member of the firm of Shellaby, Grice, and
Shellaby, solicitors. Mr. Shellaby--Miss Millington and Mr. Donald
Prime."

The little gentleman adjusted his eyeglasses and looked the pair over
carefully. Then the twinkling smile hovered again at the corners of the
near-sighted eyes.

"Are you--ah--are you aware of your relationship to this young lady,
Mr. Prime?" he asked.

Prime made a sign of assent. "We figured it out one evening over our
camp-fire. We are third cousins, I believe."

"Exactly," said Mr. Shellaby, matching his slender fingers and making a
little bow. "Now another question, if you please: Mr. Grider tells me
that you have just returned from a most singular and adventurous
experience in the wilds of the northern woods. This experience, I
understand, was entirely involuntary on your part. Have
you--ah--formulated any theory to account for your--ah--abduction?"

Prime glanced at Grider and frowned.

"We know all we need to know about that part of it," he rejoined curtly.
"Mr. Grider is probably still calling it a practical joke; but we call
it an outrage."

The little man smiled again. "Exactly," he agreed; and then: "Do you
happen to know what day of the month this is?"

Prime shook his head.

"We have lost count of the days. I kept a notched stick for a while, but
I lost it along toward the last."

Mr. Shellaby waved them to chairs, saying: "Be seated, if you please; we
may as well be comfortable as we talk. This is the last day of July.
Does that mean anything in particular to either of you?"

Lucetta gave a little cry of surprise.

"It does to me," she said quickly. "Did you--did you put an
advertisement in a Cleveland newspaper addressed to me, Mr. Shellaby?"

"We did; and we also advertised for the heirs of Roger Prime, of
Batavia, New York. We believed at the time that it was a mere matter of
form; in fact, when we drew his will our client informed us that there
would most probably be no results. He was of the opinion that neither
Roger Prime nor Clarissa Millington had left any living children."

"Your client?" Prime interrupted. "May we ask who he is?"

"_Was_," corrected the small man gravely. "Mr. Jasper Bankhead died last
January. You didn't know him, I'm sure; quite possibly you have never
heard of him until this moment."

"We both know of him," Prime amended. "He was my great-uncle, and a
cousin of Miss Millington's grandmother. He was scarcely more than a
family tradition