e always manages to save his own skin while he takes
the other fellow's. Rufus Carder." Ben frowned. "I wonder if it can be."

Miss Upton received his alert gaze and looked down on him in triumph.

"You're wakin' up, are you?" she said. "I guess I don't meet you in town
next Saturday, do I? Oh, Ben"--casting her victory behind her--"do you
mean to say you know where he lives?"

"I know some of the places."

"That farm"--eagerly--"do you know that?"

"Yes. Pretty nearly. I can find it."

"And you mean you will find it? You dear boy! And you'll take me with
you, and we'll bring her back with us. I can make room for her at my
house."

"Hold on, Mehitable. We're dealing with one of the biggest rascals on
the top side of earth. If he wants to keep the girl it may not be simple
to get her. At any rate, it's best for me to go alone first. You write a
note to her and I'll take it and bring back news to you of the lay of
the land."

Miss Upton gazed in speechless hope and gratitude at the young man as he
rose and paced up and down the piazza in thought.

"Oh, Ben," she ejaculated, clasping her hands, "to think that I'm in
time to get you to do this before you kill yourself in that aeroplane!"

"Nothing of the sort, my dear Mehit" he returned. "Remember that, unlike
the zebra, they are tamable in captivity, you'll be soaring with me
yet."

Miss Upton laughed in her relief. "If all they want is something heavier
than air, I'm _it_," she returned.

CHAPTER V

The New Help

Geraldine, begging to be excused from supper on the night of her
arrival, drank the glass of milk that Mrs. Carder gave her, and at an
early hour laid an aching head on her pillow and slept fitfully through
the night.

A heavy rain began to fall and continued in the morning. She still felt
singularly numb toward the world and life in general. Her own room was
bad enough, but outside it was the bare landscape, the desolate house,
and its vulgar host.

Mrs. Carder, under orders from her son, presented herself early with a
tray on which were coffee and toast, and the girl had more than a twinge
of compunction at being waited on by the worn, wrinkled old woman.

"This is Sunday," she said. "I feel very tired. If you will let me stay
here and be lazy until this afternoon, I should like it, but only on
condition that you promise not to bring me anything more or take any
trouble for me."

"Just as you say," responded the old woman; and sh