idn't do
it! Oh, Snooks, how could you--how could you!"

"Now, don't you weep like that," said Philo Gubb soothingly. "You go
and ask him. I'll have my things ready for my immediate departure onto
the case by the time you get back."

Nan hurried away, and Philo Gubb waited only to count the money he had
so far received. It amounted to fifty-five dollars. He slipped it into
his pocket and stood up on the stepladder. He had even proceeded so
far as to put one foot on a lower step, when Mrs. Wilmerton entered
the kitchen.

She was a stout woman, and she was almost out of breath. She had to
stand a minute before she could speak, but as she stood she made
gestures with her hands, as if _that_ much of her delivery could be
given, at any rate, and the words might catch up with their
appropriate gestures if they could.

"Mister Gubb! Mister Gubb!" she gasped. "Oh, this is terrible!
Terrible! Miss Turner should never have dared it! Oh, my breath! Do
you--do you know where the beer is?"

"I wouldn't advise you to take beer for shortness of the breath," said
Philo Gubb. "Just rest a minute."

"But," gasped poor Mrs. Wilmerton, "I _told_ Miss Turner it was folly!
She's so stubborn! Ah--h! I thought I'd never get a full breath again
as long as I lived. How can we get rid of the beer?"

[Illustration: SHE MADE GESTURES WITH HER HANDS]

"There's plenty want to take it," said Mr. Gubb. "Attorney Smith--"

"Oh, I knew it! I knew it!" moaned Mrs. Wilmerton. "He threatened it!"

"Threatened what?" asked Philo Gubb.

"That he would find the beer in this house!" cried Mrs. Wilmerton. "He
threatened Aunt Martha that if she did not give it to him freely, he
would have it found here, and make a scandal! Beer hidden between the
quilt and the mattress of Aunt Martha's bed, and she Secretary of the
Ladies' Temperance League! It's awful! Martha is so headstrong! She's
getting herself in an awful fix! She never should have had a thing to
do with that Slippery fellow!"

"With who? With Slippery Williams?" asked Philo Gubb, intensely
surprised. "Aunt Martha Turner? What did she have to do with Slippery
Williams?"

"Well, she had plenty, and enough, and more than that to do with him,"
said Mrs. Wilmerton angrily. "Getting bottles of beer in her bed, and
robbing houses at her time of life, and wanting the Ladies' Temperance
League to have a special meeting this morning to approve of burglary
and larceny! At her age!"

"Now, Miss Wilm