k, time I lost my
clothes and money." He looked it over and, glancing about, seemed lost
in thought. "This beats me!" He shook his head and muttered from time
to time, "This beats me!" There seemed nothing more of interest to
see, so the boys turned homeward.

On the way back Caleb was evidently thinking hard. He walked in
silence till they got opposite Granny de Neuville's shanty, which was
the nearest one to the grave. At the gate he turned and said: "Guess
I'm going in here. Say, Yan, you didn't do any of that hollering last
night, did you?"

"No, sir; not a word. The only sound I made was dragging the
ring-stone over the boulder."

"Well, I'll see you at camp," he said, and turned in to Granny's.

"The tap o' the marnin' to ye, an' may yer sowl rest in pace," was the
cheery old woman's greeting. "Come in--come in, Caleb, an' set down.
An' how is Saryann an' Dick?"

"They seem happy an' prosperin'," said the old man with bitterness.
"Say, Granny, did you ever hear the story about Garney's grave out
there on the road?"

"For the love av goodness, an' how is it yer after askin' me that now?
Sure an' I heard the story many a time, an' I'm after hearin' the
ghost last night, an' it's a-shiverin' yit Oi am."

"What did you hear, Granny?"

"Och, an' it was the most divilish yells iver let out av a soul in
hell. Shure the Dog and the Cat both av thim was scairt, and the owld
white-faced cow come a-runnin' an' jumped the bars to get aff av the
road."

Here was what Caleb wanted, and he kept her going by his evident
interest. After she tired of providing more realistic details of
the night's uproar, Caleb deliberately tapped another vintage of
tittle-tattle in hope of further information leaking out.

"Granny, did you hear of a robbery last week down this side of
Downey's Dump?"

"Shure an' I did not," she exclaimed, her eyes ablaze with
interest--neither had Caleb, for that matter; but he wanted to start
the subject--"An" who was it was robbed?"

"Don't know, unless it was John Evans's place."

"Shure an' I don't know him, but I warrant he could sthand to lose.
Shure an' it's when the raskils come after me an' Cal Conner the
moment it was talked around that we had sold our Cow; then sez I, it's
gittin' onraisonable, an' them divils shorely seems to know whin a wad
o' money passes."

"That's the gospel truth. But when wuz you robbed, Granny?"

"Robbed? I didn't say I wuz robbed," and she cackled. "But the