odder on which he had lain. His clothing was stained. He wore no
linen and the shoes on his feet were broken.

Never in her life had Janice Day seen a more desperate looking young
fellow and she was actually afraid of him. Yet she knew he came of a
respectable family, and that he had a decent lodging in town. What
business had he up here at her uncle's sheepfold?

Janice continued her walk no farther. She remained in hiding until she
saw Jack Besmith stumble out of the sheep pasture and down the hill
behind the Day stables--taking a retired route toward the village.

Coming down into the barnyard once more, Janice met Marty with a
foaming milk pail.

"Hullo, early bird!" he sang out. "Did you catch the worm this
morning?"

Janice shuddered a trifle. "I believe I did, Marty," she confessed.
"At least, I saw some such crawling thing."

"Hi tunket! Not a snake so early in the year?"

"I don't know," and his cousin smiled, yet with gravity.

"Huh?" queried the boy, with curiosity, for he saw that something
unusual had occurred.

Janice gravely told him whom she had seen in the sheepfold. "And,
Marty, I believe he must have been up there all night--sleeping
outdoors such weather as this. What for, do you suppose?"

Marty professed inability to explain; but after he had taken the milk
in to his mother, he slipped away and ran up to the sheep pasture
himself.

"I say, Janice," he said, grinning, when he came back. "I can solve
the mystery, I can."

"What mystery?" asked his cousin, who was flushed now with helping her
aunt get breakfast.

"The mystery of the 'early worm' that you saw this mornin'." He
brought his hand from behind him and displayed an empty, amber-colored
flask on which was a gaudy label announcing its contents to have been
whiskey and sold by "_L. Parraday, Polktown._"

"Oh, dear! Is _that_ the trouble with the Besmith boy?" murmured
Janice.

"That's how he came to lose his job with Massey."

"Poor fellow! He looked dreadful!"

"Oh, he's a bad egg," said her cousin, carelessly.

Janice hurried through breakfast, for the car was to be brought forth
to-day. Marty had been fussing over it for almost a week. The wind
was drying up the roads and it was possible for Janice to take a spin
out into the open country.

Marty's prospects of enjoying the outing, however, were nipped before
he could leave the table.

"Throw the chain harness on the colts, Marty," said his father.