tude and manner of the
well-trained servant, followed sedately and stood outside of their rooms
waiting for the bags.

I stepped out upon the side porch and saw Ham Mayberry, our coachman (he
had driven my father in his little chaise the two years that he had
practised in Bolderhead) sitting upon the box of the closed carriage.
Of all the people who worked for mother about the Bolderhead cottage, I
knew that Ham would take my part against the Downeses. Ham and I were
old cronies.

And I believed that I could thank Ham for the butler's espousal of my
cause on this present occasion. Ham had a deal of influence with the
other servants, having been with us before mother was willed the great
Darringford property.

Ham turned his head when I called to him in a low voice.

"Watch what they do and where they go, Ham," I told him. "I want to see
you when you come back."

"Aye, aye, sir!" he returned in his sailorlike way; for in Bolderhead if
you ask your direction of a man on the street he'll lay a course for you
as though you were at sea. Ham Mayberry, like most of the other male
inhabitants of the old town, had been a deep-sea sailor.

I heard the quick, angry step of Mr. Downes descending the stairs then,
and I slipped out of the way. I didn't want any more words with him, if
I could help. They were leaving the house--and I meant it should be for
good. That satisfied me.

I heard Paul follow him out upon the porch, and then James came with
the baggage. The carriage rolled briskly away just as Dr. Eldridge's
little electric wagon steamed up to the other door. The doctor--who was
a plump, bald, pink-faced man--trotted up the steps and I let him into
the house myself.

"Well, well, Clint Webb!" he demanded. "What have you been doing to that
little mother of yours now?"

But he said it in a friendly way. Dr. Eldridge knew well enough that I
never intended to cause mother a moment's anxiety. And I believed that I
could take him into my confidence--to an extent, at least. I did not
tell him how Paul had tried to knife me in the Wavecrest; but I
repeated what had really caused my mother's becoming so suddenly ill.

"Ha!" he jerked out, as he got himself out of his tight, light overcoat
and picked up his case again from the hall settee. "The least said about
_that_ time before her the better. Tut, tut! the least said the better."

And so saying he marched up stairs to her room, leaving me more eager
than ever to learn