cate key made and get a
peek into that drawer, which you never open in my presence. I believe
you're carrying on an intrigue with some man. Maybe it's full of
letters from--Dirty O'Brien."

Kate straightened herself up laughing.

"Dirty O'Brien? Well, he's all sorts of a sport anyway, and I like
'sports,'" she said lightly.

Helen took up the challenge.

"'Sports'? Why, yes, there are plenty of 'sports'--of a kind--in this
place. I'll have to see if I can find one who can make skeleton keys.
I'd surely say that sort of 'sport' should be going round the village
all right, all right."

She nodded her threat at her sister, who was in no way disconcerted.
She only laughed.

"What's brought you back on the run?" she inquired.

"Why, what d'you s'pose?"

Kate shrugged, still smiling.

"I'd say the only thing that could fix you that way was a--man."

"Right. Right in once. A man, Kate, not a mouse," Helen declared,
"although I allow they're both motive forces calculated to set me
running. The only thing is, one attracts, and the other repels. This
is distinctly a matter of attraction."

"Who's the man?" demanded the practical Kate, with a look of real
interest in her handsome eyes.

"Why, Big Brother Bill, of course, the man I promised you all I'd
marry."

Helen suddenly dashed at her sister and caught her by the arm in
pretended excitement.

"I've seen him, Kate, seen him!" she cried. "And--and he raised his
hat to me. He's big--ever so big, and he's got the loveliest, most
foolish blue eyes I've ever seen. That's how I knew him. Say, and when
I saw him with Inspector Fyles, I remembered what Charlie said about
him having no sense, and I had to laugh, and I think he thought I was
grinning at him, and that's why he raised his hat to me. It seemed so
comical--looked just as if he was being brought in charge of a
policeman for fear he'd lose himself, and would never find himself
again. He's surely a real live man, and I've fallen in love with him
right away, and, if you don't find something to send me up to see
Charlie about right away, I'll--I'll go crazy--or--or faint, or do
something equally foolish."

Kate's amusement culminated in a peal of laughter. She knew Helen so
well, and was so used to her wild outbursts of enthusiasm, which
generally lasted for five minutes, finally dying out in some whimsical
admission of her own irresponsibility.

She promptly entered into the spirit of the thing.

"Let's