in? Went in where?"

The girl hung her head. It was evident that the answer to this question
was one she dreaded to make. But she made it, nevertheless.

"Before we went into--into the parlor," she said, faintly.

Captain Shad was the only one of her hearers who grasped the full
significance of this confession. No, there was one other, and he turned
red and then white.

"The parlor?" repeated the Captain, slowly. "The best parlor?"

"Ye-yes, sir."

"Do you mean you went into the best parlor over to our house and--AND
TOOK THAT CAT IN WITH YOU?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, I swan to man! Did you forget what I told you would happen if you
went into that parlor again? And especially if you lugged that cat in?
Did you forget that?"

"N-no, sir. I didn't forget it. You--you said I couldn't go to the
picnic."

Shadrach shook his head. "Well," he groaned, "if this don't beat the
nation! What under the sun did you do it for?"

"'Cause--'cause we wanted to play pirates with--with the swords and
things," faltered Mary-'Gusta. "And we took David 'cause he was goin' to
be one of the passengers on the ship we took. But," with a sudden return
to the main point at issue, "that proves David wasn't the cat he saw,
the one that stole his chicken."

The Captain looked at her. "By fire, it does, that's right," he
muttered. Abner Bacheldor roared in indignation.

"It don't prove nothin'," he cried. "All it proves is that the kid's a
liar. She's lyin' so's to save that dummed thief of a cat. All kids'll
lie when they think they can make somethin' out of it."

Shadrach grunted. "Maybe so," he said, "but I ain't caught this one in
a lie so far. And I doubt if she's lyin' now. Now, Mary-'Gusta, is
there any way you can prove you was in that parlor, and--what's his
name--David was there at the time you say? Is there?"

Again Mary-'Gusta hesitated. Her eyes wandered about the faces in the
room, until their gaze rested upon the face of Jimmie Bacheldor. And
Jimmie looked white and scared.

"N-no, sir, I--I guess not," she faltered.

"I guess not, too," declared Con, with a sarcastic laugh.

But the Captain was suspicious. He had seen the child's look.

"Hold on," he commanded. "There's more to this than a blind man could
see through a board fence. Mary-'Gusta, was there anybody else except
David in that parlor along with you? Was there?"

Mary-'Gusta looked at the floor.

"Yes, sir," she faltered.

"So? I kind of had an idea