rst comers all he knows, and a good deal more!"
He ran his eyes up and down over Cap'n Sproul with fresh interest.
"If that don't beat tophet! You and me both at that horsepittle and
gettin' mixed up with the same woman!"

"This world ain't got no special bigness," said the Cap'n. "I've
sailed round it a dozen times, and I know."

The showman grasped the selectman by the coat-lapel and demanded
earnestly: "Didn't you figger it as I did, when you got so you could
set up and take notice, that she wasn't all right in her head?"

"Softer'n a jelly-fish!" declared the Cap'n, with unction.

"Then she's got crazier, and up all of a sudden and followed us--and
don't care which one she gets!"

"Or else got sensibler and remembered our property and come around
to let blood."

"Bound to make trouble, anyway."

"She's made it!" The Cap'n turned doleful gaze over his shoulder at
the chimney of his house.

"Bein' crazy she can make a lot more of it. I tell you, Cap'n, there's
only this to do, and it ought to work with wimmen-folks as sensible
as our'n are. We'll swap letters, and go back home and tell the whole
story and set ourselves straight. They're bound to see the right side
of it."

"There ain't any reckonin' on what a woman will do," observed the
Cap'n, gloomily. "The theory of tellin' the truth sounds all right,
and _is_ all right, of course. But I read somewhere, once, that a
woman thrives best on truth diluted with a little careful and
judicious lyin'. And the feller seemed to know what he was talkin'
about."

"It's the truth for me this time," cried Hiram, stoutly.

"Well, then, ditto and the same for me. But if it's comin' on to blow,
we might as well get another anchor out. I'll start Constable Denslow
'round town to see what he can see. If he's sly enough and she's still
here he prob'ly can locate her. And if he can scare her off, so much
the better."

Constable Denslow, intrusted with only scant and vague information,
began his search for a supposed escaped lunatic that day. Before
nightfall he reported to the Cap'n that there were no strangers in
town. However, right on the heels of that consoling information came
again that terror who travelled by night! In the dusk of early evening
another letter was left for Aaron Sproul, nor was the domicile of
Hiram Look slighted by the mysterious correspondent.

Moved by common impulse the victims met in the path across the fields
next morning.

"Another one