Galusha started. "Eh?" he queried. "Thinking? Oh, yes--yes!--I suppose I
was thinking, Primmie. I--ah--sometimes do."

"You 'most always do. I never see anybody think as much as you do, Mr.
Bangs. Never in my born days I never. And lately--my savin' soul! Seems
as if you didn't do nothin' BUT think lately. Just set around and think
and twiddle that thing on your watch chain."

The thing on the watch chain was a rather odd charm which Mr. Bangs had
possessed for many years. "Twiddling" it was a habit of his. In fact, he
had twiddled it so much that the pivot upon which it had hung broke and
Martha had insisted upon his sending the charm to Boston for repairs. It
had recently been returned.

"What is that thing, Mr. Bangs?" asked Primmie. "I was lookin' at it
t'other day when you left your watch chain layin' out in the sink."

"In the sink? You mean BY the sink, don't you, Primmie?"

"No, I don't, I mean IN it. You'd forgot your watch and Miss Martha she
sent me up to your room after it. I fetched it down to you and you and
her was talkin' in the kitchen and you was washin' your hands in the
sink basin. Don't you remember you was?"

"Was I? I--I presume I was if you say so. Really I--I have forgotten."

"Course you have. And you forgot your watch, too. Left it layin' right
alongside that tin washbasin full of soapsuds. 'Twas a mercy you didn't
empty out the suds on top of it. Well, I snaked it out of the sink
and chased out the door to give it to you and you was halfway to the
lighthouse and I couldn't make you hear to save my soul. 'Twas then
I noticed that charm thing. That's an awful funny kind of thing, Mr.
Bangs. There's a--a bug on it, ain't there?"

"Why--ah--yes, Primmie. That charm is a very old scarab."

"Hey? A what? I told Miss Martha it looked for all the world like a
pertater bug."

Galusha smiled. He held out the charm for her inspection.

"I have had that for a long time," he said. "It is a--ah--souvenir of my
first Egyptian expedition. The scarab is a rather rare example. I found
it myself at Saqqarah, in a tomb. It is a scarab of the Vth Dynasty."

"Hey? Die--what?"

"The Vth Dynasty; that is the way we classify Egyptian--ah--relics, by
dynasties, you know. The Vth Dynasty was about six thousand years ago."

Primmie sat down upon the chair she had been dusting.

"Hey?" she exclaimed. "My Lord of Isrul! Is that bug thing there six
thousand year old?"

"Yes."

"My savin' soul! WHAT kin