y've been trying to get some clues out of the little chap,"
continued Hugh, "but without much success. All he's said so far is
that they've come ever so far, and that he liked riding on the cars
first-rate, only mommy cried so much and wouldn't eat every time he
did. From the way he talked they suspect that the young woman may
have come from the West somewhere."

"She _is_ young then, Hugh?"

"Yes, not over twenty-five or so, the doctor says, but frail-looking.
He thinks there is nothing serious the matter with her, only that
she's been underfed for a long time, and has suffered. Perhaps she's
denied herself proper food so as to save up enough money to make this
trip."

Thad shook his head as if feeling sad over the happening; for the boy
had a tender heart.

"Well, I certainly hope she'll be better tomorrow, and able to tell
something about herself," he went on to say, as he prepared to leave.
"And, Hugh, it was fine of your mother to refuse to let her be taken
over to the Scranton Hospital, when the doctor proposed such a thing."

"My mother wouldn't hear of it," Hugh told him proudly. "Why,
already she's in love with that little chap, and he's enough of a
darling to make any woman with a heart want to mother him. Both of
us seem to think we may have seen him before somewhere; or else he
resembles someone we've known once on a time; but, so far, we can't
imagine who or where it was. But once she comes to her senses,
whether to-morrow, or some days afterwards, of course the truth will
be known."

"And Hugh," said the other, with one of his smiles, "if you feel that
you can't wait for her to tell, suppose you start out to-morrow
afternoon and try to strike a clue on your own account. That
wonderful faculty you possess for investigating things ought to put
you on the track."

"Perhaps I may, that is, if I have time to-morrow," chuckled Hugh;
"because, you know, we have our last practice at hockey before
meeting those Keyport experts."

"You said you felt sure she must have come out of that side road near
where you met them," continued the persistent Thad.

"Yes, but only because I hadn't seen them when going out to the
farm," his chum explained. "They may have come out of that road; and
then again it's barely possible they were trying to make a fire
somewhere among the trees to keep them from freezing."

"By going along that same road, and inquiring at every house you came
to," Thad continued, "like