ou."

"How did Belle find it out, and why should they think Father is
dishonest--even if Rogers is?" I asked, still as cold as ice though my
head seemed to be on fire.

"That is what is nearly killing Tony," answered Roxanne, with a sob
beginning to come in her voice; but she still held on to me tight, as
stiff as I was. "He and Douglass have known it for a week, and they
never wanted anybody else to know about it on your account. Douglass
says he would rather give up ten fortunes than hurt such a friend as
you have been to us, but Tony let the secret get out by accident, and
now all the town knows it. Judge Luttrell is getting out an
injunction, even if Douglass won't sign it, and the Colonel is getting
ready to go on the next train to find your father and--and remonstrate
with him, he says."

"Tony didn't tell Belle about it on purpose, did he?" I asked to be
sure. "I couldn't have stood that."

"Oh, no, it was Mamie Sue that found out part, and told Belle, without
knowing she had done it, just yesterday. Mamie Sue says she wishes she
never had any eyes or ears or anything to taste with, then maybe she
would never get into trouble. It is all on account of people thinking
she is more stupid than she is. Tony told Douglass right before her,
on the street while she was giving both of them some of that fudge she
had made to bring Lovelace Peyton, that Mr. Rogers had been in the
telegraph office and had telegraphed your father that the experiment
night before last was a success. Tony is ambitious as a Scout should
always be and has learned to read the ticking of the telegraph.

"'Anyway, Doug, it's a cinch that you have made one of the greatest
practical inventions of the day,' Tony said, forgetting Mamie Sue
entirely and so did Douglass, as he answered:

"'That's true, Raccoon, and if the fortune is another man's by
robbery, the brains are mine. I'll get my share yet. Wait until this
new idea gets into shape.'"

And then Roxanne went on to say that Mamie Sue said they hardly
remembered her enough to politely thank her for the fudge, as they
walked away talking. She went on down to Belle's; and when Belle began
to say that Tony was stupid because he couldn't read his Cicero,
Friday, she tried to defend him by telling how he can read telegraphy
even if he can't read Latin.

Belle was mean enough to get it all from Mamie Sue without Mamie Sue
suspecting that she was telling anything that would hurt me; and Belle
t