girl and looked at her
one-time master with dull and fishy eyes.

"By heavens, Miss Josie Larson!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing
here?"

"I bane dining with Captain and Mrs. Waller, sir." Josie then resumed
her normal expression, which was one of keen intelligence, and with a
glance at her tiny wrist watch, she answered the question concerning
the children: "Yes, Captain Waller, I am sure that by this time the
message is on the way to Polly and Peter and even now Mary Louise may
be reading it to them. The telegraph delivery in Dorfield is very
prompt."

"Dorfield? Polly and Peter in Dorfield? And how did you get in this?"
Chester Hunt's manner was rude and overbearing as he addressed Josie.

"I am not such a fool as I look, Mr. Hunt. Next time you had better ask
for references when you hire a Swedish maid and don't give her bowls
with chickens and rabbits on them so she can go off and identify
husbands and fathers who have lost their memory in the war. Don't let
the fools sort your mail either. They might find out things that might
make it uncomfortable for the gracious master."

"Then you are a spy!"

"Not at all! A detective!" Josie turned over the lapel of her packet,
disclosing a small badge.

"Well, all I can say is a mighty good cook was ruined when you went
into business."

"And a mighty fine detective would be lost to the world if our little
friend here turned cook in dead earnest," said Captain Waller. "But see
here, Chester, there is no use in our beating around the bush with one
another. We must come to an understanding and it might just as well be
here, this moment, unless you are too hungry."

"No, I am afraid my appetite for dinner is gone. It is like you,
Stephen, though, to think of it. I thank you. I have been a beastly cad
and I'm ready to fess up. It was the thought of having a fortune and
owning the old house on Peachtree Street. I always loved it and it
seemed hard for you to have everything. I loved Mary before you did--"

"Never mind that part," said Captain Waller sternly. "It so happens we
know what you intended to do in regard to my wife, but the mystery to
me is what was your idea about my children? Why should you have sent
them traveling about the country with this impossible Dink, who is
nothing but a dancer in vaudeville with no manners and few morals? She
has abused the children and half starved them and finally left them
ragged and hungry in an orphan asylum or some simil