e, yit, afore I'm a lady, so
I guess I'll talk like Marm did. Marm weren't a _real_ lady, to my
mind, though she claimed she'd show anybody that said she wasn't. Real
ladies don't leave the'r kids in the clutches of Ol' Swallertails."

Mary Louise did not think it wise to criticize the unknown Mrs. Scammel
or to allow the woman's small daughter to do so. So she changed the
subject to more pleasant and interesting topics and the afternoon wore
speedily away.

Finally Ingua jumped up and said:

"I gotta go. If Gran'dad don't find supper ready there'll be another
rumpus, an' I've been so happy to-day that I want to keep things
pleasant-like."

"Won't you take the rest of these cakes with you?" urged Mary Louise.

"Nope. I'll eat one more, on my way home, but I ain't one o' them
tramps that wants food pushed at 'em in a bundle. We ain't got much
to home, but what we got's ours."

A queer sort of mistaken pride, Mary Louise reflected, as she watched
the girl spring lightly over the stepping-stones and run up the
opposite bank. Evidently Ingua considered old Mr. Cragg her natural
guardian and would accept nothing from others that he failed to provide
her with. Yet, to judge from her speech, she detested her grandfather
and regarded him with unspeakable aversion.

CHAPTER VII
MARY LOUISE CALLS FOR HELP

All the queer hints dropped by the girl that afternoon, concerning the
relations between Mr. Joselyn and Mr. Cragg, were confided by Mary
Louise to her Gran'pa Jim that evening, while the old Colonel listened
with grave interest.

"I'm sure there is some mystery here," declared Mary Louise, "and maybe
we are going to discover some dreadful crime."

"And, on the contrary," returned Colonel Hathaway, "the two men may
have been interested together in some business venture that resulted
disastrously and led Mr. Joselyn to run away to escape his wife's
reproaches. I consider that a more logical solution of your mystery, my
dear."

"In that case," was her quick reply, "why is Mr. Cragg still writing
scores of letters and getting bags full of replies? I don't believe
that business deal--whatever it was--is ended, by any means. I think
that Ned Joselyn and Old Swallowtail are still carrying it on, one in
hiding and the other here--and to be here is to be in hiding, also. And
it isn't an honest business, Gran'pa Jim, or they wouldn't be so secret
about it."

The Colonel regarded his young granddaughter with surpris