?"

"Why--I guess not. He only made Aunt Jane a small offer for it."

"He'll make a bigger," said Pritchett, clamping his jaws down tight on
that word, and turned on his heel.

She knew there was no use in trying to get more out of him then. Cyrus
Pritchett had "said his say."

When Lyddy got back to the house again she found that Grandma Castle's
folks had come to see her in their big automobile, and she and 'Phemie
had to hustle about with Mother Harrison to re-set the enlarged dining
table and make other extra preparations for the unexpected visitors.

So busy were they that the girls did not miss Harris Colesworth and
his father. They appeared just before the late dinner, rather warm and
hungry-looking for the Sabbath, Harris bearing something in his arms
carefully wrapped about in newspapers.

"Oh, what have you got?" 'Phemie gasped, having just a minute to speak to
the young man.

"Samples of the water Spink has bottled up there," returned Harris.

"What is it?"

"I don't know. But we'll find out. Father has an idea, and if it's
_so_----"

"Oh, what?" cried 'Phemie.

"You just wait!" returned Harris, hurrying away.

"Mean thing!" 'Phemie called after him. "You oughtn't to have any dinner."

But there was little chance for Harris to talk with the girls that day.
Before the dinner dishes were cleared away, a thunder cloud suddenly
topped the ridge, and soon a furious shower fell, with the thunder
reverberating from hill to hill, and the lightning flashing dazzlingly.

Behind this shower came a wind-storm that threatened, for a couple of
hours, to do much damage. Everybody was kept indoors, and as the night
fell dark and threatening the Castles had to be put up until morning.

The wind quieted down at last; so did the nervous members of the party
inside Hillcrest. When Lyddy and 'Phemie thought almost everybody else was
abed but themselves, and they were about to lock up the house and retire,
a candle appeared in the long corridor, and behind the candle was Harris
Colesworth, fully dressed.

"Sunday is about over, girls," he said, "and I can't possibly sleep. I
must do something. Didn't you tell me, Miss 'Phemie, there were retorts
and test-tubes, and the like, in your grandfather's rooms?"

"In the east wing?" cried Lyddy.

"Yes."

"Why, the back room was his laboratory. All the things are there," said
the younger girl.

"Let me go in there, then," said Harris, eagerly. "I want to test these