t there, and there
was a lot of noise. I couldn't hear well. Then in half an hour down came
the other twin to say the gentleman was taking on awful and didn't want
the message sent."

"He's gone, of course?"

"Yes. Limped down here in about three days and took the noon train for
the city."

It seemed a certainty now that our man, having hurt himself somewhat
in his jump, had stayed quietly in the farm-house until he was able to
travel. But, to be positive, we decided to visit the Carter place.

I gave the station agent a five-dollar bill, which he rolled up with a
couple of others and stuck in his pocket. I turned as we got to a bend
in the road, and he was looking curiously after us.

It was not until we had climbed the hill and turned onto the road to the
Carter place that I realized where we were going. Although we approached
it from another direction, I knew the farm-house at once. It was the one
where Alison West and I had breakfasted nine days before. With the new
restraint between us, I did not tell McKnight. I wondered afterward if
he had suspected it. I saw him looking hard at the gate-post which had
figured in one of our mysteries, but he asked no questions. Afterward he
grew almost taciturn, for him, and let me do most of the talking.

We opened the front gate of the Carter place and went slowly up the
walk. Two ragged youngsters, alike even to freckles and squints, were
playing in the yard.

"Is your mother around?" I asked.

"In the front room. Walk in," they answered in identical tones.

As we got to the porch we heard voices, and stopped. I knocked, but the
people within, engaged in animated, rather one-sided conversation, did
not answer.

"'In the front room. Walk in,'" quoted McKnight, and did so.

In the stuffy farm parlor two people were sitting. One, a pleasant-faced
woman with a checked apron, rose, somewhat embarrassed, to meet us. She
did not know me, and I was thankful. But our attention was riveted on
a little man who was sitting before a table, writing busily. It was
Hotchkiss!

He got up when he saw us, and had the grace to look uncomfortable.

"Such an interesting case," he said nervously, "I took the liberty--"

"Look here," said McKnight suddenly, "did you make any inquiries at the
station?"

"A few," he confessed. "I went to the theater last night--I felt
the need of a little relaxation--and the sight of a picture there, a
cinematograph affair, started a new line of thou