m to have that express package?"

"Give it to him, Stirling."

Bart took the mysterious unclaimed package from his pocket. Colonel
Harrington seized it with a satisfied cry.

"You have wronged myself and others deeply, Colonel Harrington," said
Baker in a grave, reproachful tone, "but you have made some amends. I
forgive you, and I hope you will be a better man."

CHAPTER XXX

"STILL HIGHER!"

Bart Stirling was a proud and happy boy as he stood at the door of the
express office looking down the tracks of the B. & M.

A new spur was being constructed, and it divided to semi-inclose a
substantial foundation which was the start of the new and commodious
express office. The blue sky, smiling down on the busy scene, was no
more serene than the prospect which the future seemed to offer for the
successful young express agent.

With his last reckless crime Lem Wacker had ceased to be a disturbing
element at Pleasantville. After two months' confinement he had limped
out of the hospital, out of town, and out of Bart Stirling's life.

Colonel Jeptha Harrington himself had left town with the beginning of
winter. It was said he intended to make an extended trip in Europe.

With his departure, a new Mr. Baker seemed to spring into existence.
Divested of his disguise, no longer a fear-filled roustabout fugitive,
Bart's strange friend had found a steady, lucrative position at the
hotel, and Bart felt that he had certainly been the means of doing some
real good in the world every time he looked at the happy, contented face
of his protege.

Concerning all the details of Baker's past, Bart never knew the entire
truth.

Baker felt, however, that it was due to his champion that he explain in
the main the mystery of his connection with Colonel Harrington, and he
told a strange story.

It seemed that the purse-proud colonel had a poor brother living in
another State.

This brother owned a farm on which there lived with him a man named
Adams, a widower, and his little daughter, Dorothy.

Adams was a close friend of Samuel Harrington, and out of his earnings
saved the place from being taken on a mortgage.

Samuel Harrington always told Adams that he had made a will, and that in
case of his sudden death the farm would go to him. He gave Adams a
letter certifying to his having a claim of over three thousand dollars
against the property, which he told Adams to show to his rich brother
when he died, asserting that, alth