so's ter airn his livin'."

"Right ye air, old feller," agreed the Southerner. "Hullo! here's the
buddy we're waitin' for. How long d'ye s'pose he'll last, loggin?"

Janice saw the ex-drug clerk, Jack Besmith, mounting the hill with a
pack on his back. Rough as the two lumbermen were, Besmith looked the
more dissolute character, despite his youth.

The trio went away together, bound evidently for one of Elder
Concannon's pieces of woodland, over the mountain.

Benny Thread came out of the school building and locked the door
importantly behind him. Several of the curious ones surrounded the
little man and tried to get him into conversation upon the subject of
the robbery.

"No, I can't talk," he said, shaking his head. "I can't, really. The
gentlemen of the School Committee have forbidden me. Why--only think!
It was more by good luck than good management that I wasn't placed in a
position where I could be suspected of the robbery. Lucky I was with
the committeemen every moment of the time they were down cellar. No, I
am not suspected, thanks be! But I must not talk--I must not talk."

It was evident that he wanted to talk and he could be over-urged to
talk if the right pressure was brought to bear. Janice came away,
leaving the eagerly curious pecking at him--the one white blackbird in
the flock.

Uncle Jason had given her some blunt words of encouragement. Janice
felt that she must see Nelson personally and cheer him up, if that were
possible. At least, she must tell him how she--and, indeed, all his
friends--had every confidence in him.

Some people whom she met as she went up High Street looked at her
curiously. Janice held her head at a prouder angle and marched up the
hill toward Mrs. Beaseley's. She ignored these curious glances.

But there was no escaping Mrs. Scattergood. That lover of gossip must
have been sitting behind her blind, peering down High Street, and
waiting for Janice's appearance.

She hurried out of the house, beckoning to the girl eagerly. Janice
could not very well refuse to approach, so she walked on up the hill
beyond the side street on which Mrs. Beaseley's cottage stood, and met
the birdlike little woman at her gate.

"For the good land's sake, Janice Day!" exploded Mrs. Scattergood. "I
was wonderin' if you'd never git up here. Surely, you've heard abeout
this drefful thing, ain't you?"

Janice knew there was no use in evasion with Mrs. Scattergood. She
bol