dy awaited his return with a
cordial curiosity.

It was a gray day of damp air and a dull, thick sky bearing down upon
the earth--a day conducive to forebodings. But Solon Denney's spirit, to
the best of Little Arcady's belief, soared aloft to realms of pure
sunlight.

My knowledge of subsequent events that day was gained partly by word of
mouth and partly by observations which I was permitted to make.

To the hotel Solon conducted his charges, handing them from the 'bus
with a flourish that seemed to confer upon them the freedom of the city.
From shop doors and adjacent street corners the most curious among us
beheld a tall, full-figured woman of majestic carriage, with a high,
noble forehead and a face that seemed to register traces of some
thirty-five earnest but not unprofitable years. Even in the quick glance
she bestowed up and down Washington Street before the hotel swallowed
her up, her quality was to be noted by the discerning,--the quality of a
commander, of one born to prevail. The flash of her gray-green eye was
interested but unconcerned. Complemented by the marked auburn of her
plenteous hair, the eyes were masterful, advertising most legibly the
temperament of a capable ruler. The subdued, white-faced boy of twelve,
with hair like his mother's, who trotted closely at her heels was, for
the moment, a negligible factor.

An hour later I entered the sanctum of the _Argus_, to find its owner
alone before his littered table. Upon his usually careless face was the
most profoundly thoughtful look I had ever known him wear. Open before
him was that week's _Argus_, but his eyes narrowed to its neat columns
only at intervals. For the most part his gaze plunged far into virgin
realms of meditation. It was only after several reminding coughs that I
succeeded in recalling him from afield; and even then the deeply
thoughtful look remained to estrange his face from me.

"Say, Cal, do you believe in _powers_?"

"What kind of powers?"

"Well, I don't know--every kind--just _powers_--mystic, occult powers."

"I don't care to commit myself without more details," I answered with a
caution that seemed to be needed.

"Well, sir, that woman has 'em--she has _powers_--she certainly has.
There is something in her eye that paralyzes the will; you look at her
and you say yes to anything she suggests."

"For example--"

"Well, I've just agreed with her that the _Argus_ isn't what it ought to
be."

I gasped. This inde