r
month I might have found this out for myself, but you divine it
instantly. You're a clairvoyant. Now I'm going to find Billy Durgin.
You've done the heavy work--you've discovered that something must be
done. What we need now, I suppose, is a bright young detective to tell
us what it is."

But Solon interrupted soothingly. "There, there, something must be done,
and, of course, I'll do it."

"What will you do?"

Even then I think he did not know.

"We must use common sense in these matters," he said, to gain time, and
narrowed his gaze for an interval of study. At last he drove the pen
viciously to its hilt in the rutabaga, and almost shouted:--

"I'll go to see Mrs. Potts!"

Before I could again express my enthusiasm, reawakened by the felicitous
adequacy of this device, he had seized his hat and was clattering
noisily down the stairway.

Two hours later Solon bustled into my own office, whither I had fled to
forget his manifest incompetence. His hat was well back, and he seemed
to be inflated with secrecy. I remembered it was thus he had impressed
me just previous to the _coup_ that had relieved us of Potts. I knew at
once that he was going to be mysterious with me.

"I am not to say a word to any one," I began, merely to show him that I
was not dense.

He paused, apparently on the point of telling me as much. I saw that I
had read him aright.

"I am merely to be quiet and trust everything to you," I continued.

"Oh, well,--if you--"

"One moment--let me take a few more words out of your mouth. You are not
certain, I am to remember, that anything will come of it, but you think
something will. You think you may say _that_ much. But I am again to
remember not to talk about it. There! That's it, isn't it?"

He was entirely serious.

"Well, that's _practically_ it. But I don't mind hinting a little, in
strict confidence." He dropped into a chair, sitting earnestly forward.

"You see, Cal, I remembered a little remark Mrs. Potts once made. I
believe it was the day after Mrs. Lansdale entertained the ladies' club
last summer--I remember she was complaining of a headache--"

"I never knew Mrs. Potts to make a little remark," I said. I was not to
be trifled with. Solon grinned.

"Well, perhaps this one wasn't so very little, only I never thought of
it again until this morning. It was about Mrs. Lansdale's furniture."

"Indeed," I said in cold disinterest, having designed to be told more.

"Well, Mrs.