more romantic heritage.

Mr. Hammond appeared doubtful.

"I don't know; I don't feel as if I were at liberty to open the
letters. I have no authority and they can have no association with me.
Perhaps I had best speak first to Dr. McClain and then take them to
Kara."

"But, Mr. Hammond," Dorothy McClain protested, "why should you
conclude that a small package of letters discovered in the way that we
have come across these can have any connection with Katherine Moore?
The letters may have been thrust into the old fireplace to burn and
been forgotten. Surely there can be no objection to your looking over
them first! Then you may be able to decide to whom they should be
presented. After all, the little evergreen cabin belongs to our Troop
of Girl Scouts. Mr. Fenton bought the place and gave it to us. You
have our permission. Besides, we would like to look at the letters
with you. I am so excited I really cannot endure to wait any longer."

CHAPTER XX

LOOKING FORWARD

Devoted attention to every line contained in the little package of
letters failed to develop information which appeared to be of interest
to Katherine Moore or any one else.

Carefully each line was read by Mr. Hammond and the Girl Scouts on the
afternoon of their discovery. Later the letters were given to Dr.
McClain and to Mr. Hale, Margaret Hale's father, who was a prominent
lawyer, for an equally painstaking perusal. They agreed that they were
merely a trivial collection such as any one might receive from a dozen
friends, preserved for the sake of the affection, not the value of the
communications.

There were no papers save the letters.

Only one or two seemingly unimportant details connected the letters in
any possible fashion with Katherine Moore. Three of them were signed
with the initials O. M., which may or may not have had any association
with the name Moore. In point of fact, it would have appeared a
straining of the imagination, save that the name Moore was signed to
one short note.

In any case, it was agreed that, since there was no one else to claim
them, the little package might be consigned to the girl who was
discovered as a baby in the forsaken cabin. No one had been known to
be living there at the time, so there was no reason to believe
otherwise than that the baby had been carried there and immediately
abandoned.

As Dr. McClain was at present seeing Kara daily at the Gray House, the
letters were given to him for s