'! That's a relief, anyhow. I was afraid--I didn't
know--Whew! I don't know WHAT I didn't know! But what on earth has she
gone to the store for? And last night too, you say?"

"Yes. Shadrach, I've been thinkin' and all I can think of is
that--that--"

"Well--what?"

"That--that she suspicions how things are with us--somebody that does
suspicion has dropped a hint and she has--has gone up to--"

"To do what? Chuck it overboard! Speak it out! To do what?"

"To look at the books or somethin'. She knows the combination of the
safe, you recollect."

Captain Shadrach's eyes and mouth opened simultaneously. He made a dive
for the hooks on the bedroom wall.

"Jumpin' fire of brimstone!" he roared. "Give me my clothes!"

A half-hour later an interested person--and, so far as that goes, at
least every second person in South Harniss would have been interested
had he or she been aware of what was going on--an interested and, of
course, unscrupulous person peeping in under the shades of Hamilton and
Company's window would have seen a curious sight. This person would have
seen two elderly men sitting one upon a wooden chair and the other
upon a wooden packing case and wearing guilty, not to say hang-dog,
expressions, while a young woman standing in front of them delivered
pointed and personal remarks.

Captain Shadrach and Zoeth, following their niece to the store, had
peeped in and seen her sitting at the desk, the safe open, and account
books and papers spread out before her. A board in the platform creaked
beneath the Captain's weighty tread and Mary looked up and saw them.
Before they could retreat or make up their minds what to do, she had
run to the door, thrown it open, and ordered them to come in. Neither
answered--they could not at the moment. The certainty that she knew what
they had tried so hard to conceal kept them tongue-tied.

"Come in!" repeated Mary. "Come in! And shut the door!"

They came in. Also Captain Shadrach shut the door. Just why he obeyed
orders so meekly he could not have told. His niece gave him little time
to think.

"I did not exactly expect you," she said, "but, on the whole, I am glad
you came. Now sit down, both of you, and listen to me. What do you mean
by it?"

Zoeth sat, without a word. Shadrach, however, made a feeble attempt to
bluster.

"What do WE mean by it?" he repeated. "What do YOU mean, you mean!
Perusin' up here in the middle of the night without a word to your Uncle