ttle faith in the honesty
of his fellows, perhaps because he himself could not be trusted
implicitly, and even though Joe Potter had solemnly promised he would
say nothing in his disfavour, Dan entertained grave suspicions that the
little woman was being prejudiced against him.

Therefore it was he had been loitering near the cottage since early
morning, in the hope of gaining speech with Plums, and, when that young
gentleman finally appeared, Master Fernald came out from his
hiding-place amid a clump of bushes.

"What's up, now?" he cried, suspiciously.

"You're to come right in, an' see aunt Dorcas," Plums replied, with no
little show of excitement.

"What's wrong? Has Joe been tellin' her not to take me in?"

"Look here, Dan, I may not like his threatenin' to leave 'cause you was
comin', an' perhaps I said a good many hard things against him, when I
talked with you yesterday; but I won't let anybody accuse him of lyin'.
When Joe promised not to tell aunt Dorcas anything 'bout you, he meant
to keep his word, an' he'll do it. I told her he'd paid you
seventy-five cents to stay away till this afternoon."

"What did you do that for? Are you turnin' sneak, Plums? 'Cause if you
are, I'll break your jaw!"

"Perhaps you could do it; but I ain't so certain. Anyway, I told the
story, 'cause Joe gave the advertisement business dead away last night,
when he got thumped."

"Did he have a row?"

"He tackled a burglar, an' got the best of him, that's what Joe Potter
did. A feller has got nerve what'll jump on to a man in the dark, an'
don't you make any mistake."

"Was there a real burglar in the house?" Dan asked, incredulously.

"Course there was, an' Joe knocked him silly. The feller come in through
the kitchen window, an'--"

"I'd made up my mind that 'most everybody knew I was out here on your
case," the amateur detective said, as if speaking to himself, and Plums
asked, in surprise:

"What's that got to do with it?"

"Nothin'; only it shows that some folks don't know it, else the burglar
never'd dared to show his nose 'round here."

"'Cause he'd be afraid of you?"

"He wouldn't run the risk of my gettin' on his trail," Master Fernald
replied, with dignity, and Plums could not repress a smile, for he had
already begun to question his friend's detective ability.

Dan pretended not to see this evidence of incredulity, for it did not
suit his purpose to have hard words with Plums now, when he was, as he
bel