pieces in your mouth
like ice-cream."

"If I had a cold boiled potato I'd be mighty glad."

"We had a slat of hot roasted ones with nice butter on 'em, this
mornin'," Plums continued, as if it were his purpose to increase the
detective's hunger.

"I'd give a dime for a sandwich," Dan wailed, and Master Plummer
described the fresh bread and sweet boiled ham with which aunt Dorcas
had regaled them.

"Say, what's the use of tellin' 'bout what you've had, when I've been
fillin' up on wind? It only makes a feller feel worse. Why can't you
sneak in an' get something for me?"

Plums hesitated, as if willing to act upon his friend's suggestion, when
Joe said, sharply:

"Look here, Dan, I'm awful sorry if you're hungry; but Plums can't sneak
into aunt Dorcas's house an' get anything without her knowin' it, not
while I'm 'round. It seems kinder tough to ask her to put out more
stuff, after all we've had; but since you're starvin', we'll do it, an'
offer to pay for what you eat."

"You mean to tell her I'm here?"

"Of course. I wouldn't lie to her, not for any money."

"Then I'll have to starve," Dan replied, angrily, "for I wouldn't let
anybody know I was here while I'm tryin' to keep you fellers out of
jail. But--"

"Here comes aunt Dorcas now!" Plums exclaimed, as he turned towards the
house, and, in a twinkling, the amateur detective was screened from view
by the barn.

"I thought you boys might be hungry, working so hard, and I brought out
this plate of fresh doughnuts," the little woman said, as she placed on
the grass a dish covered with a napkin. "Mr. McArthur always likes a
bite of something when he is here, and it will do you good. How well you
have gotten along! I wouldn't have thought you could have spaded up so
much in such a short time."

Joe, feeling guilty, because he was keeping from aunt Dorcas the fact
that detective Dan was on the premises, was at a loss for a reply, but
Plums said, promptly:

"We'll be glad of 'em, aunt Dorcas, 'cause we're kinder tired jest now,"
and he would have begun to devour the doughnuts, but for a warning look
from his comrade.

"You must eat them while they are hot," aunt Dorcas said, gravely, and
Joe promised to do so as soon as he had finished a certain amount of
work.

Then the little woman went back to her cooking, and she had hardly
entered the dwelling before the amateur detective, with a hungry look in
his eyes, came out, hurriedly, from his hiding-place.