,"
he went on, as he scanned the familiar handwriting. "I never opened it!
Let's see--when did I get that?"

His memory went back to the day of his departure from Shopton when he
had sent Mary the gift, and he recalled that the letter had arrived
just as he was getting into the automobile.

"I stuck it in my pocket with some other mail," he mused, "and I never
thought of it again until just now. But this is the first time I've
worn this coat since that day. A letter from Mr. Nestor! Probably Mary
wrote, thanking me for the box, and her father addressed the envelope
for her. Well, let's see what it says."

Tom retired to the privacy of his stateroom to read the note, but he
had not glanced over more than the first half of it before he cried out:

"Dynamite! Great Scott! What does this mean? 'Gross carelessness! Poor
idea of a joke! No person with your idea of responsibility will ever be
my son-in-law!' Box labeled 'open with care!' Why--why--what does it
all mean?"

Tom read the letter over again, and his murmurs of astonishment were so
loud that Mr. Damon, in the next room, called out:

"What's the matter, Tom? Get bad news?"

"Bad news? I should say so! Mary--her father--he forbids me to see her
again. Says I tried to dynamite them all--or at least scare them into
believing I was going to. I can't understand it!"

"Tell me about it, Tom," suggested Mr. Damon, coming into Tom's
stateroom. "Bless my gunpowder keg! what does it mean?"

Thereupon Tom told of having purchased the gift for Mary, and of
having, at the last minute, told Eradicate to put it in a box and
deliver it at the Nestor home.

"Which he evidently did," Tom went on, "but when it got there Mary's
present was in a box labeled 'Dynamite. Handle with care.' I never sent
that."

Mr. Damon read over Mr. Nestor's letter which had lain so long in Tom's
pocket unopened.

"I think I see how it happened," said the old man. "Eradicate can't
read; can he, Tom?"

"No, but he pretends he can."

"And did you have any empty boxes marked dynamite in your laboratory?"

"Why yes, I believe I did. I used dynamite as one of the ingredients of
my new explosive."

"Well then, it's as clear as daylight. Eradicate, being unable to read,
took one of the empty dynamite boxes in which to pack Mary's present.
That's how it happened."

Tom thought for a moment. Then he burst into a laugh.

"That's it," he said, a bit ruefully. "That's the explanation. No
wond