interested," said the young man, "and that is
why I called at your house," and he nodded to Will.

"You had gone out," remarked Will to Grace, "so I asked dad where, as
the maid said you'd all been in the library. Then I called up here," and
he nodded to Amy.

"Glad you did," she returned. She seemed to have forgotten the trouble
of the afternoon.

"Well," went on Mr. Blackford, "I feared it was a sort of imposition to
come, and----"

"I told him it wasn't at all," interrupted Will.

"So on I came," proceeded the young business man.

"But what is the clue?" asked Grace, interestedly.

"This," was the reply, as he took some papers from his pocket. "But it's
a clue that----"

"Isn't a clue," put in Will.

"Because----"

"It breaks off in the middle."

"Oh, Will, let him tell it; can't you?" demanded Grace, impatiently. "We
don't know whom we're listening to."

"Well, to be brief," said Mr. Blackford, "the firm I have engaged, the
other day, wrote me that they were on the track of my sister. They felt
sure they were going to find her, and I was very hopeful.

"It seems that they had found some old documents in the attic of a house
where some distant relatives live. They wrote me they were sending them
on, and--here they are!"

He brought out a bundle of time-stained and yellow papers, and spread
them on the table.

"Gracious!" cried Will. "Your sister must be quite elderly to have such
ancient documents refer to her."

"No," said Mr. Blackford, "she is younger than I am, I believe. But I
have no certain knowledge of that. Anyhow, this is part of a letter
written about the girl whom I have every reason to believe is my sister.
And the part that is most interesting----"

"Is where----" began Will.

"Can't you keep still?" begged his sister.

"Has 'oo dot any tandy?" and he imitated little Dodo.

"Oh, take that!" and Grace passed him a caramel. "Now, let's hear what
it is, Mr. Blackford."

"There is a part of the letter which says this," went on Mr. Blackford,
and he proceeded to read:

"'You can always identify the girl because she has a most peculiar
birth-mark on----'"

He ceased reading.

"Well, go on, please," requested Betty. "This is getting interesting."

"It isn't _getting_ interesting--it's so already," declared Mollie. "Go
on, please, Mr. Blackford, tell us what sort of birth-mark your sister
has."

"That's just the trouble," he remarked, ruefully. "I can't do it."

"Why not?"