he and Pete returned from their strange quest. Little
he dreamed of the stir that telephone message caused in his home.

All the way out to Keefe on the train he was planning interviews with
his mother and wondering whether the seed he had dropped into her mind
before leaving had borne fruit. He had promised Geraldine not to coerce
her, and the girl's pride he knew would not submit to opposing his
mother's wish. Therefore, when Mrs. Barry walked out on the piazza to
meet him, it was a very serious son that she encountered.

"What is the matter, Benny?" she asked as she kissed him. "Have you
failed?"

"No, indeed. I have succeeded triumphantly. I've got Carder in a box,
and, believe me, he won't try to lift up the lid and let anybody see
him."

"He was here soon after you left," said Mrs. Barry calmly.

Ben looked surprised and alert.

"What did he want?"

"Pete; and he was going to have him or put you in the lock-up. Also he
wanted Miss Melody. He's a wretch, Ben. I'm glad you went after him."

"He'll not trouble her any more," said the young fellow, walking into
the house with his mother clinging to his arm. "Carder is going to have
ample leisure to think over the game he has played. Isn't it a strange
satire of fate that should make insignificant little Pete the boomerang
to turn back and floor him? Pete's an ideal witness. He sees what he
sees and he knows what he knows, and nothing can shake him because he
doesn't know anything else. Great Scott! when I located the facts at
that hospital and linked them together and brought an accusation against
Carder, it was like opening a door to a swarm of hornets. He has made so
many people hate him that when the timid ones found it would be safe to
loosen up, they were ready to fall upon him and sting him to death. He's
safe to get a long sentence, and it will be time enough when he comes
out to talk to him about Mr. Melody's debts--if Geraldine wishes it."

Ben looked around suddenly at his mother.

"Have you been to Keefeport to see Geraldine?"

She returned his gaze smiling, and feigned to tremble. "I'm so glad I
have, Ben. You look so severe."

"And did you take that magnifying glass?"

"Yes."

"Wasn't I right?" asked Ben with some relief.

"You were. I like the girl. I feel we are going to be friends."

"Well, then, how about her being a clerk for Miss Upton?"

Ben asked the question frowning, and flung himself down beside his
mother where she had sea