we're on the right track. He's remembering. Think again. You
are a tip-top man at finding sugar, aren't you?"

"Yes, fin' shugh." Kaviak modestly admitted his prowess in that
direction.

"And you get hungry in the early morning?"

Yes, he would go so far as to admit that he did.

"You go skylarkin' about, and you remember--the syrup can! And you get
hold of it--didn't you?"

"To-malla."

"You mean yesterday--this morning?"

"N--"

"Sh!"

Kaviak blinked.

"Wait and think. Yesterday this was full. You remember Mac opened it
for you?"

Kaviak nodded.

"And now, you see"--he turned the can bottom side up--"all gone!"

"Oh-h!" murmured Kaviak with an accent of polite regret. Then, with
recovered cheerfulness, he pointed to the store corner: "Maw!"

Potts laughed in his irritating way, and Mac's face got red. Things
began to look black for Kaviak.

"Say, fellas, see here!" The Boy hammered the lid on the can with his
fist, and then held it out. "It was put away shut up, for I shut it,
and even one of us can't get that lid off without a knife or something
to pry it."

The company looked at the small hands doubtfully. They were none too
little for many a forbidden feat. How had he got on the swing-shelf?
How--

"Ye see, crayther, it must uv been yersilf, becuz there isn't annybuddy
else."

"Look here," said the Colonel, "we'll forgive you this time if you'll
own up. Just tell us--"

"Kaviak!" Again that journey from the cricket to the judgment-seat.

"Show us"--Mac had taken the shut tin, and now held it out--"show us
how you got the lid off."

But Kaviak turned away. Mac seized him by the shoulder and jerked him
round.

Everyone felt it to be suspicious that Kaviak was unwilling even to try
to open the all too attractive can. Was he really cunning, and did he
want not to give himself away? Wasn't he said to be much older than he
looked? and didn't he sometimes look a hundred, and wise for his years?

"See here: I haven't caught you in a lie yet, but if I do--"

Kaviak stared, drew a long breath, and seemed to retire within himself.

"You'd better attend to me, for I mean business."

Kaviak, recalled from internal communing, studied "Farva" a moment, and
then retreated to the cricket, as to a haven now, hastily and with
misgiving, tripping over his trailing coat. Mac stood up.

"Wait, old man." The Colonel stooped his big body till he was on a
level with the staring round eyes. "Yo' see, c