sheriff, and we'll get a warrant
and run him down. Heavens! A man like that would sell his mother!"

Chamberlain looked frankly skeptical, and would not budge until Aleck
had related every circumstance that he knew about Agatha's involuntary
flight from New York. He was all for going to the red house and
interviewing Agatha herself, but Aleck refused to let him do that.

"She's worn out and gone to bed; you can't see her. But it's straight,
you take my word. We must catch that scoundrel and bring him here for
identification--to be sure there's no mistake. And if it is he, it'll
be hot enough for him."

Chamberlain doubted whether it was the same man, and put up objections
seriatim to each proposition of Aleck's, but finally accepted them all.
He made a point, however, of going on his quest alone.

"You go back to the red house and go to bed, and I'll round up Eggs. I
think I know how the trick can be done."

Aleck was stubborn about accompanying Chamberlain, but the Englishman
plainly wouldn't have it. He told Aleck he could do it better alone,
and led him by the arm back to the old red house, where the kitchen
door stood hospitably open. Sallie was at work in her pantry. The
kettle was singing on the stove, and the milk had already come from a
neighbor's dairy.

Sallie's temper may not have been ideal, but at least she was not of
those who are grouchy before breakfast. She served Aleck and
Chamberlain in the kitchen with homely skill, giving them both a
wholesome and pleasant morning after their night of gloom.

"You can't do anything right all day if you start behindhand," she
replied when Aleck remarked upon her early rising. "Besides, I was up
last night more than once, watching for Miss Redmond. The young man's
sleeping nicely, she says."

She went cheerfully about her kitchen work, giving the men her best,
womanlike, and asking nothing in return, not even attention. They took
her service gratefully, however, and there was enough of Eve in Sallie
to know it.

"By the way, Chamberlain," said Aleck, "we must get a telegram off to
the family in Lynn." He wrote out the address and shoved it across
Sallie's red kitchen tablecloth. "And tell them not to think of
coming!" adjured Aleck. "We don't want any more of a swarry here than
we've got now." Chamberlain undertook to send the message; and since
he had contracted to catch the criminal of the _Jeanne D'Arc_, he was
eager to be off on his h