nguished father, if you have
any waves to wave to me tonight, kindly do it before you start or after
you reach the highway. If you take your hands off that steering wheel as
you round the boulders and strike that declivity as I have seen you
do heretofore, I won't guarantee that I shall not require a specialist
myself."

Linda started to laugh, then she saw Peter's eyes and something in them
stopped her suddenly.

"I did not realize that I was taking any risk," she said. "I won't do it
again. I will say good-bye to you right here and now so I needn't look
back."

So she shook hands with Peter and drove away. Peter slowly followed
down the rough driveway, worn hard by the wheels of delivery trucks, and
stood upon the highest point of the rocky turn, looking after the small
gray car as it slid down the steep declivity. And he wondered if there
could have been telepathy in the longing with which he watched it go,
for at the level roadway that followed between the cultivated land
out to the highway Linda stopped the car, stood up in it, and turning,
looked back straight to the spot upon which Peter stood. She waved both
hands to him, and then gracefully and beautifully, with outstretched,
fluttering fingers she made him the sign of birds flying home. And with
the whimsy in his soul uppermost, Peter reflected, as he turned back for
a microscopic examination of Henry Anderson's coat and the contents of
its pockets, that there was one bird above all others which made
him think of Linda; but he could not at the moment feather Katherine
O'Donovan. And then he further reflected as he climbed the hill that
if it had to be done the best he could do would be a bantam hen
contemplating domesticity.

Linda looked the garage over very carefully when she put away the Bear
Cat. When she closed the garage doors she was particular about the
locks. As she came through the kitchen she said to Katy, busy with the
lunch box:

"Belovedest, have there been any strange Japs poking around here
lately?"

She nearly collapsed when Katy answered promptly:

"A dale too many of the square-headed haythens. I am pestered to death
with them. They used to come jist to water the lawn but now they want
to crane the rugs; they want to do the wash. They are willing to crane
house. They want to get into the garage; they insist on washing the car.
If they can't wash it they jist want to see if it nades washin'."

Linda stood amazed.

"And how long h