his IS lucky!" cried the attorney, holding out his hand to
Eliph'. "Colonel, this is the best luck we could have had. Here we need
a witness, and here we have him right on the spot! I was going to stop
and get Skinner on the way down, and then I thought maybe, from what you
said, you and Skinner were not very friendly, so I didn't, and now I'm
glad I didn't. We find a witness right here on the porch, just as if he
had been ordered to be here. I call that a good omen."

The Colonel was not pleased, and he showed it, but he really had nothing
that he could urge against this book agent, so he said nothing. The
attorney rang the bell, and Miss Sally, having peeped out to see the
meaning of so many men on her porch, recognized the Colonel and the
attorney, and opened the door. The attorney stood back to let Eliph'
enter, and then followed him in. The three men stood in the little
hallway, hats in hand, while Toole explained why they had come, and Miss
Sally led the way to the second-floor room where the box stood.

It was an impressive scene as the four gathered around the box.

"Knock off the lid!" said the attorney firmly. The Colonel raised his ax
and struck. The board splintered but remained firm. "Legally," said the
attorney, "you may strike three blows."

At the third blow a portion of the lid fell clattering to the floor, and
the three men and Miss Sally peered anxiously into the box. From it the
Colonel tenderly lifted a nickel-plated cylinder, as tall as a man's
knee and as large around as a leg of mutton. It had a convex top, and on
one side a dial. From near the base a long rubber tube extended.

The Colonel handled the thing gently. He held it in his hands as an
old bachelor might handle his newborn nephew, and Miss Sally looked
anxiously into his face, appealing for enlightenment. The Colonel
studied the thing carefully, and then looked into the box again, and
back at the glittering object in his hands. There were three more
exactly like it in the box.

"What is it?" asked Miss Sally nervously. It looked explosive.

The gingerly manner in which the Colonel handled the dangerous-looking
thing aroused her suspicions. She backed away from it. Eliph' Hewlitt
opened his lips to speak, but the attorney motioned him to be still.

"Don't you know what it is?" Miss Sally asked, appealing to the Colonel.

"Yes," said the Colonel, but he still looked at the glistening affair
with doubt. "Oh, yes! But I can't see wh