that followed him as he
shot through the aperture almost swept Edna from her feet. In ten
seconds the tattered Hawkshaw was scrambling over the garden fence and
making lively if inaccurate tracks through last year's cabbage patch.

CHAPTER VII

The Mysterious Visitor

The entire Crow family watched him in stupefaction until he disappeared
down the lane that led to Hapgood's grove. It was then, and not until
then, that Anderson Crow took a breath.

"Good Lord, Eva, what do you mean?" he gasped.

"Mean?" she almost shrieked. "Anderson Crow, didn't you recognise that
feller? He ain't no more detective than you er me. He's the self-same
tramp that you put in the calaboose last week, and the week before, too.
I thought I'd seen his ugly face before. He's--"

"Great jumpin' geeswax!" roared the town marshal. "I recollect him now.
He's the one that said he'd been exposed to smallpox an' wanted to be
kept where it was warm all winter. Well, I'll be--I'll be--"

"Don't say it, pa. He said it fer you when he clumb over that barb-wire
fence out there," cried Edna gleefully.

Several days of anxiety and energy followed this interesting episode. In
that time two tramps attempted to obtain food and shelter at Crow's
home, one on the plea that he was the father of the unfortunate child,
the other as an officer for the Foundlings' Home at Boggs City. Three
babies were left on the doorstep--two in one night--their fond mothers
confessing fessing by letters that they appreciated Anderson's
well-known charitable inclinations and implored him to care for their
offspring as if they were his own. The harassed marshal experienced some
difficulty in forcing the mothers to take back their children.

In each instance he was reviled by the estimable ladies, all of whom
accused him of being utterly heartless. Mrs. Crow came to his rescue and
told the disappointed mothers that the scalding water was ready for
application if they did not take their baskets of babies away on short
order. It may be well for the reputation of Tinkletown to mention that
one of the donors was Mrs. Raspus, a negro washerwoman who did work for
the "dagoes" engaged in building the railroad hard by; another was the
wife of Antonio Galli, a member of the grading gang, and the third was
Mrs. Pool, the widow of a fisherman who had recently drowned himself in
drink.

It is quite possible that Anderson might have had the three infants on
his hands permanently