ore her.

"God knows it's a lot better to do for folks than to do 'em, and in the
end I believe you prosper more at it. My business, except the infernal
boom days, never was so good as it's been since I had that time with
Carey, and it's all clean business, too, not a smirch on it. Wish I could
forget a few things I've did, though." So Darley Champers thought, as he
drove up the old Grass River trail in the glory of the April morning.

That morning, Leigh Shirley wrote a long letter to Jane Aydelot of
Cloverdale, Ohio. Leigh had written many letters to her before, but never
one with a plea like this. Miss Jane had mentally grown up with Leigh and
had built many a romance about her, which was only hinted at in the
letters she received.

In the letter of this morning, Leigh begged for all the information Miss
Jane could give concerning her father, and further, she pleaded boldly for
the reconciliation of the Aydelot family, a thing she had never written of
before. Five days later her letter came back "unclaimed" with a brief
statement from the Cloverdale postmaster that Miss Jane Aydelot had passed
away on the day the letter was written, much beloved, etc.

John Jacobs had no need to be warned by Asher Aydelot of Hans Wyker's
doings. He knew all of Wyker's movements through Rosie Gimpke. Jacobs had
been kind to Rosie, whose bare, loveless life knew few kindnesses, and she
harbored the memory of a good deed as her grandfather harbored his hatred.
Moreover, the Wyker joint had played havoc with the Gimpke family. Her
father had died from a fall received in a drunken brawl there. Two
brothers, too drunk to know better, had driven into Little Wolf in a
spring flood and been drowned. A sister had married a drinking man who
regularly beat her in his regular sprees. For a heavy-footed,
heavy-brained, fat German girl, Rosie Gimpke could get into action with
surprising alacrity for the safety of one who had shown her a kindness.

And it was Rosie Gimpke, whom John Jacobs called the Wykerton W. C. T. U.,
who swiftly put the word to him that her grandfather was again defying the
law and menacing the public welfare.

Unfortunately, the messenger who served Rosie in this emergency was
overtaken by Hans and forced to divulge his mission, threatened with dire
evils if he said a word to Rosie about Hans having halted him, and urged
to go with all haste on his errand, and to be sure of the reward, a
ticket to the coming circus and tw