with the girls who had
walked that far with her. Sometimes the little group lingered there
until nearly sundown, between the laburnum bushes and hollyhocks of
the old garden, but to-day, Alec's impatient whistle from an upper
window signalled her. He waved a letter toward her, calling,
excitedly, "It's come, Flip! It's come! I'm to start in the morning.
I'm packing my trunk now."

With a hurried good-bye to the girls at the gate, Philippa rushed up
the stairs to her brother's room. The bureau drawers had all been
emptied on the bed, and every chair was full.

"Here's some things that need buttons," he announced, as she came in.
"Aunt Eunice is pressing my best suit, and Mack has gone down-town
after the shoes that I left to be half-soled. I'll have to rush, for
the letter says to come at once. I didn't suppose they'd be in such a
hurry. They're hustlers, I guess."

His haste was so contagious that Philippa ran into the next room for
her sewing-basket, without waiting to take off her hat, and sitting
down on the floor beside the window began to sew on buttons as fast
as she asked questions. She always had plenty to say to Alec, and now
that the time for conversation was limited to a few short hours, she
could not talk fast enough.

Presently the click of the gate made her look out. "Here comes Mack,"
she said. "Your shoes are wrapped in a newspaper, and he's so busy
reading something on it that he doesn't know where he is going. Look
out, snail!" she called; "you'll bump into the house in a minute if
you are not careful!"

The boy came slowly up the stairs still spelling out the paragraph
that interested him.

"Alec," he said, pausing in the doorway, "what's a green goods man?
This says that a gang of 'em were arrested in New York. The
detectives traced them by a letter one of them left here in
Ridgeville at the hotel. Think of that! Jonas Clark is the man's real
name, alias H-u-m-p-h," he spelled, "Humphrey (I guess it is) Long."

Alec snatched the knotty bundle and glanced at the paragraph so
eagerly that Philippa looked at him in surprise. She was still more
surprised to see a deep flush spread over his face, as he tore the
newspaper off the shoes and glanced at the date. Then he dropped it
on the bed and began to fumble for something in the bottom of his
trunk, saying, carelessly, "Oh, green goods men are just fellows who
rope people in to buy counterfeit money. Here, Mack, you'll not have
a chance to run