his arm.

"No, now," he said. "There's strange goings-on, here, Mr. Magee. I got
something to tell you--about a package of money I found in the kitchen."

Mr. Magee stood very still. Beside him in the darkness he heard the
hermit's excited breathing.

CHAPTER XIV

THE SIGN OF THE OPEN WINDOW

Undecided, Mr. Magee looked toward the kitchen door, from behind which
came the sound of men's voices. Then he smiled, turned and led Mr.
Peters back into the office. The Hermit of Baldpate fairly trembled with
news.

"Since I broke in on you yesterday morning," he said in a low tone as he
took a seat on the edge of a chair, "one thing has followed another so
fast that I'm a little dazed. I can't just get the full meaning of it
all."

"You have nothing on me there, Peters," Magee answered. "I can't
either."

"Well," went on the hermit, "as I say, through all this downpour of
people, including women, I've hung on to one idea. I'm working for you.
You give me my wages. You're the boss. That's why I feel I ought to give
what information I got to you."

"Yes, yes," Mr. Magee agreed impatiently. "Go ahead."

"Where you find women," Peters continued, "there you find things beyond
understanding. History--"

"Get to the point."

"Well--yes. This afternoon I was looking round through the kitchen, sort
of reconnoitering, you might say, and finding out what I have to work
with, for just between us, when some of this bunch goes I'll easily be
persuaded to come back and cook for you. I was hunting round in the big
refrigerator with a candle, thinking maybe some little token of food had
been left over from last summer's rush--something in a can that time can
not wither nor custom stale, as the poet says--and away up on the top
shelf, in the darkest corner, I found a little package."

"Quick, Peters," cried Magee, "where is that package now?"

"I'm coming to that," went on the hermit, not to be hurried. "What
struck me first about the thing was it didn't have any dust on it.
'Aha,' I says, or words to that effect. I opened it. What do you think
was in it?"

"I don't have to think--I know," said Magee. "Money. In the name of
heaven, Peters, tell me where you've got the thing."

"Just a minute, Mr. Magee. Let me tell it my way. You're right. There
was money in that package. Lots of it. Enough to found a university, or
buy a woman's gowns for a year. I was examining it careful-like when a
shadow came in the doorway. I