aten house and knocked. A
lanky, loose-jointed man came to the door, and a woman peered at Mr.
Gubb from behind the man.

"I hope you'll pardon," said Mr. Gubb politely, "but my name is P.
Gubb, deteckative and paper-hanger, and I'm looking up a case. Might I
trouble you for the loan of a spade or shovel?"

"What you want with it?" asked the man gruffly.

"To dig," said Mr. Gubb.

The man reluctantly handed Mr. Gubb a spade on which there were still
traces of soft, sandy soil. Mr. Gubb walked to the rear of the yard
and jabbed the spade into the soft soil. It struck something hard. In
a moment or two Mr. Gubb had the evidences of crime completely
uncovered. There were bones buried there--many bones. Mr. Gubb looked
up and wiped his brow. Then he looked down at the bones. One was a
skull. Mr. Gubb stared at it. It was indeed a skull, but it was the
skull of a calf. All the bones were calf bones--not bones of the human
calf, but bones of the veal calf. Mr. Gubb turned his head and saw the
long lanky man approaching.

"All right," said the long, lanky man, "I give up. You've got me. I
surrender. When a detective gets that close, a man hasn't any chance.
I own up. I did it."

"You did what?"

"Now, quit!" said the long, lanky man. "No use rubbin' it in after
I've owned up. You know as well as I do--I'm the man that stole Farmer
Hopper's calf. I give up. I surrender."

"I'm much obliged to you," said Philo Gubb.

"Well, I ain't obliged to _you,"_ said the lanky man, "but I wish
you'd tell me how you found out I was the calf thief."

Mr. Gubb smiled an inscrutable smile.

"A deteckative acquires dexterity in the way of capturing up the
criminal classes," he said with oracular yet modest simplicity.

* * * * *

The next day, when Mr. Gubb returned to his paper-hanging job he found
Chi Foxy waiting for him.

"Boss," he said with a laugh, "I showed you where that murdered man's
bones was buried, won't you stake me to a meal?"

"Are you hungry again?" asked Mr. Gubb.

"Hungry?" said Chi Foxy. "I'm so hungry that I feel like a living
skeleton. I'm so hungry that a square meal would make me feel like
Syrilla, that Fat Lady I seen at Derlingport a couple of days ago."

"What's that you remarked about?" asked Mr. Gubb, pinning Chi Foxy
with his eye. "Did I understand the meaning of what you said was that
you saw a Fat Lady named Syrilla?"

"At Derlingport," said Chi Foxy. "A swel