allowin' it ain't the square thing for YOU to mention her name, that
wouldn't be nothin' agin' MY doin' it, and callin' her, well--Lou Price
in a keerless sort o' way, eh?"

"I decline to answer further," replied the master quickly, although his
color had changed at the name. "I decline to say another word on the
matter until this mystery is cleared up--until I know who dared to break
into my desk and steal my property, and the purpose of this unheard-of
outrage. And I demand possession of those letters at once."

Uncle Ben without a word put them in the master's hand, to his slight
surprise, and it must be added to his faint discomfiture, nor was it
decreased when Uncle Ben added, with grave naivete and a patronizing
pressure of his hand on his shoulder,--"In course ez you're taken' it
on to yourself, and ez Lou Price ain't got no further call on ME, they
orter be yours. Ez to who got 'em outer the desk, I reckon you ain't got
no suspicion of any one spyin' round ye--hev ye?"

In an instant the recollection of Seth Davis's face at the window and
the corroboration of Rupert's warning flashed across Ford's mind. The
hypothesis that Seth had imagined that they were Cressy's letters, and
had thrown them down without reading them when he had found out his
mistake, seemed natural. For if he had read them he would undoubtedly
have kept them to show to Cressy. The complex emotions that had
disturbed the master on the discovery of Uncle Ben's relationship to the
writer of the letters were resolving themselves into a furious rage at
Seth. But before he dared revenge himself he must be first assured that
Seth was ignorant of their contents. He turned to Uncle Ben.

"I have a suspicion, but to make it certain I must ask you for the
present to say nothing of this to any one."

Uncle Ben nodded. "And when you hev found out and you're settled in your
mind that you kin make my mind easy about this yer Lou Price, ez we'll
call her, bein' divorced squarely, and bein', so to speak, in the way o'
gettin' married agin, ye might let me know ez a friend. I reckon I won't
trouble you any more to-night--onless you and me takes another sociable
drink together in the bar. No? Well, then, good-night." He moved slowly
towards the door. With his hand on the lock he added: "Ef yer writin' to
her agin, you might say ez how you found ME lookin' well and comf'able,
and hopin' she's enjyin' the same blessin'. 'So long."

He disappeared, leaving th