h the chimney, banging it all
the way, says she, and thin there was a roar like powder had gone off,
as far as I can understand what she says."

"If Mrs. Paterno heard that she must have thought the Black Hand was
getting in its fine work, sure enough," smiled Mr. Emerson.

"Praise be, her room is on the other side of the house. We were all
wailing like banshees up there, but she no more than the rest. 'Tis
better she is," and Moya nodded reassuringly to the grown-ups, who
were, she knew, deeply interested in the Italian woman's recovery of
her nervous strength.

"This explosion business I don't understand," Mr. Emerson said slowly
to himself. "What did you find in the fireplace this morning, Moya? I
wish you had left all the stuff here for me to see."

"I'm sorry, sir. I was only thinkin' about havin' it clean before
breakfast. There was the bricks, sir, two of 'em; and a pile of soot
and some bits of trash wid no meanin'--"

"Did you find my two thinieth I picked up on the track yesterday?"
asked Dicky. "Ethels made me throw away all the thingth in my pocket
and my thinieth went too."

"What does he mean by his 'shinies'?" asked Mr. Emerson.

"He picked up a lot of stuff yesterday when we were hunting arrow heads
and walking to Rosemont by the short cut over the track. When I was
putting Mrs. Schuler's storm cape on him I emptied out his pocketful of
trash into the fireplace."

"What did the shinies look like, son?" inquired Dicky's grandfather.

Dicky was entering into an elaborate and unintelligible explanation
when Moya took the bits of brass from the gourd.

"Would these be the shinies?" she asked.

Mr. Emerson took them from her and examined them carefully.

"I rather think the explanation of the explosion is here," he decided.
"You say you picked these up on the track, Dicky?"

"Yeth, I did, and Ethel threw them away," repeated the youngster who
was beginning to think that he had a real grievance, since his
"shinies" seemed to have some importance.

"These are two of the small dynamite cartridges that brakemen lay on
the track to notify the engineer of a following train to stop for some
reason. They use them in stormy weather or when there is reason to
think that the usual flag or red light between the rails won't be seen."

"Dynamite!" exclaimed Ethel Brown, looking at her hand as she
remembered that she had not been especially gentle when she tossed the
contents of her brother's pock