years. My
father can't have had these things; they were somewhere else, or some
one else had them. He wrote his directions to that person--after June
twelfth, he said, so it was before June twelfth he wrote it; but we
can't tell how long before. It might have been in February, when he
disappeared; it might have been any time after that. But if the
directions were written so long ago, why weren't the things sent to you
before this? Didn't the person have the things then? Did we have to
wait to get them? Or--was it the instructions to send them that he
didn't have? Or, if he had the instructions, was he waiting to receive
word when they were to be sent?"

"To receive word?" she echoed.

"Word from my father! You thought these things proved my father was
dead. I think they prove he is alive! Oh, we must think this out!"

He paced up and down the room; she sank into a chair, watching him.
"The first thing that we must do," he said suddenly, "is to find out
about the watch. What is the 'phone number of the telegraph office?"

She told him, and he went out to the telephone; she sprang up to follow
him, but checked herself and merely waited until he came back.

"I've wired to Buffalo," he announced. "The Merchants' Exchange, if it
is still in existence, must have a record of the presentation of the
watch. At any rate, the wreck of the _Winnebago_ and the name of the
skipper of the other boat must be in the files of the newspapers of
that time."

"Then you'll stay here with us until an answer comes."

"If we get a reply by to-morrow morning; I'll wait till then. If not,
I'll ask you to forward it to me. I must see about the trains and get
back to Frankfort. I can cross by boat from there to Manitowoc--that
will be quickest. We must begin there, by trying to find out who sent
the package."

"Henry Spearman's already sent to have that investigated."

Alan made no reply; but she saw his lips draw tighter quickly. "I must
go myself as soon as I can," he said, after a moment.

She helped him put the muffler and the other articles back into the
box; she noticed that the wedding ring was no longer with them. He had
taken that, then; it had meant to him all that she had known it must
mean....

In the morning she was up very early; but Alan, the servants told her,
had risen before she had and had gone out. The morning, after the cool
northern night, was chill. She slipped a sweater on and went out on