in his eye. He
took the seat beside her and Linda started the car. She looked at him
interrogatively.

"Can you connect a heavy wind with the date of the lost plan?" he
inquired.

"There was a crack-a-jack a few days before," said Linda. "It blew over
some trees in the lot next to us."

"Exactly," said Snow; "and it plucked a screen from your guest-room
window. Katy thinks that the cheque to the carpenter and the cost of the
repairs will be in your sister's account books."

"Um hm," nodded Linda. "Well, that simplifies matters, because Peter
Morrison is going to tell you about a trip Henry Anderson made around
our house the morning Marian left."

"I think that is about all we need to know," said Mr. Snow conclusively.

"I think so," said Linda, "but I want you to see Peter's house for
yourself, since I understand that according to your contract the rights
to reproduce these particular plans remained with you after you had paid
prize money for them."

"Most certainly," said Mr. Snow. "We should have that much to show for
our share of the transaction."

"It's a queer thing," said Linda. "You would have to know me a long
time, and perhaps know under what conditions I have been reared in order
to understand a feeling that I frequently have concerning people. I
tobogganed down a sheer side of Multiflores Canyon one day without my
path having been previously prepared, and I very nearly landed in the
automobile that carried Henry Anderson and Peter Morrison on their first
trip to Lilac Valley. I was much interested in preserving the integrity
of my neck. I fervently hoped not to break more than a dozen of my
legs and arms, and was forced to bring down intact the finest Cotyledon
pulverulenta that Daddy or I had found in fourteen years of collecting
in California. I am telling you all this that you may see why I
might have been excused for not having been minutely observant of
my surroundings when I landed. But what I did observe was a chilly,
caterpillary sensation chasing up my spine the instant I met the eyes of
Henry Anderson. In that instant I said to myself that I would not trust
him, that I did not like him."

"And what about his companion?" asked Eugene Snow lightly. "Oh, Peter?"
said Linda. There was a caress in her pronunciation of the name. "Why,
Peter is a rock. The instant I deposited my Cotyledon in a safe place I
would have put my hand in Peter Morrison's and started around the world
if he had asked