h, did he? Well, then I'll wait for you in the village and you can
let me see it first. Then I'll know all about the fishing and I can be
on hand with my friend. Trot along, Sonny. I'll meet you in the
village when you get the answer to the note. Then I'll know just where
to go fishing. How is it around here? Are there any good streams?"

"Are there? Say, I've caught some of the biggest chubb--"

"Ah, I thought I wasn't mistaken in thinking you a pupil in the school
of Izaak Walton."

"Isaac Walton? Huh! That ain't our teacher's name!"

"No, I suppose not," and the colonel smiled. "Well, hurry along Sonny,
and here's an extra quarter for you, I'll follow you and you can let me
see the answer before you go back to my friend. It would be too bad if
he and I went fishing in separate places. I want to be with him."

"Where's your hooks and line?" asked the boy.

"Oh, I have them in my pocket--the hooks and line," and the colonel
grimly tapped a pocket wherein something clicked metallicly.

"You can cut a pole in the woods," said the boy. "I've done it lots of
times."

"Of course," agreed the colonel, smiling. The boy sped away over the
fields. The detective followed more slowly until he reached the
collection of houses, and there he strolled along, inspecting the
different dwellings as though attracted by the quaint old village
street.

It was not long before the boy returned, an envelope held conspicuously
in his hand. He smiled as he caught sight of the colonel.

The shadows were lengthening.

"It's too late for fishing now," observed the boy as, unwittingly, he
handed over the missive. "That is, unless you're going to set night
lines."

"I may have to do that," the detective agreed. "But it won't be quite
dark yet for some time."

He glanced quickly at the envelope. It bore no address on its plain,
white surface, and under pretence of turning, so as to take advantage
of the last golden glow in the west, the colonel quickly read the
letter. As he did so a look, almost of fright, came over his face.

"I wonder if she'll keep her word," he murmured. "I wonder--"

He slipped the letter quickly into another plain envelope, one of a
miscellaneous collection of papers in his pocket, and returned it to
the boy, retaining the covering he had been obliged to tear open, for
it had been sealed.

"There you are," he said. "And you needn't say anything to my friend
about the fishing. I want