ou've got good money for it, anyhow, so you've no kick
coming, that I can see."

"Why, that must be the bill Mr. Cragg gave you," Mary Louise said to
the storekeeper, as if she had just recognized it.

"It is," admitted Sol.

"Then Ingua can now buy her outfit?"

"Any time she likes," he said. "But I want it reg'lar understood that
the sewin'-girl can't bring the money back to me, if she finds it bad.
I ain't sure it's bad, ye know, but I've warned her, an' now it's her
look-out."

"Of course it is," agreed Josie. "But don't worry. The bill is good as
gold. I wish I had a hundred like it."

On their way home Josie stopped to call on Ingua, while Mary Louise, at
her friend's request, went on.

"I've two important things to tell you," Josie announced to the child.
"One is that you needn't worry any more about Ned Joselyn's being dead.
A girl whom I know well has lately seen him alive and in good health,
so whatever your grandfather's crimes may have been he is not a
murderer."

Ingua was astounded. After a moment she gasped out:

"How d'ye know? Who was the girl? Are ye sure it were Ned Joselyn?"

"Quite sure. He has probably been in hiding, for some reason. But you
mustn't tell a soul about this, Ingua; especially your grandfather. It
is part of the secret between us, and that's the reason I have told
you."

Ingua still stared as if bewildered.

"Who was the girl?" she whispered.

"I can't tell you her name, but you may depend upon the truth of her
statement, just the same."

"And she's _sure_ it were Ned Joselyn she saw?"

"Isn't he tall and thin, with a light moustache and curly hair, and
doesn't he wear a glass in one eye?"

"With a string to it; yes! That's him, sure enough. Where'd she see
him?"

"Don't ask me questions. It's a part of the girl's secret, you know.
She let me tell you this much, so that you wouldn't worry any longer
over the horror of that winter night when your grandfather went to the
Kenton house and Joselyn disappeared. I think, Ingua, that the man is
crooked, and mixed up with a lot of scoundrels who ought to be in
jail."

Ingua nodded her head.

"Gran'dad told him he was crooked," she affirmed. "I don't say as
Gran'dad is a saint, Josie, but he ain't crooked, like Ned--ye kin bank
on that--'cause he's a Cragg, an' the Craggs is square-toes even when
they're chill'ins."

Josie smiled at this quaint speech. She was sorry for poor Ingua, whose
stalwart belief in the Cra