over the
earth, he had reached the gate by which he had seen the girl of his
morning walk enter the cedar-bordered garden. He stopped at the gate
and glanced toward the house, which seemed dark and silent and deserted.

"It's more than likely," he thought, "that they are in the kitchen. I
reckon I'd better try the back door."

But as he drew cautiously near the corner, he saw a man's figure
outlined in the yellow light streaming from the open door of a small
house between Front Street and the cooper shop. Wishing, for reasons
of his own, to avoid observation, Warwick did not turn the corner, but
walked on down Front Street until he reached a point from which he
could see, at a long angle, a ray of light proceeding from the kitchen
window of the house behind the cedars.

"They are there," he muttered with a sigh of relief, for he had feared
they might be away. "I suspect I'll have to go to the front door,
after all. No one can see me through the trees."

He retraced his steps to the front gate, which he essayed to open.
There was apparently some defect in the latch, for it refused to work.
Warwick remembered the trick, and with a slight sense of amusement,
pushed his foot under the gate and gave it a hitch to the left, after
which it opened readily enough. He walked softly up the sanded path,
tiptoed up the steps and across the piazza, and rapped at the front
door, not too loudly, lest this too might attract the attention of the
man across the street. There was no response to his rap. He put his
ear to the door and heard voices within, and the muffled sound of
footsteps. After a moment he rapped again, a little louder than before.

There was an instant cessation of the sounds within. He rapped a third
time, to satisfy any lingering doubt in the minds of those who he felt
sure were listening in some trepidation. A moment later a ray of light
streamed through the keyhole.

"Who's there?" a woman's voice inquired somewhat sharply.

"A gentleman," answered Warwick, not holding it yet time to reveal
himself. "Does Mis' Molly Walden live here?"

"Yes," was the guarded answer. "I'm Mis' Walden. What's yo'r
business?"

"I have a message to you from your son John."

A key clicked in the lock. The door opened, and the elder of the two
women Warwick had seen upon the piazza stood in the doorway, peering
curiously and with signs of great excitement into the face of the
stranger.

"You 've got a message f