the poorest tree," remarked
gentle Mrs. Fenton. "So it is with families. There's little Billy, now,
Buck's brother; didn't you say he was as nice a youngster as you ever
met, Fred?"

"That's so, mother; and I'll try and not forget again. But I suppose we
ought to do what Hiram says, and keep quiet about this latest news.
Why, I believe that if people only knew we had a letter postmarked Hong
Kong, they'd talk about it; and if that suspicious Squire Lemington
heard, he'd put things together, so as to make out a true story."

"How that imagination of yours does take wings, son," said Mr. Fenton,
with a laugh. "But you're right about one thing; we must tell no one.
Remember, Kate, not a single word to your closest chum."

"Oh! don't be afraid I'll tell, father!" declared the girl.

"And I promise that not even Sid shall know," Fred put in; "though I'd
trust any secret with him, for he's as close-mouthed as an oyster, Sid
is."

"But even Sid might talk in his sleep, or let a hint fall," Kate
insisted; "and you know he's got a sister, Mame, who loves to gossip a
little--I kind of think all girls do," she added, with a little giggle,
and shrug of her shoulders.

"Won't Hiram have a story to tell when he gets back again?" observed
Fred, who, boy-like, thought of the adventures the kidnapped miner must
have passed through during his long enforced absence.

"I imagine," Mr. Fenton observed, "that the harsh treatment he has
endured at the hands of those who are in the pay of the company his
uncle controls must have had just the opposite effect upon Hiram to
what they intended. He feels very bitter toward them, and is more
determined than ever to beat them at their game. I was always told that
when evil men fall out honest ones get their due, and I believe it
now."

"I don't believe Hiram can be so very wicked," interposed Mrs. Fenton,
gently. "When he came down here from Alaska to help his uncle by giving
false testimony, he must have been laboring under some wrong notion of
how things stood. Since then he has seen a great light, and his better
nature has come to the front."

"Then it was what Fred did for him when he first came, that opened his
eyes," declared Kate. "You remember, mother, if it hadn't been for our
Fred, Mr. Masterson would have found himself in serious trouble."

"Yes, that must have been the entering wedge," Mr. Fenton remarked,
nodding his approval of the girl's idea. "It set Hiram to thinking; and