s stolen."

"Then how did Ruth come by the watch and letter?" asked Grace.

"I give it up," replied Miriam. "It certainly is a tangled web."

"But we shall straighten it," said Grace resolutely. "The next thing to
do is to find Mr. Denton. Tell me, Jean, how many years since you first
met Mr. Denton?"

Jean counted laboriously on his fingers. "Twelve years," he finally
announced, "an' say his family have died six years then."

"Eighteen years," mused Grace, "and Ruth is twenty-two. The years seem
to tally with the rest of the story, too. Will you give me Mr. Denton's
address and allow me to write to him, Jean?"

"Whatever Mamselle Grace wishes shall be hers," averred Jean.

"Then I'll write the letter to-morrow. The sooner it is written and
sent, the sooner we shall receive an answer to it," declared Grace.
"That is unless he is dead. But I have a strange presentiment that he is
alive. What do you think, Jean?" she turned to the old hunter, who
nodded sagely.

"I think my frien', he alive, too," agreed Jean, "an' I hope, mebbe I
shall see again."

"You shall see him and so shall Ruth, if letters can accomplish your
wish, Jean," promised Grace.

"Eight o'clock," announced David judicially.

No one paid the slightest attention to him, however, Ruth Denton's
affairs being altogether too engrossing a matter for discussion. It was
half-past eight when, after a hearty vote of thanks and three cheers for
old Jean, the picnickers climbed the little hill and took the moonlit
homeward trail.

CHAPTER XIX

TELLING RUTH THE NEWS

"Yes, it was a busy two weeks," declared Arline Thayer, "and yet, oh,
Grace, you can't possibly know how slowly the time has gone. I am sure I
could live all the rest of my life on a desert island if I had the
Semper Fidelis crowd with me. Of course, Ruth helped a whole lot, but
you know Ruth isn't a butterfly like I am. She has had so many cares and
disappointments that she isn't as gay in her wildest moments as I am in
my ordinary ones. Besides, it was so hard to be sure that I was doing
and saying the right thing. I was so afraid of hurting some one's
feelings, or of being accused of trying to patronize those girls.

"The dinner passed off beautifully. Every girl who stayed over was
there. It cost me most of my check." Here Arline smiled rather ruefully.
"But you never saw so many happy girls. Many of them had never been to
either Martell's or Vinton's for dinner. I was at Vin