"What are the bonds worth, Allen?" "Close on to eighty thousand dollars, Hardwick." "Phew as much as that?" "Yes. The market has been going up since the first of December." "How did he happen to get hold of them?" "I don't know the particulars. Mr. Mason was an old friend of the family, and I presume he thought he could leave them in no better hands." "And where are they now?" "In his private safe." "Humph " The conversation recorded above took place one evening on a Pennsylvania Railroad ferry-boat while the craft was making the trip from Jersey City to New York.