an alert-looking, brown-haired, brown-eyed boy, with his cap perched upon the back of his head, dashed into the room.

"hello, fellows!" he cried, "i thought i wasn't going to get here in time, but i see i struck it at the psychological moment. i am as hungry as a bull pup."

"hello, jack!" responded rand, "we began to think you weren't coming. what's the latest in creston?"

"oh, there is something worth while to-day," replied jack, drawing a box up to the plank that served as a table. "pass me some of those biscuits, pepper, if you don't mind sparing a few, so i can eat while i talk."

"better not try it, jack," cautioned rand, "for if you eat as fast as you talk or talk as fast as you eat you will either starve yourself or choke."

"all right," laughed jack, "if that is the case i'll eat first and talk afterwards," and this he would do, notwithstanding the pleadings of the others, anxious to share in any exciting news.