?"

"They come by mail late this afternoon," the sheriff replied. "I thought
I told you about it."

"Hum,-- Same handwriting as the letters," observed the
lawyer as he ran through the littered pages. "Our 'Two Friends' wanted
to be sure that their hoax was going to work--"

He stopped abruptly and sniffed at the crumpled pages with an expression
of mistrust--of something reminiscent. And suddenly, with an
unintelligible exclamation, he caught up his hat and started for the
door.

"Wait a minute, Judge," invited the sheriff affably. "I'll send you
folks home in an auto."

"Can't wait!" called Mr. Cane over his shoulder. "An automobile couldn't
get me there fast enough!"

Mr. Cane lost no time in getting home. But Sube was there ahead of him,
and already in bed and apparently asleep.

CHAPTER III

THE LAST SAD RITES

When Sube accompanied his family to church on the morrow he was
conspicuous by reason of his scentlessness. Nobody sniffed at him;
nobody moved away from him; his brothers walked uncomplainingly at his
side. Any one but Sube might have thought that the storm which descended
on him the previous night shortly after he had slipped into bed with his
clothes on, must have clarified the atmosphere completely. For Mr. Cane
had done very thoroughly that which is claimed to hurt the parent more
than the child.

But Sube was uneasy. And he had reason to be; for Miss Lester was his
Sunday School teacher.

A dark pall hung over him all through the church service; and when at
the conclusion he sought to bring up reinforcements before moving on
Sunday School, he learned to his dismay that Gizzard was confined to his
home with a slight attack of Sunday-sickness from which he was unlikely
to recover until nearly dinner time. So he faced the dragon alone.

But in common with other dragons Miss Lester's terrors waned on closer
acquaintance. As he shuffled guiltily into his seat she wished him a
pleasant good morning. But some little time elapsed before Sube could
bring himself to believe that his sense of hearing was not playing him
false. Then it occurred to him that she was going to arraign him before
the entire Sunday School. And he lived over this volcano until the
session was dismissed. The possibility that Miss Lester did not know the
identity of her "Two Friends" never entered his mind.

Once or twice during the afternoon he wondered vaguely why she had
refrained from "bawling him out," but by