ng him gently by the hand.

"Mom--an' Ad.--an' Olg.--an' Jim--they all hit me," he replied, his eyes
flashing with anger. "Mom locked me in a room, but I opened a window
an' clum out."

"Did they beat you today?" Hazel Edwards questioned.

"No," replied the youth with a puzzled look; "they don't want you to
know they whipped me. They stopped it after you came and after a man
came and told 'em not to."

"Who is the man?" Hazel asked.

"I don't know. I heard his name, but I forgot."

"Was it Langford?"

"Yes, that's it--Langford. He told 'em all to be good as pie to me while
you was here. They thought I was asleep, but I was just pretendin'."

"Did Mr. Langford say why they must be good to you while we were here?"
asked Katherine.

"I guess he did," the boy replied slowly. "He said somebody'd take me
away and Mom 'u'd lose a lot o' money."

"That's just what we thought," Hazel declared.

"What else did you overhear?" Katherine inquired.

"They're goin' to be awful nice and awful mean."

"Awful nice and awful mean," Katherine repeated. "That's interesting.
What do you mean by that?"

"They're goin' to be awful nice to your face, but mean on the sly."

"Have they done anything mean yet?" Miss Ladd interposed, having in
mind the depredations of the night before.

"I don't know," the boy answered. "They were talkin' about doing
somethin' last night, and the man and Jim went out together."

"You don't know what they proposed to do?"

"No--just somethin', anything they could."

"What is your name, little boy?" Hazel asked.

"Glen" was the answer.

"Glen what?"

"Glen Graham."

"Isn't it Glen Irving?"

The boy looked doubtfully at his interrogator.

"I don't know," he replied slowly. "I guess not."

"Didn't you ever hear the name Irving before?"

The boy's face brightened up suddenly.

"That was my papa's name," he said eagerly.

"Now, I want to ask you an important question," said Miss Ladd
impressively. "Try your best to tell us all you can, and don't tell any
of the Grahams you were down here talking to us. We won't forget you. If
they beat you any more come, and tell us if you can get away. We'll have
the police after them. But be sure to keep this to yourself. Now, here's
the question I want you to answer: Did anybody outside of the Graham
family ever see them beat you?"

"Sure," Glen replied quickly. "Byron Scott did. So did Mrs. Pruitt and
Guy Davis and Mark Taylor."

"Where do th