take her to the train?"

Mr. Howell bent forward and smiled across at the little man. "One
of your own axioms, sir," he said. "Do the natural thing; upset the
customary order of events as little as possible. Jennie Brice went to
the train, because that was where she wanted to go. But as Ladley was
to protest that his wife had left town, and as the police would
be searching for a solitary woman, I went with her. We went in a
leisurely manner. I bought her a magazine and a morning paper, asked
the conductor to fix her window, and, in general, acted the devoted
husband seeing his wife off on a trip. I even"--he smiled--"I even
promised to feed the canary."

Lida took her hands away. "Did you kiss her good-by?" she demanded.

"Not even a chaste salute," he said. His spirits were rising. It was,
as often happens, as if the mere confession removed the guilt. I have
seen little boys who have broken a window show the same relief after
telling about it.

"For a day or two Bronson and I sat back, enjoying the stir-up. Things
turned out as we had expected. Business boomed at the theater. I got
a good story, and some few kind words from my city editor. Then--the
explosion came. I got a letter from Jennie Brice saying she was going
away, and that we need not try to find her. I went to Horner, but I
had lost track of her completely. Even then, we did not believe things
so bad as they turned out to be. We thought she was giving us a bad
time, but that she would show up.

"Ladley was in a blue funk for a time. Bronson and I went to him. We
told him how the thing had slipped up. We didn't want to go to the
police and confess if we could help it. Finally, he agreed to stick it
out until she was found, at a hundred dollars a week. It took all we
could beg, borrow and steal. But now--we have to come out with the
story anyhow."

Mr. Holcombe sat up and closed his note-book with a snap. "I'm not so
sure of that," he said impressively. "I wonder if you realize, young
man, that, having provided a perfect defense for this man Ladley, you
provided him with every possible inducement to make away with his
wife? Secure in your coming forward at the last minute and confessing
the hoax to save him, was there anything he might not have dared with
impunity?"

"But I tell you I took Jennie Brice out of town on Monday morning."

"_Did you_?" asked Mr. Holcombe sternly.

But at that, the school-teacher, having come home and found old Isaac
so