r scalp wound for you," Betty pointed out. "Just a little
scratch will make the whole place look like a shambles."

"But what happened to your aunt Sarah, Amy," pursued Mollie
interestedly. "We know she didn't die."

"Well, I should say she didn't!" said Amy roundly. "She was as good as
ever in ten minutes and laughing at me for being so frightened. But we
had to have the rug sent away to get the stain out," she added
significantly.

"Huh," said the girls, and once more became thoughtful.

"But suppose you were right, Betty?" said Mollie, after a while.
"Suppose our poor musician is torturing himself by thinking he has
committed a crime that he hasn't? What could you possibly do about it?"

"I don't just know," Betty admitted truthfully.

"We might ask your father," Grace hazarded, but Betty turned on her,
startled.

"That's just the thing I don't want to do!" she said hurriedly. "Dad is
just the best and most easy-going father in the world, but he has a
terribly stern sense of justice. I'm not sure he wouldn't think we were
making ourselves--oh, what do you call it----"

"Accessories after the fact?" suggested Mollie, helpfully.

"That's it," said Betty. "He might argue that we were committing a crime
ourselves by helping to hide a criminal----"

"Well, maybe we are, at that," said Grace, uncomfortably.

"They can put you in jail for that sort of thing, can't they?" added
Amy, a suggestion which certainly did not add to the cheerfulness of the
atmosphere.

"I don't care," said Betty stoutly. "I'd rather go to jail than deliver
a man to a doubtful justice--especially when he may really be innocent.
Anyway," she added, reasonably: "who is there to know that we went to
Paul Loup's cabin the other day? I'm very sure no one saw us go in or
come out, and if we keep quiet no one will have to know. That's why I
didn't even want to take dad into our confidence."

"But if our musician is, as you think, innocent," Grace insisted, "then
your father could do more for him than we."

"But we don't know that he is innocent. That's only my idea," said
Betty. "And dad would probably think it was a very foolish one. Maybe it
is, for all I know," she added dubiously.

"How about Allen?" said Grace suddenly after another rather long
silence. "He would certainly sympathize with our poor hermit and, being
a lawyer, he would probably be able to think up some way that we might
establish the man's innocence or guilt without gi