returning to her own home at night. After Mr. Wingate
had mowed a clean swath through ham and eggs, cornbread and coffee,
and had reached the cooky and doughnut stage, he condescended to speak
further concerning the stolen paper.

"Well," he said, "Brown give me and Jonadab a serious talkin' to when he
got us alone."

"'Now, fellers,' he says, 'we know what we've got to do. Nothin'll be
too good for this shebang and us if we get that agreement back. Fust
place, the thing was done a few minutes after the supper-bell rung.
That is, unless that 'Enry is in on the deal, which ain't unlikely,
considerin' the price he could get from the Gordon gang. Was anybody
late at the tables?'

"Why, yes; there were quite a few late. Two of the 'gunners,' who'd been
on a forlorn-hope duck hunt; and a minister and his wife, out walkin'
for their health; and Parker and two fellers from the football team,
who'd been practicin'.

"'Any of the waiters or the chambermaids?' asked Peter.

"I'd been expectin' he'd ask that, and I hated to answer.

"'One of the waiters was a little late,' says I. 'Willie wa'n't on hand
immediate. Said he went to wash his hands.'

"Now the help gen'rally washed in the fo'castle--the servants'
quarters, I mean--but there was a wash room on the floor where the
Sterzer-Robinsons roomed. Peter looked at Jonadab, and the two of 'em at
me. And I had to own up that Willie had come downstairs from that wash
room a few minutes after the bell rung.

"'Hum!' says Peter T. 'Hum!' he says. 'Look here, Barzilla, didn't you
tell me you knew that feller's real name, and that he had been studying
law?'

"'No,' says I, emphatic. 'I said 'twas law he was tryin' to get away
from. His tastes run large to literation and poetry.'

"'Hum!' says Peter again. 'All papers are more or less literary--even
trust agreements. Hum!'

"'All the same,' says I, 'I'll bet my Sunday beaver that HE never took
it.'

"They didn't answer, but looked solemn. Then the three of us went on
watch.

"Nobody made a move to go out that evenin'. I kept whatever mail was
handed in, but there was nothin' that looked like any agreements,
and nothin' addressed to Gordon or his lawyers. At twelve or so, the
detective come. Peter drove up to the depot to meet the special. He told
the whole yarn on the way down.

"The detective was a nice enough chap, and we agreed he should be 'Mr.
Snow,' of New York, gunnin' for health and ducks. He said the watch m