."

"How old is it?"

Jed stammered that he guessed likely it was about a hundred years
old or such matter.

"Umph! Furniture old, too?"

"Yes, I cal'late most of it is."

"Nobody living in it?"

"No-o."

"Got the key to it?"

Here was the question direct. If he answered in the affirmative
the next utterance of the Powless man would be a command to be
shown the interior of the house. Jed was certain of it, he could
see it in the man's eye. What was infinitely more important, he
could see it in the lady's eye. He hesitated.

"Got the key to it?" repeated Mr. Powless.

Jed swallowed.

"No-o," he faltered, "I--I guess not."

"You GUESS not. Don't you know whether you've got it or not?"

"No. I mean yes. I know I ain't."

"Where is it; lost?"

The key was usually lost, that is to say, Jed was accustomed to
hunt for fifteen minutes before finding it, so, his conscience
backing his inclination, he replied that he cal'lated it must be.

"Umph!" grunted Powless. "How do you get into the house without a
key?"

Jed rubbed his chin, swallowed hard, and drawled that he didn't
very often.

"You do sometimes, don't you?"

The best answer that the harassed windmill maker could summon was
that he didn't know. The red-faced gentleman stared at him in
indignant amazement.

"You don't KNOW?" he repeated. "Which don't you know, whether you
go into the house at all, or how you get in without a key?"

"Yes,--er--er--that's it."

Mr. Powless breathed deeply. "Well, I'll be damned!" he declared,
with conviction.

His wife did not contradict his assertion, but she made one of her
own.

"George," she commanded majestically, "can't you see the man has
been drinking. Probably he doesn't own the place at all. Don't
waste another moment on him. We will come back later, when the
real owner is in. Come!"

George came and they both went. Mr. Winslow wiped his perspiring
forehead on a piece of wrapping paper and sat down upon a box to
recover. Recovery, however, was by no means rapid or complete.
They had gone, but they were coming back again; and what should he
say to them then? Very likely Captain Sam, who had sent them in
the first place, would return with them. And Captain Sam knew that
the key was not really lost. Jed's satisfaction in the fact that
he had escaped tenantless so far was nullified by the fear that his
freedom was but temporary.

He cooked his dinner, but ate little. After